He builds the perfect opponent, then realizes the contest won’t mean anything unless it can truly cost him something. When he finally forces that moment into existence, he has to decide whether victory is still worth pulling the trigger. The Fastest Draw by Larry Eisenberg. That’s next on The Lost Sci-Fi Podcast.

This is the first story by Larry Eisenberg featured on the podcast. He was born in the Bronx in December 1919 and built a career that spanned both science and writing.

Alongside his science fiction, Eisenberg worked as a biomedical engineer and became widely known for the witty limericks he posted in the comment sections of The New York Times. When he died in 2018 at the age of 99, the paper honored him with the headline, “Larry Eisenberg, 99, Dead; His Limericks Were Very Well Read.”

He studied at City College of New York, where he earned bachelor’s degrees in electrical engineering and mathematics, and later continued at Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn, completing both a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in electronics.

With that kind of technical foundation, it’s no surprise this story reflects the idea that writers often draw from what they know.

Over the course of his career, he wrote about fifty short stories between 1962 and 1988. This was only his second published story, appearing in Amazing Stories in October 1963 on page 35, The Fastest Draw by Larry Eisenberg…

Next on The Lost Sci-Fi Podcast, A discovery that could rewrite medicine instead threatens to erase the man who reaches for it first. Now one decision must be made—protect the truth, or bury it forever to preserve a lifetime of belief. The Sweeper of Loray by Robert Sheckley.

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