After making science-fiction history with his beloved and broadly influential tale "e;A Martian Odyssey,"e; Stanley G. Weinbaum turned his creative powers to a series of stories starring a mismatched pair of protagonists: legend-in-his-own-mind Professor Haskel van Manderpootz and dashing aristocrat Dixon Wells. In the engaging short story "e;The Ideal,"e; the two develop a device that allows the ...