Full record for generation ship n.

Definition = generation starship; also 'generation spaceship'
OED requirements antedating 1955
Earliest cite E.C. Tubb, 'Star Ship'
Comment Eva Snyder submitted a 1965 cite from Delany's "The Ballad of Beta-2" for the form "generation ship". However, the actual form used was "remaining-generation-ships", and Jeff Prucher verified that this form has persisted into later reprints, which makes the cite less useful.

Edward Bornstein submitted a cite for the form "generation ship" from a 1990 reprint of Steve Jackson and William Barton's "GURPS SPACE". Jeff Prucher submitted a 2002 cite for the form "generation-ship" from Ursula Le Guin's "The Birthday of the World and Other Stories". Katrina Campbell submitted a cite for the form "generation ship" from a 1992 reprint of Anne McCaffrey and Jody Lynn Nye's "The Death of Sleep". Katrina Campbell submitted a cite from a 1979 reprint of Brian Ash's "Who's Who in Science Fiction"; Mike Christie checked the 1976 first edition and the term does not appear there. Eddie Janusz subsequently located the cite in a 1977 edition. Mike Stone suggested and Fred Galvin submitted a 1957 cite for the form "generations-ship" from the introduction (presumably by Anthony Boucher) to Chad Oliver's story "The Wind Blows Free" in F&SF. Fred Galvin submitted a cite from a 1979 reprint of Iain Nicolson's "The Road to the Stars". Jeff Prucher submitted a cite from an article by Peter Nicholls in a reprinted edition of the Clute/Nicholls' Encyclopedia of SF; Mike Christie verified the cite in the 1993 first edition. Fred Galvin submitted a 1956 cite from E.C. Tubb's "The Space-Born"; Mike Christie verified the cite in the 1955 first appearance under the title "Star Ship".

We now have enough cites for the form "generation ship", though we would still like to antedate 1955. We would still like cites of any date for the form "generation spaceship".
Last modified 6 July, 2008

Citations for generation ship n.

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1979 J. Varley Titan (1987) 100 You've read the stories of generation ships where something went wrong and everybody slipped back to savagery?
1988 S. Jackson & W. A. Barton Gurps Space (1990) 86/1 The original ‘colonists’ will raise children and die aboard their ship as it slowly makes its way across the void. It will be a later generation that actually colonizes the new world. Hence the name ‘generation ship’.
1990 A. McCaffrey & J. L. Nye Death of Sleep (1992) 258 It was the oldest of the original EEC generation ships still in space.
1992 A. Steele Labyrinth of Night 198 Even a hypothetical matter-antimatter drive can only attain twenty percent of the speed of light at its maximum velocity, and there is no reason to believe that the Cooties had developed technology of that magnitude. But if they made the journey in a generation-ship or in suspended animation ‥
2001 A. Reynolds Chasm City 161 Sky's Edge, of course, was another case entirely. It was the only world that had ever been settled by generation ship. There were some mistakes you didn't make twice.
2002 U. K. LeGuin Birthday of World Foreword p. xiii, In this version of it, Earth sends forth ships to the stars at speeds that are, according to our present knowledge, more or less realistic, at least potentially attainable. Such a ship takes decades, centuries, to get where it's going. No Warp Nine, no time-dilation—just real time. In other words, this is a generation-ship story.