Time is the Traitor

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Time Is the Traitor is a science fiction short story by Alfred Bester about John Strapp, a brilliant business consultant whose genius is so valuable that his staff tolerates his eccentricities, including dangerous fugue states. The tale explores how time itself betrays him, with Strapp haunted by flashbacks and forced to repeat the same actions. It was first published in September 1953 in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction and later appeared in several Bester collections, including The Dark Side of the Earth, Star Light, Star Bright, and Virtual Unrealities, and was widely anthologized.

Critics have praised the story as glorious and wildly odd, even as some say it relies more on style than substance. Scholarly notes highlight themes of punishment and restraint in Strapp’s name and view the work as part of Bester’s recurring blend of artist and criminal. Bester later adapted the story for CBS Radio Mystery Theater under the title One Girl in a Million. In 1998, Warner Brothers bought the film rights for the story for $500,000.