The Proud Robot (novelette, 1944)

The Proud Robot is a nominee for the 1944 Retrospective Best Novelette Hugo. It is a madcap mess of a story about a too-cool-for-school scientist who both invents a robot while drunk and forgets the solution to a paying job. The twist is that the robot is a complete narcissist and out of control, distracting the scientist, Gallagher, from remembering that solution. In the vein of Boucher’s Q.U.R. and Robinc but with nothing to say about robots. The Proud Robot was credited to Lewis Padgett, the same husband-wife team that wrote the profound Mimsy Were the Borogoves, but was actually a solo project from the husband, Henry Kutter. You can read the story online at www.prosperosisle.org. If you like it, there’s a whole series of stories featuring Gallagher.