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Daniel Keyes (August 9, 1927 – June 15, 2014) was an American writer who wrote the novel Flowers for Algernon. Keyes was given the Author Emeritus honor by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America in 2000.

Biography

Early life and career

Keyes was born in New York City, New York. His family was Jewish. He attended New York University briefly before joining the United States Maritime Service at 17, working as a ship's purser on oil tankers. Afterward he returned to New York and in 1950 received a bachelor's degree in psychology from Brooklyn College.

A month after graduation, Keyes joined publisher Martin Goodman's magazine company, Magazine Management. He eventually became an editor of their pulp magazine Marvel Science Stories (cover-dated Nov. 1950 – May 1952) after editor Robert O. Erisman, and began writing for the company's comic-book lines Atlas Comics, the 1950s precursors of Marvel Comics. After Goodman ceased publishing pulps in favor of paperback books and men's adventure magazines, Keyes became an associate editor of Atlas under editor-in-chief and art director Stan Lee. Circa 1952, Keyes was one of several staff writers, officially titled editors, who wrote for such horror and science fiction comics as Journey into Unknown Worlds, for which Keyes wrote two stories with artist Basil Wolverton.

As Keyes recalled, Goodman offered him a job under Lee after Marvel Science Stories ceased publication:

One story idea Keyes wrote but did not submit to Lee was called "Brainstorm", the paragraph-long synopsis that would evolve into Flowers for Algernon. It begins: "The first guy in the test to raise the I.Q. from a low normal 90 to genius level ... He goes through the experience and then is thrown back to what was." Keyes recalled, "something told me it should be more than a comic book script."

From 1955 to 1956, Keyes wrote for EC Comics, including its titles Shock Illustrated and Confessions Illustrated, under both his own name and the pseudonyms Kris Daniels and A.D. Locke.

Flowers for Algernon

The short story and subsequent novel, Flowers for Algernon, is written as progress reports of a mentally disabled man, Charlie, who undergoes experimental surgery and briefly becomes a genius before the effects tragically wear off. The story was initially published in the April 1959 issue of The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction and the expanded novel in 1966. The novel has been adapted several times for other media, most prominently as the 1968 film Charly, starring Cliff Robertson (who won an Academy Award for Best Actor) and Claire Bloom. Keyes also won the Hugo Award in 1959 and the Nebula Award in 1966 for the story.

The inspiration for Flowers for Algernon came from Keyes's experiences as a teacher. When he was teaching at a high school, he taught both mentally gifted and challenged students. One particular experience with a boy in his mentally challenged class sparked the inspiration to begin writing Flowers for Algernon. He was wondering what would happen if it was possible for a person to gain intelligence.

Later career

Keyes taught creative writing at Wayne State University, and in 1966 he became an English and creative writing professor at Ohio University, in Athens, Ohio, where he was honored as a professor emeritus in 2000.

Death

Keyes died at his home in Boca Raton on June 15, 2014, due to complications from pneumonia. His wife Aurea Georgina Vazquez, whom he married in 1952, had died on May 14, 2013. They had two daughters.

Awards

Won

• 1960: Hugo Award for the story "Flowers for Algernon"
• 1966: Nebula Award for the novel Flowers for Algernon
• 1986: Kurd Lasswitz Award for The Minds of Billy Milligan
• 1993: Seiun Award (Non-Fiction of the Year) for The Minds of Billy Milligan
• 2000: Author Emeritus Award from Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America
• 2014: Life Time Award

Nominated

• 1967: Hugo Award for the novel Flowers for Algernon
• 1982: Edgar Award for Best Fact Crime for The Minds of Billy Milligan
• 1987: Edgar Award for the American Association of Mystery Writers for Unveiling Claudia

Bibliography

Novels

• Flowers for Algernon (novel, 1966) adapted for cinema as Charly, 1968, and as Flowers for Algernon, 2000
• The Touch (1968; re-edited and published as The Contaminated Man, 1977)
• The Fifth Sally (1980)
• The Minds of Billy Milligan (1981)
• Unveiling Claudia (1986)
• The Milligan Wars: A True-Story Sequel (Japan, 1994)
• Until Death (1998)
• The Asylum Prophecies (2009)

Short fiction

Collections

• Daniel Keyes Collected Stories (Japan, 1993)

Stories

Non-fiction

• Algernon, Charlie, and I : a writer's journey. Challcrest Press. 2000.
• "Algernon, Charlie, and I : a writer's journey". F&SF. 98 (5): 64–86. May 2000.

External links

• Keyes speech on YouTube
• Quotations related to Daniel Keyes at Wikiquote
• Daniel Keyes at IMDb
• Daniel F. Keyes at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database