Project Gutenberg 2025-08-07 Public domain in the USA. 357 Jones, Willis Knapp 1895 1982 Brundage, Margaret 1900 1976 Brundage, M. Finlay, Virgil 1914 1971 Finlay Return to Earth $aIndianapolis, IN :$bPopular Fiction Publishing Company, $c1937. Produced from Weird Tales June 1937. Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net. "Return to Earth by Willis Knapp Jones" is a science fiction short story written in the early 20th century. It follows a resurrected pilot who returns to his hometown with an alien guide, aiming to prove his interplanetary voyage, and probes the clash between advanced beings and a fear-driven, war-prone humanity. Told by the alien Usru, the tale recounts how Henry Sanborn comes back to the small town he left eighteen years earlier, expecting glory for his achievement. Instead, he meets scorn: a former sweetheart flees, his wealthy friend Todd Van Horne spits on him for deserting wartime duty, and a cobbler denounces him as a coward. Hoping for validation, Henry appeals to the local asylum’s physician, Dr. Bender, explaining his anti-gravity ship inspired by the patient Menkowitz and insisting that Usru and the invisible craft are nearby. Skeptics fail to see the G-ray-hidden ship, mockery mounts, and Usru briefly reveals superior powers to drive home the truth. Concluding that Earth’s emotions and violence make contact dangerous, Usru immobilizes the situation, retrieves the terrified Henry—whose life Urcanus science restored after his fatal crash—and departs, resolving that their world will not communicate with humanity. (This is an automatically generated summary.) https://archive.org/details/WeirdTalesV29N06193706 20250629132520jones 1937 US Reading ease score: 75.6 (7th grade). Fairly easy to read. en Science fiction Short stories Extraterrestrial beings -- Fiction Human-alien encounters -- Fiction Space travelers -- Fiction Earth (Planet) -- Fiction PS Text Category: Short Stories Category: Science-Fiction & Fantasy Category: American Literature 61679 2025-09-30T08:35:56.663341 text/html 36700 2025-08-10T02:08:56 text/html 344028 2025-09-30T08:35:59.727302 application/epub+zip 342785 2025-09-30T08:35:57.927353 application/epub+zip 217030 2025-09-30T08:35:57.142351 application/epub+zip 1029304 2025-09-30T08:36:01.075311 application/x-mobipocket-ebook 1021830 2025-09-30T08:35:59.224382 application/x-mobipocket-ebook 53767 2025-09-30T08:35:56.523359 text/plain; charset=us-ascii 33910 2025-08-10T02:08:56 text/plain; charset=us-ascii 18483 2025-09-30T08:36:01.215302 application/rdf+xml 31833 2025-09-30T08:35:57.483305 image/jpeg 4888 2025-09-30T08:35:57.311344 image/jpeg 1113369 2025-09-30T08:35:56.681382 application/octet-stream application/zip Archives containing the RDF files for *all* our books can be downloaded at https://book.klll.cc/wiki/Gutenberg:Feeds#The_Complete_Project_Gutenberg_Catalog en.wikipedia en.wikipedia