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The Outward Urge is a science fiction novel by John Wyndham (although it might arguably be regarded as a collection of linked short stories). It was originally published with four chapters in 1959, but possibly because it ended rather abruptly, a relatively short fifth chapter was included in versions published from 1961 onwards.

Its ostensible authorship has a peculiar history. It was published as co-written by John Wyndham and Lucas Parkes, but they were actually the same person! Wyndham had sometimes used the pen-name Lucas Parkes earlier in his career, but since it was mentioned in some of his books that his full name was John Wyndham Parkes Lucas Beynon Harris some readers may have deduced that they were the same person.

It seems that Wyndham wanted to distance himself from this book to some extent. It has been claimed that this was because it was more like traditional hard science fiction than most of his novels. It is also possible that he may not have rated it as one of his better works himself.