The Message (short story)
science fiction short story
"The Message" is a science fiction short story by American writer Isaac Asimov. It was first published in the February 1956 issue of The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction and reprinted in the 1957 collection Earth Is Room Enough. "The Message" provides a fanciful origin of the expression "Kilroy was here". A very short story, it contains only 579 words.
Plot summary
George Kilroy, a 30th-century historian, briefly travels in time to the twentieth century to research the life of the Second World War foot soldier. He arrives in North Africa as soldiers are landing on the beaches of Oran, and before leaving, he makes his mark on the wall of a hut.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “The Message (short story)” is science fiction short story. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Message, short and story, not as a finished interpretation.
Why this record matters
The phrase “science fiction short story” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.
The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 4, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7751133. 1 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1956 and 1957.
A concise general-reference account can conceal disagreements about scope, terminology or the weight assigned to individual sources. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.
- Subject orientation
- Search vocabulary
- Locating named sources
The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “The Message (short story)”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow The Message (short story) primary sources, The Message (short story) archive and Message research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “The Message (short story)”?
- What terminology or title could unlock a more precise catalogue search?
- Which cited source is closest to the event, object or claim?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “The Message (short story)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.