"Or All the Seas with Oysters" 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 ...

short story by American writer

Avram Davidson Abraham, ; ar, , , name=, group= (originally Abram) is the common Hebrew patriarch of the Abrahamic religions, including Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. In Judaism, he is the founding father of the special relationship between the Jews ...

. It first appeared in the May 1958 issue of ''

Galaxy Science Fiction ''Galaxy Science Fiction'' was an American digest-size science fiction magazine, published in Boston from 1950 to 1980. It was founded by a French-Italian company, World Editions, which was looking to break into the American market. World Editi ...

'' and won the

Hugo Award for Best Short Story The Hugo Award for Best Short Story is one of the Hugo Awards given each year for science fiction or fantasy stories published or translated into English during the previous calendar year. The short story award is available for works of fiction of ...

in 1958.SF Awards Database
/ref> One of Davidson's best-known stories, it has been anthologized or collected more than a dozen times.

Plot summary

Struck by the fact that there are never enough pins yet always too many coat-hangers, a bicycle shop owner begins to speculate about the possible parallels between natural and man-made objects.

References

External links

*
Or All the Seas with Oysters
at the

Internet Archive The Internet Archive is an American digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It provides free public access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, software applications/games, music, ...

1958 short stories Science fiction short stories Hugo Award for Best Short Story winning works {{1950s-sf-story-stub