The Lincoln Hunters

One of his best novels, in which time travellers from an imperial USA several hundred years hence are sent to acquire a recording of a lost speech of Abraham Lincoln; the two cultures are effectively contrasted. The ending, in which the protagonist is trapped in an 1856 far less unattractive than the future from which he came, is both poignant and welcome. "Particularly rich in perils and paradoxes. Tucker lends vivid credibility to both 2578 and 1856, to his time-adventuring 'Characters' and to the six-foot-four speechmaker on the threshold to gratness. (...) Fresh, new, genuine, original." --Anthony Boucher