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[close] The Forever War was first published as a novel in December 1972 by St. Martin's Press. The Forever War was originally written as Haldeman's MFA thesis for the Iowa Writer's Workshop. It was first published as a serial in Analog Magazine.

The 1972 novella "Hero" forms the basis for the section entitled "Private Mandella". The 1973 novelette "We Are Very happy Here" forms the basis for the "Sergeant Mandella" section in the Ballantine edition. The 1975 novella "You Can Never Go Back" forms the basis of the "Sergeant Mandella" section of the Avon edition, which is a change from the Ballantine edition. The 1974 short story "This Best of All Possible Worlds" forms the basis for the "Lieutenant Mandella" section. The 1975 novelette "End Game" is the basis for the "Major Mandella" section.

Editions published prior to 1991 were abridged...The 1991 edition restored many expurgated sections...In 1997, Avon published the version that Haldeman called "definitive", with "everything restored"