The Streets of Ashkelon

"The Streets of Ashkelon" is a science fiction short story by American writer Harry Harrison. It has also been published under the title "An Alien Agony".^[1] It was first published in 1962, in Brian Aldiss's New Worlds #122. The story has since been reprinted over 30 times in fourteen languages, in anthologies and also in academic textbooks. Science fiction critic Paul Tomlinson, who helps run Harrison's official website, has estimated that it is Harrison's most widely published story.

Its name is a reference to a passage from the Biblical 2 Samuel 1:20, which says "proclaim it not in the streets of Ashkelon".

Harrison wrote the story for a Judith Merril-edited anthology that was to contain original stories that all violated societal taboos in some way: Streets portrayed a heroic atheist, and a naive, foolish missionary. When Merrill's project fell through, Harrison approached other markets; however, no American publisher accepted it, and so Harrison approached British markets instead. Streets was not published by an American company until six years later.^[2]