Daniel keyes author interview

There's been a lot of mention on the science fiction forums recently of Daniel Keyes, the non-very-prolific author of “Flowers for Algernon,” one of his rare science fiction appearances, published in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. This story was made into a film.  What else does he write or do?  This interview was done some time back and answers these questions.

    Daniel Keyes: My interest in science fiction has always been from the perspective of the individual character.  I am interested in the human mind as it reacts to a complex and industrialized society.  My chief interest is in neurosis and psychosis and the multiple personality, as it is used as a defense mechanism.  Child abuse is particularly prominent in the woes of an industrialized civilization and in this syndrome: the child reacts to the abuse of complex society with multiple personalities.

    Question:  I'm sure your style is controversial and raises issues, some of these particularized  and others vital.  “Flowers for Algernon” was such an apocalyptic story that it prompts me to ask you whether you got any adverse reactions to the story.

    Keyes:  I haven't heard a single one.  I have gotten thousands of letters about it and they all had favorable thoughts to express.  The story has been in four and a half million paperback editions and is used in high schools and colleges across the land.  In all of this not a single unfavorable reaction has arrived.

    Question: Has all this kept you pretty busy?

    Keyes:  Lately, mostly I've been promoting my new book.  It's published by Random House and out in PB in a Bantam edition.  It's called THE MINDS OF BILLY MILLIGAN and is about a man with twenty-four personalities.  It came up 13 th on the New York Tim

This is Part 2 of our interview with Daniel Keys Moran, author of Tales of the Bounty Hunters and Tales from Jabba’s Palace, where “Jaster Mereel” and Boba Fett’s honor were created. Read Part 1.

What is your outlook on this character now after having contributed to his growing popularity?

Don’t know that I contributed much, to be honest with you. The entire universe of Star Wars literature is a little ancillary to what Lucas has put on screen. I have three sons — 5, 8, 11 — all perfectly clear who Boba Fett is, but I don’t know if any of them know I once wrote stories about Fett.

What was your reaction when you heard Fett would be featured in Attack of the Clones?

“So much for that.”

Do you feel slighted to not have your ideas brought to the screen?

Nope. Lucas has felt perfectly free to ignore his earlier self when it suited him; there are continuity problems in the later material you could sneak a battleship through with room to spare. Kevin Anderson, when he pitched the short stories to us, told us (sincerely, I’m sure, Kevin’s an honest guy) that we were going to be creating canon, i.e., official Star Wars story that would not be contradicted by future material. I’m a cynical guy and I didn’t believe him then — and I wasn’t surprised later.

Leia’s mother was a very sad woman, don’t you know….

What is your take on the fact so many Boba Fett fans still prescribe to the idea that this bounty hunter has his own moral code, as I believe first detailed in your story?

Not a surprise and not really due to me. Bounty Hunters as moral agents is pretty stereotypical stuff. Or “archetypal,” if you like. I’ll take credit for the fierceness with which Boba Fett believes in his Code — men living by a Code has always been of intere

Daniel Keyes Biography has links to reviews and criticism of his works.

Algernon, Charlie and I: A Writer's Journey is reviewed.

Wired for Books has an audio interview with Daniel Keyes in which he discusses his work.

eNotes an overview of Flowers for Algernon, and excerpts from essays regarding themes, characters, style and criticism.

BookRags has a study guide online for Flowers for Algernon.

Infinity Plus reviews Flowers for Algernon.

Additional criticism and review of Daniel Keyes's works can be found at your local public library.

The following reviews can be accessed online only by an individual who has a current library card through this address.

"The Message and the Maze."
Critic: Eliot Fremont-Smith.
The New York Times, March 7, 1966, p. 25.

"That (Flowers for Algernon) works at all as a novel is proof of Mr. Keyes's deftness. And it is really quite a performance. He has taken the obvious, treated it in a most obvious fashion, and succeeded in creating a tale that is convincing, suspenseful and touching, all in modest degree, but it is enough. The obvious part is the message�"

"A review of The Minds of Billy Milligan."
Source: Publishers Weekly, September 11, 1981, p. 69.

"Billy Milligan was arrested in Ohio in 1977 on three counts of rape, but in a precedent-setting legal decision, he was found not guilty by reason of his 24 multiple personalities. Out of this bizarre case, Keyes, author of the fictional Flowers for Algernon, has constructed a�"

"A review of The Fifth Sally."
Publishers Weekly, July 25, 1980.

"Why Keyes (Flowers for Algernon, filmed as Charly) has written this fictional rehash of a multiple personality case is difficult to understand�"

"An Overview of Flowers for Algernon."
Critic: Patrick Moser.
Exploring Novels, Gale, 1998.

"Daniel Keyes's Flowers for Algernon encourages us to look to Plato's The Republic as a principal reference for the novel. Beginning with a quotation

“Flowers for Algernon has been published in about 30 countries, and each year I’m getting new foreign translations, and deals for reprints. [It] is still in print in both hardcover and paperback, and studied in high schools all across the country. The story, the novel, the movie Charly got the Academy Award for Cliff Robertson. In the ’70s, when it was made into a musical in London and on Broadway, they tried to change the ending — nobody has ever been able to change that ending, and I’m happy for that!”

– Daniel Keyes

Locus Magazine

Daniel Keyes, in this interview with Connie Stevens and David Kurz, shares his forty-plus years’ experience as a writer and talks about the turning points in his career. Keyes tells of his days as a high school teacher for slow learners and an unforgettable moment in the classroom that sparked the idea for Flowers for Algernon.

Audio Interview

Daniel Keyes is an American author best known for his Hugo award-winning short story and Nebula award-winning novel Flowers for Algernon. Keyes was given the Author Emeritus honor by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America in 2000.

At age 17, Daniel Keyes joined the U.S. Maritime Service as ship’s purser. He obtained a B.A. in psychology from Brooklyn College, and after a stint in fashion photography (partner in a photography studio), earned his M.A. in English and American literature at night while teaching English in New York City public schools during the day and writing weekends.

In the early 1950s, he was editor of the pulp magazine Marvel Science Fiction for a publisher Martin Goodman, who also published the comic book lines Timely Comics and Atlas Comics, the 1940s and 1950s precursors, respectively, of Marvel Comics. After Goodman ceased publishing pulps in favor of paperback books and men’s adventure magazines, Keyes became associate editor of Atlas Comics, under editor