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The Big Front Yard
A handyman named Hiram Taine who runs a shop in a little village to fix broken things and collects antiques finds out that things are being fixed while he is away. The situation get stranger when his dog Towser finds a buried ship in the woods.
- Winner of 1959 Hugo Award for Best Novelette
Subsequently published in a number of anthologies.
- Winner of 1959 Hugo Award for Best Novelette
Subsequently published in a number of anthologies.
41 pages, Paperback
First published October 1, 1958
About the author
Clifford D. Simak
972 books1,084 followers"He was honored by fans with three Hugo awards and by colleagues with one Nebula award and was named the third Grand Master by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA) in 1977." (Wikipedia)
See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clifford...
See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clifford...
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Displaying 1 - 25 of 25 reviews
March 29, 2024
Probably Simak's best-known story. It's my favorite of his shorts. Read several times, over the years. I wonder if there's a copy online? Not that I can find (6/18/22).
Includes the properly-lurid (and very silly!) magazine cover art, by Kelly Freas. RIP for all involved, sadly. I have an anthology copy somewhere, and there are many reprints listed at ISFDB: https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.c...
"Towser was barking and scratching at the floor. "Shut up," Taine told the dog. ..."
Includes the properly-lurid (and very silly!) magazine cover art, by Kelly Freas. RIP for all involved, sadly. I have an anthology copy somewhere, and there are many reprints listed at ISFDB: https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.c...
"Towser was barking and scratching at the floor. "Shut up," Taine told the dog. ..."
January 18, 2025
Good characters, intriguing plot line with a cute resolution that was good but maybe could have been better.
June 30, 2021
Referring to the review of “The Big Front Yard” in The Complete Works of Clifford D. Simak, Vol. 2:
I’m both surprised and saddened that “The Big Front Yard” has been so consistently misunderstood by many critics, historians, and readers. What I’ve written here, besides my refutation of the analysis given in Volume 2 of the official complete works compilation, is MY analysis of this great story, on December 8, 1985, joined by Mr. Simak’s remarks in his response to me, dated February 28, 1986
Whoever wrote the explanation of what “The Big Front Yard” is about, “what happens when an ordinary man finds reality coming apart around him,” is completely incorrect! I know this for a fact because I wrote him, in December 1985, what I thought this story is about. He wrote me back, in February 1986, and told me this:
“Your analysis of the thrust of The Big Front Yard is a welcome surprise to me. I knew, of course, what I was writing about, and I thought I’d spelled it out sufficiently for anyone to understand. But of all the comments that have been made of it, all the words that have been written of it by critics and science fiction historians, you are the first and only one who has put an unerring finger on what I tried so hard to say. Thank God for you. I think that in other stories I may have said or tried to say much the same thing, but less directly and with less emphasis.” — Clifford D. Simak, February 28, 1986.
“The Big Front Yard” is a story about the importance of ideas. What is the most important thing in the world? “What did the world need the most, to not only survive, but to improve? … Ideas,” I wrote. “… no culture can progress without ideas. Money can buy anything, but money cannot buy an original idea, a creative thought. … money came into being as a tool used by Man with which to trade. Barter, if you will. Money is an intermediary, not an end. Ideas are the beginning AND the end. If Men let themselves believe that money is the end, they trap themselves, they limit themselves. … And doom themselves … to a bleak, mechanistic and uninspiring future.” — Hollis Ramsey (née Weiner), December 8, 1985
Hiram Taine is a trader, an expert dickerer. Along with Beasley and Towser, Hiram uses his skill to barter ideas. He certainly couldn’t do this job without Beasley; both me and Mr. Simak take offense at reviewers who choose to see Beasley as intellectually challenged. Let they without flaws cast that stone.
So the explanation written by anyone who doesn’t emphasize the importance of ideas in the works of Mr. Simak is missing the most important part of his intent. “The Big Front Yard” is about so much more than “reality coming apart.”
I’m both surprised and saddened that “The Big Front Yard” has been so consistently misunderstood by many critics, historians, and readers. What I’ve written here, besides my refutation of the analysis given in Volume 2 of the official complete works compilation, is MY analysis of this great story, on December 8, 1985, joined by Mr. Simak’s remarks in his response to me, dated February 28, 1986
Whoever wrote the explanation of what “The Big Front Yard” is about, “what happens when an ordinary man finds reality coming apart around him,” is completely incorrect! I know this for a fact because I wrote him, in December 1985, what I thought this story is about. He wrote me back, in February 1986, and told me this:
“Your analysis of the thrust of The Big Front Yard is a welcome surprise to me. I knew, of course, what I was writing about, and I thought I’d spelled it out sufficiently for anyone to understand. But of all the comments that have been made of it, all the words that have been written of it by critics and science fiction historians, you are the first and only one who has put an unerring finger on what I tried so hard to say. Thank God for you. I think that in other stories I may have said or tried to say much the same thing, but less directly and with less emphasis.” — Clifford D. Simak, February 28, 1986.
“The Big Front Yard” is a story about the importance of ideas. What is the most important thing in the world? “What did the world need the most, to not only survive, but to improve? … Ideas,” I wrote. “… no culture can progress without ideas. Money can buy anything, but money cannot buy an original idea, a creative thought. … money came into being as a tool used by Man with which to trade. Barter, if you will. Money is an intermediary, not an end. Ideas are the beginning AND the end. If Men let themselves believe that money is the end, they trap themselves, they limit themselves. … And doom themselves … to a bleak, mechanistic and uninspiring future.” — Hollis Ramsey (née Weiner), December 8, 1985
Hiram Taine is a trader, an expert dickerer. Along with Beasley and Towser, Hiram uses his skill to barter ideas. He certainly couldn’t do this job without Beasley; both me and Mr. Simak take offense at reviewers who choose to see Beasley as intellectually challenged. Let they without flaws cast that stone.
So the explanation written by anyone who doesn’t emphasize the importance of ideas in the works of Mr. Simak is missing the most important part of his intent. “The Big Front Yard” is about so much more than “reality coming apart.”
January 24, 2021
Было забавно читать на контрасте с Каллисто: советские учёные хотели поделиться знаниями со всем миром, а американцы - сохранить для себя. В Союз прилетели чернокожие коммунисты с другой планеты, а в США - открыли портал коммерсанты.
January 4, 2018
I loved the first half but the story then departed from my expectations: I was somewhat misled by the early Tommyknockers atmosphere. The idea of the “big front yard” is great but its description and the following action were somewhat flat.
February 22, 2021
Идеальный микс формы и содержания. Ретроградное ворчание дедушки Саймака сработало на пользу фантастике, а не во вред. Теперь хочу научиться маклачить.
Еще Тёма в своем отзыве раскрывает интересную мысль, что Необъятный двор — это американская версия Каллисто.
Я прочитал эту книгу для обсуждения на подкасте про научную фантастику «Худо Не Было». Послушать можно тут: https://share.transistor.fm/s/ac2a540b/
Еще Тёма в своем отзыве раскрывает интересную мысль, что Необъятный двор — это американская версия Каллисто.
Я прочитал эту книгу для обсуждения на подкасте про научную фантастику «Худо Не Было». Послушать можно тут: https://share.transistor.fm/s/ac2a540b/
March 21, 2020
Oldtime Science Fiction by one of the Grand Masters. Very enjoyable. I read this as a teen, and
all these years later it is still a pleasure. Backwoods folks encounter aliens, in a treatment only
Simak could provide.
all these years later it is still a pleasure. Backwoods folks encounter aliens, in a treatment only
Simak could provide.
June 25, 2015
Little bit overated, but good. And final line is so ridiculously genial.
January 6, 2019
My review of "The Big Front Yard" is excerpted and slightly revised from my review of the October, 1958 issue of Astounding Science Fiction, in which it first appeared.
I love Clifford Simak's Hugo Award winning novelette, "The Big Front Yard," but I think it has one terrible flaw. One of the characters is an intellectually challenged man, Beasly, who does have an important part in the story, but who seems to be primarily used for comic relief.
Hiram Taine is a rural handyman and antique dealer. Taine finds that there are some strange alterations being made to his house and to some of the things in it, and has no idea how this is happening. Then he sees creatures leaving his house:
A line of tiny animals, if animals they were, came marching down the steps, one behind the other. They were four inches high or so and they went on all four feet, although it was plain to see that their front feet were really hands, not feet. They had ratlike faces that were vaguely human, with noses long and pointed. They looked like they might have scales instead of hide, for their bodies glistened with a rippling motion as they walked. And all of them had tails that looked very much like the coiled-wire tails one finds on certain toys and the tails stuck straight up above them, quivering as they walked.
(This is the only part these creatures play in the story. I quoted the whole description just because I like it. This seems to me to be as precise and evocative a written portrait of alien creatures as I have ever read.)
And, miraculously, the front door of his house no longer opens on to the community of Willow Bend. Instead,
there was just a desert - a flat, far-reaching desert, level as a floor, with occasional boulder piles and haphazard clumps of vegetation and all of the ground covered with sand and pebbles. A big blinding sun hung just above a horizon that seemed much too far away and a funny thing about it was that the sun was in the north, where no proper sun should be. It had a peculiar whiteness, too.
And from the desert comes a creature that looks something like a giant woodchuck. It turns out that Taine's friend Beasly can communicate telepathically with the woodchuck-like creature, and that creature can communicate with other visitors who come across the desert. For what the little rat-like creatures had done was establish a link between Earth and other worlds, a doorway that leads from Taine's front door to other doorways, going to other planets and civilizations. And visitors come to Taine's door, looking to trade, not for things but for ideas, trading concepts never thought of on those worlds for concepts never thought of on Earth.
Simak wrote a wide variety of science fiction and fantasy but "The Big Front Yard" exemplifies the best of it, in which the people of Earth can meet in amity with the inhabitants of other worlds. Much of Simak's work is set, as this is, in the rural communities that he clearly loved.
I love Clifford Simak's Hugo Award winning novelette, "The Big Front Yard," but I think it has one terrible flaw. One of the characters is an intellectually challenged man, Beasly, who does have an important part in the story, but who seems to be primarily used for comic relief.
Hiram Taine is a rural handyman and antique dealer. Taine finds that there are some strange alterations being made to his house and to some of the things in it, and has no idea how this is happening. Then he sees creatures leaving his house:
A line of tiny animals, if animals they were, came marching down the steps, one behind the other. They were four inches high or so and they went on all four feet, although it was plain to see that their front feet were really hands, not feet. They had ratlike faces that were vaguely human, with noses long and pointed. They looked like they might have scales instead of hide, for their bodies glistened with a rippling motion as they walked. And all of them had tails that looked very much like the coiled-wire tails one finds on certain toys and the tails stuck straight up above them, quivering as they walked.
(This is the only part these creatures play in the story. I quoted the whole description just because I like it. This seems to me to be as precise and evocative a written portrait of alien creatures as I have ever read.)
And, miraculously, the front door of his house no longer opens on to the community of Willow Bend. Instead,
there was just a desert - a flat, far-reaching desert, level as a floor, with occasional boulder piles and haphazard clumps of vegetation and all of the ground covered with sand and pebbles. A big blinding sun hung just above a horizon that seemed much too far away and a funny thing about it was that the sun was in the north, where no proper sun should be. It had a peculiar whiteness, too.
And from the desert comes a creature that looks something like a giant woodchuck. It turns out that Taine's friend Beasly can communicate telepathically with the woodchuck-like creature, and that creature can communicate with other visitors who come across the desert. For what the little rat-like creatures had done was establish a link between Earth and other worlds, a doorway that leads from Taine's front door to other doorways, going to other planets and civilizations. And visitors come to Taine's door, looking to trade, not for things but for ideas, trading concepts never thought of on those worlds for concepts never thought of on Earth.
Simak wrote a wide variety of science fiction and fantasy but "The Big Front Yard" exemplifies the best of it, in which the people of Earth can meet in amity with the inhabitants of other worlds. Much of Simak's work is set, as this is, in the rural communities that he clearly loved.
March 25, 2018
Read for the 12 in 12 Challenge and the Big Fun in a Little Package Novella Challenge.
This story won the 1959 Hugo Award for Best Novelette.
This story is a fun speculation about what happens when ordinary folks in a small town are the first to make contact with an alien intelligence. It's lighthearted, fun and perfectly plausible. I see that someone else here was reminded of The Tommyknockers, and I was as well, so I suspect that, like with many other classic science fiction stories, Stephen King read it and then said, "And what if it had gone a different way?"
I enjoyed it quite a lot! It didn't blow my mind or anything, but I suppose that's probably because the idea has been revisited since many times, although never has it been as done as well.
Well worth the read!
This story won the 1959 Hugo Award for Best Novelette.
This story is a fun speculation about what happens when ordinary folks in a small town are the first to make contact with an alien intelligence. It's lighthearted, fun and perfectly plausible. I see that someone else here was reminded of The Tommyknockers, and I was as well, so I suspect that, like with many other classic science fiction stories, Stephen King read it and then said, "And what if it had gone a different way?"
I enjoyed it quite a lot! It didn't blow my mind or anything, but I suppose that's probably because the idea has been revisited since many times, although never has it been as done as well.
Well worth the read!
September 24, 2022
This was the first work of Simak I read, and I was astounded by the effectiveness of his simple and refreshing style.
The story began with a "conversation" between a man (the protagonist) and his dog, and ended with the protagonist bargaining with aliens. Surprises abounded throughout the narrative, but they were all delivered in a friendly and un-alien manner (pun intended.)
The thing about the story that stuck with me was how Simak created likable characters (including the dog and the aliens!) through their actions, words, and other's views of them. When the characters were introduced, each of them could be readily mapped to some stereotype that we were all too familiar with. Nevertheless, we would eventually discover some quirk or feature of them that stood out and made them memorable and dear to us.
Overall, I think this is a great story, balanced and lively in its unique way, and I definitely look forward to reading more of Simak in the future.
The story began with a "conversation" between a man (the protagonist) and his dog, and ended with the protagonist bargaining with aliens. Surprises abounded throughout the narrative, but they were all delivered in a friendly and un-alien manner (pun intended.)
The thing about the story that stuck with me was how Simak created likable characters (including the dog and the aliens!) through their actions, words, and other's views of them. When the characters were introduced, each of them could be readily mapped to some stereotype that we were all too familiar with. Nevertheless, we would eventually discover some quirk or feature of them that stood out and made them memorable and dear to us.
Overall, I think this is a great story, balanced and lively in its unique way, and I definitely look forward to reading more of Simak in the future.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 26, 2021
Realize that when this one was written, the audience mostly thought the world was bound to get even better. And the The Science Fiction Hall of Fame, Volume Two B: The Greatest Science Fiction Novellas of All Time Chosen by the Members of the Science Fiction Writers of America chose it half a century later. So I'm giving it full marks for hitting its target.
January 29, 2025
Βαρύ πυροβολικό στο διήγημα ΕΦ, ο -ελάχιστα γνωστός στην Ελλάδα- Σάιμακ, μας παραδίδει μαθήματα αριστουργηματικής επιστημονικής φαντασίας. Η ΕΦ δε χρειάζεται απαραίτητα διαστρικά ταξίδια, παρσέκ, έτη φωτός και πανάκριβα διαστημόπλοια φιταγμένα από... απονενοημένα κράματα μετάλλων, της αρκεί... η αυλή μας. Και δεν είναι ανάγκη να υπάρξει σύγκρουση, πόλεμος και σουπερνόβα. Αρκεί μια μικρή τρύπα, λίγη μπογιά, μερικές περίεργες σέλες και καλή διάθεση από τις δύο πλευρές. Από τα κλασικά "δυνατά" κομμάτια του τρίτου εν σειρά SFF Grand Master μετά τους Heinlein και Jack Williamson, πριν από Κλαρκ, Ασίμωφ και Μπράντμπερι.
November 6, 2025
I wanted to dip my toes in the Clifford Simak waters for some time now, so I chose his 1959 Hugo Award winning Novelette to do this. This was a great and fun story with some clever ideas about a country fellow who ends up having aliens land and build a port hole gateway to other planets.
Apart from the old time speak and feel, it doesn’t feel dated at all in its imagination and delivery like some vintage Science Fiction can be. I’ve had his novels City, Waystation, and Time is the Simplest Things on my TBR list, which I will now move up a little after this read.
Apart from the old time speak and feel, it doesn’t feel dated at all in its imagination and delivery like some vintage Science Fiction can be. I’ve had his novels City, Waystation, and Time is the Simplest Things on my TBR list, which I will now move up a little after this read.
July 4, 2018
This 1959 winner of the Hugo in the novelette category is pure Clifford D. Simak. Simak's universe was at the same time both infinite and just outside of your front door.
Hiram Taine is a local fixit man and antique salesman who happens to be in the right place at the right time as an alien presence lands and uses his house as the base for their interplanetary/interdimensional transport. This tale still reads as fresh and homely as when it came out of Cliff's typewriter.
Hiram Taine is a local fixit man and antique salesman who happens to be in the right place at the right time as an alien presence lands and uses his house as the base for their interplanetary/interdimensional transport. This tale still reads as fresh and homely as when it came out of Cliff's typewriter.
September 26, 2024
The Big Front Yard Clifford D. Simak
Read in The Science Fiction Hall of Fame, Volume Two
Sept 2024
Most of the other stories have had some unique idea. I did not see it here. Maybe the legal aspect, but he did not take that very far. A mishmash at alien worlds and unexplained telepathy.
Read in The Science Fiction Hall of Fame, Volume Two
Sept 2024
Most of the other stories have had some unique idea. I did not see it here. Maybe the legal aspect, but he did not take that very far. A mishmash at alien worlds and unexplained telepathy.
March 31, 2026
Listened to this as part of the The Science Fiction Hall of Fame, Vol. 2-B (1973).
February 15, 2018
- Space warps, other dimensions, very alien creatures, capitalists and Yankee Traders. Big ideas, brought home to express important values.
May 26, 2022
Nice short story, lovely and cozy, with some food for thoughts...
August 8, 2024
Good story enjoyed it
May 9, 2025
An interesting and fairly lighthearted story about strange worlds and first contact.
January 15, 2026
Cute. Not particularly remarkable but neither offensive nor particularly deep.
April 16, 2026
ร้านค้าของเก่าสุดขอบจักรวาลบนลานหน้าบ้าน แปลโดย SaintPSU สนพ.คลับไซไฟ
August 11, 2015
Another great story from Simak - easy to identify with the protagonist - Hiram Taine. I count reading these novellas in their original publication format (pulp magazines) as a book as I also read the rest of the stories in the issue(s) as well for some historical perspective.
December 1, 2020
Quite a fun idea
Displaying 1 - 25 of 25 reviews