| "Jeffty Is Five" | |
|---|---|
| Author | Harlan Ellison |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre(s) | Science fiction short story |
| Published in | The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction |
| Publication type | Periodical |
| Media type | Print (Magazine, Hardback & Paperback) |
| Publication date | 1977 |
"Jeffty Is Five" is a fantasy short story by American writer Harlan Ellison. It was first published in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction in 1977, then was included in his short story collection Shatterday three years later. According to Ellison, it was partially inspired by a fragment of conversation that he mis-heard at a party at the home of actor Walter Koenig: "How is Jeff?" "Jeff is fine. He's always fine," which he perceived as "Jeff is five, he's always five." Additionally, Ellison based the character of Jeffty on Joshua Andrew Koenig, Walter's son.
| “ | ...I had been awed and delighted by Josh Koenig, and I instantly thought of just such a child who was arrested in time at the age of five. Jeffty, in no small measure, is Josh: the sweetness of Josh, the intelligence of Josh, the questioning nature of Josh.[1] | ” |
"Jeffty is Five" concerns a boy who never grows past the age of five — physically, mentally, or (oddly enough) chronologically. The narrator, Jeffty's friend from the age of five well into adulthood, discovers that Jeffty's radio plays serial programs no longer produced on radio stations that no longer exist. They are contemporary, all-new shows, however; not re-runs. He can buy comics such as The Shadow and Doc Savage that are, again, all-new although they are no longer being produced, not to mention long discontinued pulp magazines with new stories by Stanley G. Weinbaum, Edgar Rice Burroughs and Robert E. Howard despite the authors being long dead. Jeffty can even watch films that are adaptations of old pulp fiction novels like Alfred Bester's The Demolished Man. The narrator is privy to this world because of Jeffty's trust, while the rest of the world (the world that grew as Jeffty did not) is not. When Jeffty's world and the "real" world intersect Jeffty loses his grip on his own world, eventually meeting a tragic end.
It won the short story Nebula Award in 1977 and Hugo Award in 1978. It was also voted in a 1999 online poll of Locus readers to be the best short story of all time.