Form: Short story
Year: 1971
Publication history:
- 1971 : Best Science Fiction Stories of the Year 1971 (pb) , Dutton
- 1971 : Universe 1 (pb) , Ace, 250 pp.
- 1973 : Nebula Award Stories 7 (hc) , Harper & Row
- 1973 : Unfamiliar Territory (hc) , Scribner's, 212 pp.
- 1975 : The New Awareness (hc) , Delacorte
- 1975 : Social Problems Through Science Fiction (hc) , St Martins
- 1975 : Unfamiliar Territory (hc) , Gollancz (UK), 212 pp., 01919-0
- 1976 : The Best of Robert Silverberg (pb) , Pocket, 258 pp., ISBN 671-80282-8
- 1977 : Unfamiliar Territory (pb) , Coronet, 204 pp., 21978-5
- 1977 : The Best of Robert Silverberg (hc) , Sidgwick & Jackson
- 1977 : The Best of Robert Silverberg (pb) , Pocket, 258 pp., ISBN 0-671-83497-5
- 1978 : Science Fiction Special #30 (pb) , Sidgwick & Jackson
- 1978 : The Best of Robert Silverberg (pb) , Orbit (UK), 258 pp., 7950-3
- 1978 : The Best of Robert Silverberg, Volume 1 (hc) , Gregg, 288 pp., 2445-9
- 1978 : Unfamiliar Territory (pb) , Berkley, 207 pp., ISBN 425-03882-3
- 1981 : Science Fiction Hall of Fame [UK] Volume 4 (hc) , Gollancz (UK)
- 1984 : The Best from Universe (hc) , Doubleday
- 1986 : Science Fiction Hall of Fame Volume 4 (pb) , Avon
- 1986 : Beyond the Safe Zone (hc) , Donald I Fine, 472 pp., 60-8
- 1986 : The Best of Robert Silverberg (pb) , Baen, 277 pp., ISBN 0-671-65586-8
- 1987 : Beyond the Safe Zone (pb) , Warner, 565 pp., ISBN 0-446-30173-6
- 1989 : Beyond the Safe Zone (pb) , Warner, 565 pp., 30173-6
- 1993 : The Norton Book of Science Fiction (tpb) , Norton
- 1995 : Beyond the Safe Zone (The Collected Stories of Robert Silverberg Volume 3) (tpb) , HarperCollins UK (UK), 605 pp., ISBN 0-586-21371-6
- 1995 : Beyond the Safe Zone (pb) , Grafton (UK), ISBN 0586213716
- 2000 : Fictionwise (ol) , Fictionwise
Winner of the Nebula Award for best short story, 1971, and a perennial favorite among readers.
"Ever since I read Baron Corvo's Hadrian the Seventh in 1955 I have entertained the desire to become the Pope--an ambition complicated to some degree by the fact that I am not in holy orders, nor a Roman Catholic, nor even a Christian at all. As my friends know, I duly submit an application whenever a vacancy occurs in Rome, but as of this date [1975] the Church has not seen fit to make use of my services." (From Silverberg's introduction in The Best of Robert Silverberg) The story concerns the election of a robot Pope, but Silverberg gives no background or explanation for the phenomenon of robot faith, so for me there are more questions than answers. Still, it's a fun little story.