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The Runaway Skyscraper
"We're in a runaway skyscraper, bound for some time back before the discovery of America!
Science Fiction Time Travel
Play Duration: 01:42:45
Public Domain stories from Project Gutenberg, that are read by volunteers.
First published in ”Argosy magazine”
Free download from LibriVox.org
Science Fiction Time Travel
Play Duration: 01:42:45
Public Domain stories from Project Gutenberg, that are read by volunteers.
First published in ”Argosy magazine”
Free download from LibriVox.org
Audiobook
First published February 22, 1919
15 people are currently reading
58 people want to read
About the author
Murray Leinster
901 books121 followerssee also:
Will F. Jenkins
William Fitzgerald Jenkins
Murray Leinster was a nom de plume of William Fitzgerald Jenkins, an award-winning American writer of science fiction and alternate history. He wrote and published over 1,500 short stories and articles, 14 movie scripts, and hundreds of radio scripts and television plays.
An author whose career spanned the first six decades of the 20th Century. From mystery and adventure stories in the earliest years to science fiction in his later years, he worked steadily and at a highly professional level of craftsmanship longer than most writers of his generation. He won a Hugo Award in 1956 for his novelet “Exploration Team,” and in 1995 the Sidewise Award for Alternate History took its name from his classic story, “Sidewise in Time.” His last original work appeared in 1967.
Will F. Jenkins
William Fitzgerald Jenkins
Murray Leinster was a nom de plume of William Fitzgerald Jenkins, an award-winning American writer of science fiction and alternate history. He wrote and published over 1,500 short stories and articles, 14 movie scripts, and hundreds of radio scripts and television plays.
An author whose career spanned the first six decades of the 20th Century. From mystery and adventure stories in the earliest years to science fiction in his later years, he worked steadily and at a highly professional level of craftsmanship longer than most writers of his generation. He won a Hugo Award in 1956 for his novelet “Exploration Team,” and in 1995 the Sidewise Award for Alternate History took its name from his classic story, “Sidewise in Time.” His last original work appeared in 1967.
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Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews
July 27, 2019
A pretty good early time travel story
This sci-fi time travel story is reprinted from the February 22, 1919 issue of "Argosy" magazine. You will not find good explanations for time travel or why the building's electricity, telephone exchange and elevators continued to function. You may also note one of the differences in American and New York culture between 1919 and the present. The bank on the ground floor had a number of revolver armed guards and a stored arsenal of a dozen riot guns and a half-dozen high power rifles. The building's occupants produced another 40 or 50 revolvers, one shotgun, and some fishing equipment. This is said to be Leinster's first published sci-fi story. Murray Leinster went on to become a major sci-fi author often referred to as the dean of science fiction authors.
This sci-fi time travel story is reprinted from the February 22, 1919 issue of "Argosy" magazine. You will not find good explanations for time travel or why the building's electricity, telephone exchange and elevators continued to function. You may also note one of the differences in American and New York culture between 1919 and the present. The bank on the ground floor had a number of revolver armed guards and a stored arsenal of a dozen riot guns and a half-dozen high power rifles. The building's occupants produced another 40 or 50 revolvers, one shotgun, and some fishing equipment. This is said to be Leinster's first published sci-fi story. Murray Leinster went on to become a major sci-fi author often referred to as the dean of science fiction authors.
February 20, 2025
Murray Leinster (which was a pseudonym for William F. Jenkins) began writing professionally in 1916 and his career lasted for over half a century. This, his first science fiction story, appeared in the February 22, 1919 issue of Argosy. (Which I just now learned was actually titled Argosy and Railroad Man's Magazine.) The first true genre science fiction magazine, Hugo Gernsback's Amazing Stories, premiered in 1926, and The Runaway Skyscraper was reprinted there in the June issue. The scientific premise of the story is that a building in New York City comes lose in time and travels back a few thousand years with the couple of thousand people who had happened to be in the building at the time with a surprising number of guns and some fishing equipment and other handy items. Our hero, Arthur, is an engineer and determines that he can return the building to when it belongs by pumping soap into the building's foundation so it will interact with a geyser. That's all patent silliness, of course, but the real story is how the modern people adapt to the new world, how they survive, how they adapt to returning, and Arthur's rather sweet romance with Estelle. It's not possible to rank a story from 1919 the same way one would regard one from a century later, and I did enjoy this one. I listened to a very good reading from the fine, free LibriVox catalogue.
January 9, 2022
ENGLISH: A skyscraper in Manhattan travels back in time several thousand years, with about two thousand persons. The scientific explanation is, of course, absurd. The main interest of the story is in the reaction of the travelers, and the attempt by Arthur, Estelle and the delighted bank manager to put a little order in a critical situation.
ESPAÑOL: Un rascacielos de Manhattan viaja en el tiempo varios miles de años hacia atrás, llevando consigo a unas dos mil personas. La explicación científica es, por supuesto, absurda. El principal interés del cuento está en la reacción de los viajeros, y en los intentos de Arthur, Estelle y el director del banco, que está contentísimo, para poner un poco de orden en una situación crítica.
ESPAÑOL: Un rascacielos de Manhattan viaja en el tiempo varios miles de años hacia atrás, llevando consigo a unas dos mil personas. La explicación científica es, por supuesto, absurda. El principal interés del cuento está en la reacción de los viajeros, y en los intentos de Arthur, Estelle y el director del banco, que está contentísimo, para poner un poco de orden en una situación crítica.
July 1, 2017
This short time-travel story has the merit to be original on several levels (see below) and to remind the reader of how the process of time travel might look awesome to the traveller. Indeed the story starts with a skyscraper in Manhattan going back in time. From the windows, people present in the building see the Sun movement in the sky accelerate, then the seasons accelerate, then the city being “unbuilt”. This is certainly a clin d’oeil to The Time Machine of Wells, which is mentioned during a discussion between the two main characters. Fortunately, the story does not stop there. What is original is that: (1) 2,000 people are transported back in time instead of the usual individual or limited-size crew. This provides an interesting group dynamics, which brings us to (2): time travel remains in the background while the story focuses on survival issues, which is an interesting twist. (3) I truly enjoyed the engineer’s explanation of time travel. Without any spoiler, it makes a nice word play with the term “flow of time”.
Some criticisms though: as in most early-20th century texts, interactions between men and women and between people of different colours may seem offending. Also I found the ending disappointing, the last sentences even lame.
Here is the alternative ending I had in mind while reading: “The building landed safely, in the exact hour, minute, and second from which it started… The joyful and excited people who poured out of it in Madison Square were immediately taken back by the sight. The New York City that they remembered had been replaced by a queer place surrounded by imposing monuments. A modern skyline could be seen in the background but the high rise buildings seemed disproportionally high. Strangers, in ceremonial apparats, were waiting. Arthur, looking again at the nearby monuments, understood that they had been erected around their runaway skyscraper on purpose, in view of its temporal return. He then remembered the many weeks spent with the Indians, trading with them, educating them about light bulbs and typewriters. He understood that he and his companions had changed the path of Time and that they would never see their respective families ever again. After two thousand years, the gap at the center of the square drawn by the four ancient monuments was no more.”
Some criticisms though: as in most early-20th century texts, interactions between men and women and between people of different colours may seem offending. Also I found the ending disappointing, the last sentences even lame.
Here is the alternative ending I had in mind while reading: “The building landed safely, in the exact hour, minute, and second from which it started… The joyful and excited people who poured out of it in Madison Square were immediately taken back by the sight. The New York City that they remembered had been replaced by a queer place surrounded by imposing monuments. A modern skyline could be seen in the background but the high rise buildings seemed disproportionally high. Strangers, in ceremonial apparats, were waiting. Arthur, looking again at the nearby monuments, understood that they had been erected around their runaway skyscraper on purpose, in view of its temporal return. He then remembered the many weeks spent with the Indians, trading with them, educating them about light bulbs and typewriters. He understood that he and his companions had changed the path of Time and that they would never see their respective families ever again. After two thousand years, the gap at the center of the square drawn by the four ancient monuments was no more.”
July 12, 2019
This novelette is considered a seminal work of science fiction. After reading it, it is not hard to see why. It was first published in a general-interest fiction magazine in 1919 (there were not yet any magazines devoted to science fiction, and the term had probably not even been coined at that time).
It was Murray Leinster's first published work of science fiction.
In the story, a New York skyscraper is suddenly transported back in time to Pre-Columbian America with all of its C20th occupants, who then have to devise ways to survive in the new setting. The mechanism for the time travel, while not wholly convincing, is one of the strangest I have come across. This work is clearly a precursor of later "hard" science fiction because the author attempts to describe everything in a scientific way and explain the reasons behind why things happen. Where real science is involved, the writer clearly wishes to be accurate. An attempt is made to provide plausible reasons for the fantasy elements too. While it exhbits the biases of gender and race prevalent at the time, the narrative has a very obvious human side to it in that it probes into the effects that suddenly being uprooted and sent back into a more 'primitive' environment would have on individuals and on a group. If people living in 1919 would have had serious problems, how much more true that would be for people living in developed countries today, where they might hardly ever come into direct contact with nature. It also shows that people who are not considered very successful in one environment might come into their own when sudden changes occur. From the point of view of historical interest and story content, it is a worthwhile read. It is good that is now free to read from gutenberg.org.
It was Murray Leinster's first published work of science fiction.
In the story, a New York skyscraper is suddenly transported back in time to Pre-Columbian America with all of its C20th occupants, who then have to devise ways to survive in the new setting. The mechanism for the time travel, while not wholly convincing, is one of the strangest I have come across. This work is clearly a precursor of later "hard" science fiction because the author attempts to describe everything in a scientific way and explain the reasons behind why things happen. Where real science is involved, the writer clearly wishes to be accurate. An attempt is made to provide plausible reasons for the fantasy elements too. While it exhbits the biases of gender and race prevalent at the time, the narrative has a very obvious human side to it in that it probes into the effects that suddenly being uprooted and sent back into a more 'primitive' environment would have on individuals and on a group. If people living in 1919 would have had serious problems, how much more true that would be for people living in developed countries today, where they might hardly ever come into direct contact with nature. It also shows that people who are not considered very successful in one environment might come into their own when sudden changes occur. From the point of view of historical interest and story content, it is a worthwhile read. It is good that is now free to read from gutenberg.org.
March 2, 2014
Product Description
Murray Leinster (1896-1975) was the pseudonym of William Fitzgerald Jenkins, an award-winning American writer of science fiction and alternate history. He wrote and published over 1,500 short stories and articles, 14 movies and hundreds of radio scripts and television plays. Leinster began his career as a free-lance writer before World War I; he was two months short of his 20th birthday when his first story, The Foreigner, appeared in the May 1916 issue of H. L. Mencken's literary magazine The Smart Set. Over the next three years, Leinster published ten more stories in the magazine. His first science fiction story, The Runaway Skyscraper, appeared in the 1919 issue of Argosy. In the 1930s, he published several science fiction stories and serials in Amazing and Astounding Stories and continued to appear frequently in other genre pulps. Leinster is credited with the invention of parallel universe stories. Sidewise in Time was published in the June 1934 issue of Astounding. This was probably the first time that the concept of alternate worlds appeared in modern science fiction.
June 6, 2021
Fantasy listening
Due to eye issues and damage Alexa reads to me.
Another will written fantasy Sci-Fi adventure novella by Murray Leinster with interesting characters. The story line is about going back in time in New York City and then coming forward back to the same time from where they started. I would recommend this novella to readers of fantasy looking for a quick read. Enjoy the adventure of reading 2021 🗽
Due to eye issues and damage Alexa reads to me.
Another will written fantasy Sci-Fi adventure novella by Murray Leinster with interesting characters. The story line is about going back in time in New York City and then coming forward back to the same time from where they started. I would recommend this novella to readers of fantasy looking for a quick read. Enjoy the adventure of reading 2021 🗽
July 13, 2024
Arthur Chamberlain, seorang insinyur & para penghuni sebuah gedung pencakar langit di New York, tiba-tiba terlempar ke masa lalu karena fenomena aneh. Gedung tersebut kini berada di zaman prasejarah, jauh sebelum peradaban modern. Arthur dan yang lainnya harus menghadapi berbagai tantangan untuk bertahan hidup, seperti mencari makanan & melindungi diri dari bahaya alam & binatang buas. Dengan kepemimpinannya, Arthur memimpin kelompok untuk memanfaatkan pengetahuan ilmiah mereka guna mencari cara kembali ke masa kini.
🕵️♀️ Aku suka banget sama premis ceritanya: unik, menarik & jarang ditemukan dalam fiksi ilmiah yang lain.
Leinster berhasil menggambarkan dunia prasejarah. Deskripsi tentang hutan belantara, hewan-hewan buas & tantangan alam yang dihadapi oleh para tokoh ini. Misalnya saja, ketika mereka berburu makanan & melindungi diri dari bahaya, detail-detail ini membuat ceritanya terasa realistis ❤️
Tokoh-tokoh utama dalam novel ini memiliki karakter yang kuat & beragam. Interaksi antara mereka & cara mereka menghadapi situasi sulit, ceritanya makin kaya ❤️
Namun sayangnya, transisi antara satu peristiwa ke peristiwa lain terasa tergesa-gesa.
Meskipun, karakter Arthur berkembang baik, tetapi beberapa karakter pendukungnya terasa kurang. Mereka seringkali muncul hanya sebagai pelengkap cerita tanpa ada latar belakang / motivasi yang jelas 😔
Sebagai novel fiksi ilmiah, aku berharap penjelasan ilmiah lebih mendalam tentang bagaimana gedung bisa terlempar ke masa lalu. Namun ternyata, dalam novel ini, aspek ilmiah tersebut tidak dijelaskan secara detail, sehingga bisa membuat aku merasa kurang puas 😔
💌 Novel ini menunjukkan bahwa dengan pengetahuan, kepemimpinan & kerja sama, manusia bisa mengatasi berbagai tantangan yang tampak tidak mungkin.
🕵️♀️ Aku suka banget sama premis ceritanya: unik, menarik & jarang ditemukan dalam fiksi ilmiah yang lain.
Leinster berhasil menggambarkan dunia prasejarah. Deskripsi tentang hutan belantara, hewan-hewan buas & tantangan alam yang dihadapi oleh para tokoh ini. Misalnya saja, ketika mereka berburu makanan & melindungi diri dari bahaya, detail-detail ini membuat ceritanya terasa realistis ❤️
Tokoh-tokoh utama dalam novel ini memiliki karakter yang kuat & beragam. Interaksi antara mereka & cara mereka menghadapi situasi sulit, ceritanya makin kaya ❤️
Namun sayangnya, transisi antara satu peristiwa ke peristiwa lain terasa tergesa-gesa.
Meskipun, karakter Arthur berkembang baik, tetapi beberapa karakter pendukungnya terasa kurang. Mereka seringkali muncul hanya sebagai pelengkap cerita tanpa ada latar belakang / motivasi yang jelas 😔
Sebagai novel fiksi ilmiah, aku berharap penjelasan ilmiah lebih mendalam tentang bagaimana gedung bisa terlempar ke masa lalu. Namun ternyata, dalam novel ini, aspek ilmiah tersebut tidak dijelaskan secara detail, sehingga bisa membuat aku merasa kurang puas 😔
💌 Novel ini menunjukkan bahwa dengan pengetahuan, kepemimpinan & kerja sama, manusia bisa mengatasi berbagai tantangan yang tampak tidak mungkin.
December 27, 2018
The idea behind the plot is good, as can be expected from world-class sci-fi writer Murray Leinster. Sadly the details of the story feels outdated - since it is written about 100 years ago not much of a surprise. Nonetheless is it still quite readable thanks to the writing talent of its author. A strange phenomenon becomes a mystery to solve and the transportation to the past of such a big group of people creates immediate practival problems for survival of the group. That would even be more so today which keeps the readers attention focused.
The romantic aspect with the male protectin the vulnerable female needs to be taken in stride.
Certainly worth reading if you can shut off the critical part of your mind and place it against the time it was written in.
The romantic aspect with the male protectin the vulnerable female needs to be taken in stride.
Certainly worth reading if you can shut off the critical part of your mind and place it against the time it was written in.
Read
January 27, 2021Early Sci-fi at its best.
I know very little about Murray Leinster but the next time the mood to read some early roughly researched sci-fi that since it's publication the laws of physics have proven impossible I will look for him.
Thuroughly enjoyable and not bogged down in all the political correctness that would later hurt the genre of men taking charge and solving problems.
I know very little about Murray Leinster but the next time the mood to read some early roughly researched sci-fi that since it's publication the laws of physics have proven impossible I will look for him.
Thuroughly enjoyable and not bogged down in all the political correctness that would later hurt the genre of men taking charge and solving problems.
January 13, 2019
This Librivox audiobook was well read by Greg Margarite. Story was a quite interesting, despite the preposterous time travel science and dated characters, overall it was worth a listen for the creative idea and a tidbit of insight into pre-colonial America.
August 23, 2018
Read on LibriVox (free audio books in the public domain).
July 26, 2020
3 stars (liked it)
December 24, 2020
Arthur and Estelle, and two thousand other people, are thrown a few thousand years into the past. Arthur does a great deal of mansplaining before returning all safely to 1919. They also get married.
May 26, 2022
Kind of a goofy time travel story. How did the lights stay on? But pleasant anyway. pretty dated but short
July 12, 2025
If you decide to slog through this novella... oh well.
August 21, 2021
This story was first published the February 22, 1919 issue of Argosy magazine.
On a nondescript day – a quite ordinary one, in fact – a New York City office skyscraper filled with workers going about their business, suddenly reveals low, odd sounds. A slight tilting slant to the building occurs. People’s watches run backwards, and so quickly that they explode. Before long, the scenery outside changes from twentieth century views to a time well before the discovering of America, complete with untouched forests, pristine waters, and Indians living in wigwams. One of the scrappy office workers, Arthur, takes the reins and ensures those office workers who can use their revolvers to go out and hunt for food, particularly pigeon. He organizes the others who are skilled at cooking to do so in the building’s café’s kitchen. Our hero, Arthur, figures out why the skyscraper travelled back in time, and he takes action to return the skyscraper to the twentieth century.
What is related to the reader in this story is terror, fear, survival, leadership, greed, Yankee Doodle attitude, and a little bit of romance.
The greed is related well in this passage, particularly when the snack bar owner in the building is accosted:
The keeper of the stand looked frightened, but was selling off his stock as fast as he could make change. Arthur forced his way to the counter. "Here," he said sharply to the keeper of the stand, "stop selling this stuff. It's got to be held until we can dole it out where it's needed." "I—I can't help myself," the keeper said. "They're takin' it anyway." "Get back there," Arthur cried to the crowd. "Do you call this decent, trying to get more than your share of this stuff? You'll get your portion to-morrow. It is going to be divided up." "Go to hell!" someone panted. "You c'n starve if you want to, but I'm goin' to look out f'r myself." The men were not really starving, but had been put into a panic by the plain speeches of Arthur and his helpers, and were seizing what edibles they could lay hands upon in preparation for the hunger they had been warned to expect.
Arthur and his secretary, Estelle, realize they have a connection beyond dictation and a steno pad:
"Aren't you going to marry me?" he demanded. Still crimson, she nodded shyly. He kissed her again. "Please don't!" she protested. She fondled the lapels of his coat, quite content to have his arms about her. "Why mayn't I kiss you if you're going to marry me?" Arthur demanded. She looked up at him with an air of demure primness. "You—you've been eating pigeon," she told him in mock gravity, "and—and your mouth is greasy!"
What is also curious, and not really explained, is that the electricity, telephone system, and elevators still operate during this travel to the fourth dimension.
💥 Recommended for the time in which this was written, the cleverness of the plot, and the smattering of humor.
On a nondescript day – a quite ordinary one, in fact – a New York City office skyscraper filled with workers going about their business, suddenly reveals low, odd sounds. A slight tilting slant to the building occurs. People’s watches run backwards, and so quickly that they explode. Before long, the scenery outside changes from twentieth century views to a time well before the discovering of America, complete with untouched forests, pristine waters, and Indians living in wigwams. One of the scrappy office workers, Arthur, takes the reins and ensures those office workers who can use their revolvers to go out and hunt for food, particularly pigeon. He organizes the others who are skilled at cooking to do so in the building’s café’s kitchen. Our hero, Arthur, figures out why the skyscraper travelled back in time, and he takes action to return the skyscraper to the twentieth century.
What is related to the reader in this story is terror, fear, survival, leadership, greed, Yankee Doodle attitude, and a little bit of romance.
The greed is related well in this passage, particularly when the snack bar owner in the building is accosted:
The keeper of the stand looked frightened, but was selling off his stock as fast as he could make change. Arthur forced his way to the counter. "Here," he said sharply to the keeper of the stand, "stop selling this stuff. It's got to be held until we can dole it out where it's needed." "I—I can't help myself," the keeper said. "They're takin' it anyway." "Get back there," Arthur cried to the crowd. "Do you call this decent, trying to get more than your share of this stuff? You'll get your portion to-morrow. It is going to be divided up." "Go to hell!" someone panted. "You c'n starve if you want to, but I'm goin' to look out f'r myself." The men were not really starving, but had been put into a panic by the plain speeches of Arthur and his helpers, and were seizing what edibles they could lay hands upon in preparation for the hunger they had been warned to expect.
Arthur and his secretary, Estelle, realize they have a connection beyond dictation and a steno pad:
"Aren't you going to marry me?" he demanded. Still crimson, she nodded shyly. He kissed her again. "Please don't!" she protested. She fondled the lapels of his coat, quite content to have his arms about her. "Why mayn't I kiss you if you're going to marry me?" Arthur demanded. She looked up at him with an air of demure primness. "You—you've been eating pigeon," she told him in mock gravity, "and—and your mouth is greasy!"
What is also curious, and not really explained, is that the electricity, telephone system, and elevators still operate during this travel to the fourth dimension.
💥 Recommended for the time in which this was written, the cleverness of the plot, and the smattering of humor.
March 6, 2016
Highly entertaining story of a New York skyscraper being drawn into the past by a change in its fourth dimension. The building arrives in a time before Columbus's discovery of America. An enterprising engineer, a bank manager, and a office assistant save the people and the building. The science is a bit shaky, but the story is typical of Murray Leinster and his tongue-in-cheek humor.
I listened to the Librivox version, read by Gregg Margarite, is decently done. Mr. Margarite's style may be a bit disconcerting because his delivery can resemble that of William Shatner doing Caption Kirk.
I listened to the Librivox version, read by Gregg Margarite, is decently done. Mr. Margarite's style may be a bit disconcerting because his delivery can resemble that of William Shatner doing Caption Kirk.
June 18, 2014
For a tale that helped jump start the genre of science fiction in 1919, this is a surprisingly fun story. Sure, the rationale for the skyscraper going "runaway" is a bit hokey, but they didn't have quantum mechanics back then, just H.G. Wells. It has that sensibility of the era it was written, so be forewarned, but give it a read.
Every sci-fi fan should experience the beginnings, so they can hopefully more appreciate the good stuff they have now.
Every sci-fi fan should experience the beginnings, so they can hopefully more appreciate the good stuff they have now.
May 1, 2011
Though the premise of a whole skyscraper falling back through time isn't terribly realistic, Leinster handles the story well and makes it work. I have enjoyed some of his stories more but generally I found him a dependable author to tell a good SF tale.
February 10, 2012
A skyscraper suddenly 'travelling' back in time, this seems an interesting state of affairs...
June 16, 2013
The science is pretty broken, but the fiction is OK.
September 2, 2013
Pretty good for a story from 1919. He's done a slick job of updating H.G. Wells with a twist. Considering this must have been one of his earliest efforts its surprising it still reads so well.
November 24, 2016
Free from Gutenberg.org
Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews