Lafferty, R.A. "Rainbird"
Divergence: 1785 CE
Summary: An 18th-century inventor grows old, then uses a time machine to go back to give himself advice. His younger self repeats the process, etc.
Published: In Galaxy, December 1961; The Seventh Galaxy Reader (ed. Frederick Pohl), Doubleday 1964; Strange Doings: Stories by R.A. Lafferty, Scribner's 1972 (0684125307); Beyond Tomorrow: An Anthology of Modern Science Fiction (ed. Lee Harding), Wren 1976 (0858851695); Against Tomorrow (ed. Robert Hoskins), Fawcett 1979; and Isaac Asimov Presents the Great SF Stories: 23 (1961) (eds. Isaac Asimov and Martin H. Greenberg), DAW 1991 (0886774780).
Original in: English.
Translation: Italian by Paolo Busnelli as "Rainbird", in Strani fatti, Armenia 1978.
Translation: Italian by Elisabetta Moreolo Svaluto as "Uccello della pioggia", in Le grandi storie della fantascienza: 1961 (eds. Isaac Asimov and Martin H. Greenberg), Mondadori 1993, 1994 (8804376740).