Daniel Keyes (August 9, 1927 – June 15, 2014) was an American writer who wrote the novel ''

Flowers for Algernon ''Flowers for Algernon'' is a short story by American author Daniel Keyes, later expanded by him into a novel and subsequently adapted for film and other media. The short story, written in 1958 and first published in the April 1959 issue of '' ...

''. Keyes was given the

Author Emeritus Author Emeritus was an honorary title annually bestowed by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America upon a living writer "as a way to recognize and appreciate senior writers in the genres of science fiction and fantasy who have made signif ...

honor by the

Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, doing business as Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association, commonly known as SFWA ( or ) is a Non-profit organization, nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization of professional science fiction an ...

in 2000.

Biography

Early life and career

Keyes was born in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

, New York. His family was

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

. He attended

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then- Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin. In 1832, th ...

briefly before joining the

United States Maritime Service The United States Maritime Service (USMS) was established in 1938 under the provisions of the Merchant Marine Act of 1936 as voluntary training organization to train individuals to become officers and crewmembers on merchant ships that form the ...

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 A bachelor's degree (from Middle Latin ''baccalaureus'') or baccalaureate (from Modern Latin ''baccalaureatus'') is an undergraduate academic degree awarded by colleges and universities upon completion of a course of study lasting three to si ...

in psychology from

Brooklyn College , mottoeng = Nothing without great effort , established = , parent = CUNY , type = Public university , endowment = $98.0 million (2019) , budget = $123.96 m ...

. A month after graduation, Keyes joined publisher Martin Goodman's magazine company, Magazine Management. He eventually became an editor of their

pulp magazine Pulp magazines (also referred to as "the pulps") were inexpensive fiction magazines that were published from 1896 to the late 1950s. The term "pulp" derives from the cheap wood pulp paper on which the magazines were printed. In contrast, magazine ...

''Marvel Science Stories'' (

cover-date The cover date of a periodical publication is the date displayed on the cover, which is not necessarily the true date of publication (the on-sale date or release date); later cover dates are common in magazine and comic book publishing. More unu ...

d Nov. 1950 – May 1952) after editor Robert O. Erisman, and began writing for the company's

comic-book A comic book, also called comicbook, comic magazine or (in the United Kingdom and Ireland) simply comic, is a publication that consists of comics art in the form of sequential juxtaposed panels that represent individual scenes. Panels are oft ...

lines

Atlas Comics Atlas Comics may refer to * Atlas Comics (1950s) Atlas Comics is the 1950s comic-book publishing label that evolved into Marvel Comics. Magazine and paperback novel publisher Martin Goodman, whose business strategy involved having a multitud ...

, the 1950s precursors of

Marvel Comics Marvel Comics is an American comic book publisher and the flagship property of Marvel Entertainment, a divsion of The Walt Disney Company since September 1, 2009. Evolving from Timely Comics in 1939, ''Magazine Management/Atlas Comics'' in ...

. 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 Art director is the title for a variety of similar job functions in theater, advertising, marketing, publishing, fashion, film and television, the Internet, and video games. It is the charge of a sole art director to supervise and unify the vis ...

Stan Lee Stan Lee (born Stanley Martin Lieber ; December 28, 1922 – November 12, 2018) was an American comic book writer, editor, publisher, and producer. He rose through the ranks of a family-run business called Timely Publications which ...

. 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 ''

''. 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 Entertaining Comics, more commonly known as EC Comics, was an American publisher of comic books, which specialized in horror fiction, crime fiction, satire, war novel, military fiction, dark fantasy, and science fiction from the 1940s through th ...

, 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 ''The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction'' (usually referred to as ''F&SF'') is a U.S. fantasy and science fiction magazine first published in 1949 by Mystery House, a subsidiary of Lawrence Spivak's Mercury Press. Editors Anthony Boucher ...

'' 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 The Academy Awards, better known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international film industry. The awards are regarded by many as the most prestigious, significant awards in the entertainment ind ...

for Best Actor) and

Claire Bloom Patricia Claire Bloom (born 15 February 1931) is an English actress. She is known for leading roles in plays such as ''A Streetcar Named Desire,'' ''A Doll's House'', and '' Long Day's Journey into Night'', and has starred in nearly sixty film ...

. Keyes also won the

Hugo Award The Hugo Award is an annual literary award for the best science fiction or fantasy works and achievements of the previous year, given at the World Science Fiction Convention and chosen by its members. The Hugo is widely considered the premier ...

in 1959 and the

Nebula Award The Nebula Awards annually recognize the best works of science fiction or fantasy published in the United States. The awards are organized and awarded by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA), a nonprofit association of prof ...

in 1966 for the story.

Later career

Keyes taught creative writing at

Wayne State University Wayne State University (WSU) is a public research university in Detroit, Michigan. It is Michigan's third-largest university. Founded in 1868, Wayne State consists of 13 schools and colleges offering approximately 350 programs to nearly 25,000 ...

, and in 1966 he became an English and creative writing professor at

Ohio University Ohio University is a public research university in Athens, Ohio. The first university chartered by an Act of Congress and the first to be chartered in Ohio, the university was chartered in 1787 by the Congress of the Confederation and subse ...

, in

Athens, Ohio Athens is a city and the county seat of Athens County, Ohio. The population was 23,849 at the 2020 census. Located along the Hocking River within Appalachian Ohio about southeast of Columbus, Athens is best known as the home of Ohio Universi ...

, where he was honored as a professor emeritus in 2000.

Death

Keyes died at his home in

Boca Raton Boca Raton ( ; es, Boca Ratón, link=no, ) is a city in Palm Beach County, Florida, United States. It was first incorporated on August 2, 1924, as "Bocaratone," and then incorporated as "Boca Raton" in 1925. The population was 97,422 in the ...

on June 15, 2014, due to complications from

pneumonia Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung primarily affecting the small air sacs known as alveoli. Symptoms typically include some combination of productive or dry cough, chest pain, fever, and difficulty breathing. The severit ...

. His wife Aurea Georgina Vazquez, whom he married in 1952, had died in 2013. They had two daughters.

Awards

Won

* 1960:

for the story "

" * 1966:

for the novel ''

'' * 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:

Award from

* 2014: Life Time Award

Nominated

* 1967:

for the novel ''

'' * 1982:

Edgar Award The Edgar Allan Poe Awards, popularly called the Edgars, are presented every year by the Mystery Writers of America, based in New York City. Named after American writer Edgar Allan Poe (1809–1849), a pioneer in the genre, the awards honor the bes ...

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

* ''

'' (novel, 1966) adapted for cinema as '' Charly'', 1968, and as ''

'', 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

* * Extract from: .

References

External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Keyes, Daniel F. 1927 births 2014 deaths 20th-century American male writers 20th-century American novelists 20th-century American short story writers 21st-century American male writers 21st-century American non-fiction writers 21st-century American novelists 21st-century American short story writers American comics writers American magazine editors American male non-fiction writers American male novelists American male short story writers American military personnel of World War II American psychological fiction writers American sailors American science fiction writers Brooklyn College alumni Deaths from pneumonia in Florida EC Comics Hugo Award-winning writers Jewish American novelists Marvel Comics people Military personnel from New York City Military personnel from New York (state) Nebula Award winners Novelists from Michigan Novelists from New York (state) Novelists from Ohio Ohio University faculty The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction people Wayne State University faculty Writers from Brooklyn United States Merchant Mariners United States Merchant Mariners of World War II