Coffin for two: Classic Book Guide and Free Edition
Coffin for two: author and translator credits, catalogue synopsis, subjects and links to the Gutenberg reading formats.
Coffin for two is catalogued by Project Gutenberg with author credits for Marks, Winston K. (Winston Kinney) (1915–1979).
Catalogue synopsis
Project Gutenberg supplies this automated synopsis of the opening text:
Coffin for two by Winston K. Marks is a science fiction short story written in the mid-20th century. It centers on a returning space prospector who finds Earth transformed by “proxies”—lifelike, remote-controlled bodies marked with a red star—raising questions of identity, mortality, and love in a society that lives vicariously through synthetic selves. The narrator comes home from Venus dreaming of rekindling things with Gwen, only to learn that most people now operate through proxies while their real bodies lie in sterile, life-sustaining “coffins.” After a bruising run-in with Gwen’s new suitor, Tommy, a friend demonstrates the system: a human mind controls a proxy from the coffin, gaining safety, strength, and near-agelessness. Reluctantly, the narrator commissions his own proxy and confronts Tommy, who tries to kill him—until the narrator reveals his hidden star and turns the tables. Gwen drops Tommy and chooses the narrator, but he balks at loving only her stand-in; she gently answers that, in this new world, marriage means sharing life side by side in adjacent coffins while their proxies live it for them—a “coffin for two.”
Book and edition facts
- Title: Coffin for two
- Author credits: Marks, Winston K. (Winston Kinney) (1915–1979)
- Catalogue language: English
Catalogue subjects
- Androids -- Fiction
- Mate selection -- Fiction
- Science fiction
- Short stories
- Space travelers -- Fiction
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Source notes
Catalogue metadata is public domain and is supplied through Gutendex, which imports Gutenberg's machine-readable catalogue. The automated synopsis is source-supplied, not an independently verified review. Author dates above describe the credited people; no ebook release date is presented as the book's original publication date.
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