"Hyperpilosity" is a

science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel unive ...

story by American writer

L. Sprague de Camp Lyon Sprague de Camp (; November 27, 1907 – November 6, 2000) was an American writer of science fiction, fantasy and non-fiction. In a career spanning 60 years, he wrote over 100 books, including novels and works of non-fiction, including biog ...

. It was first published in the magazine ''

Astounding Stories ''Analog Science Fiction and Fact'' is an American science fiction magazine published under various titles since 1930. Originally titled ''Astounding Stories of Super-Science'', the first issue was dated January 1930, published by William Cl ...

'' for April, 1938,Laughlin, Charlotte, and Levack, Daniel J. H. ''De Camp: An L. Sprague de Camp Bibliography''. San Francisco, Underwood/Miller, 1983, page 184. and first appeared in book form in the de Camp collection '' The Wheels of If and Other Science Fiction'' ( Shasta, 1949; It later appeared in the anthologies '' Omnibus of Science Fiction'' (Crown, 1952), ''

Science Fiction of the Thirties ''Science Fiction of the Thirties'' is an anthology of science fiction short stories edited by Damon Knight. It was first published in hardcover by Bobbs-Merrill in January 1976; a book club edition was issued simultaneously by the same publisher ...

'' (

Bobbs-Merrill The Bobbs-Merrill Company was a book publisher located in Indianapolis, Indiana. Company history The company began in 1850 October 3 when Samuel Merrill bought an Indianapolis bookstore and entered the publishing business. After his death in 1 ...

, 1975), ''The Edward De Bono Science Fiction Collection'', (Elmfield Press, 1976) and '' The Road to Science Fiction #2: From Wells to Heinlein'' (Mentor, 1979), as well as the magazine ''

Fantastic Story Magazine ''Fantastic Story Quarterly ''was a Pulp magazine, pulp science fiction magazine, published from 1950 to 1955 by Best Books, a subsidiary imprint of Standard Magazines, based in Kokomo, Indiana. The name was changed with the Summer 1951 issue to ...

'' (September, 1953) and the de Camp collection ''

The Best of L. Sprague de Camp ''The Best of L. Sprague de Camp'' is a collection of writings by American science fiction and fantasy author L. Sprague de Camp, first published in hardback by Nelson Doubleday in February 1978 and in paperback by Ballantine Books in May of the ...

'' ( Doubleday, 1978). In 2014 the story was shortlisted for the Retro Hugo Award for Best Short Story.1939 Retro-Hugo Awards on the official Hugo Awards website
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Plot summary

In the Great Change of 1971, a virus infects humanity that causes everyone to grow fur all over their bodies. Initial reaction to the plague, dubbed "hyperpilosity" by the news media, is one of panic and horror. Various examples of the troubles resulting are told; the cast of the latest

Tarzan Tarzan (John Clayton II, Viscount Greystoke) is a fictional character, an archetypal feral child raised in the African jungle by the Mangani great apes; he later experiences civilization, only to reject it and return to the wild as a heroic adv ...

movie, for instance, is reduced to frequent all-over shaving to be able to continue filming. There is a run on depilatory products. An immense financial reward is offered to whoever can identify the condition's cause and develop a cure. Against the playing out of plague-fueled societal crisis and change, protagonist Pat Weiss relates how he and his employer, virology professor Oliveira, strive and ultimately succeed in doing just this. Alas for their dreams of riches; by the time their work is complete, mankind has become accustomed to the new state of things and moved on; those who end up profiting are not the scientists but purveyors of currycombs and such.

Reception

Sam Moskowitz Sam Moskowitz (June 30, 1920 – April 15, 1997) was an American writer, critic, and historian of science fiction. Biography As a child, Moskowitz greatly enjoyed reading science fiction pulp magazines. As a teenager, he organized a branch of ...

called the story "an entertaining episode on the sociological impact of the spontaneous growth of a furlike coating of hair on all men and women" though noting that "reader reception was only mild." To science fiction historians Alexei and

Cory Panshin Cory Panshin (born 1947) is an American science fiction critic and writer. She often writes in collaboration with her husband, Alexei Panshin (1940–2022). The Panshins won the Hugo award for Best Non-Fiction Book in 1990 for ''The World Beyo ...

the story exemplifies de Camp's reaction to the pessimistic attitudes toward change with which the genre was rife at the time; "for de Camp, mankind was by no means inevitably doomed. There was an obvious way forward, and that was for us to embrace nature, and not to rebel against it. ... Rather than resistance and denial, the course recommended by de Camp was adaptation to circumstances."Panshin, Alexei and Cory. '' The World Beyond the Hill: Science Fiction and the Quest for Transcendence.'' Los Angeles, Jeremy P. Tarcher, Inc., 1989, page 292. In 2014 the story was among the nominees for the 1939

Retro-Hugo Award The Hugo Award is an annual literary award for the best science fiction or fantasy works and achievements of the previous year, given at the World Science Fiction Convention and chosen by its members. The Hugo is widely considered the premier a ...

for Best Short Story.

References

External links

* {{L. Sprague de Camp Short stories by L. Sprague de Camp 1938 short stories Works originally published in Analog Science Fiction and Fact Fiction set in 1971