KEYES, Daniel

(1927-)

   US writer and university lecturer in English. He began his sf career as associate editor of MARVEL SCIENCE FICTION, Feb-Nov 1951, and it was in that magazine that his first published story, "Precedent" appeared (1952). He is known mainly for one excellent novel, FLOWERS FOR ALGERNON(1959 FSF; exp 1966), winner of a 1960 HUGO in its magazine form and of a 1966 NEBULA for the full-length book version, on which was based the film CHARLY (1968). It is the story, largely in the first person, of Charlie Gordon, whose INTELLIGENCE, starting at IQ 68, is artificially increased to genius level (MEDICINE; SUPERMAN). The mouse Algernon has preceded him in this course, but Algernon soon dies, and Gordon's main contribution to science is his working out of the "Algernon-Gordon Effect", by which "artificially induced intelligence deteriorates at a rate of time directlyproportional to the quantity of the increase". The last pages of the novel, detailing the loss of Charlie's faculties, are extremely moving. His treatment as an object of scientific curiosity throughout his ordealunderlines the book's points about deficiencies in the scientific method as applied to human beings. The Touch (1968; vt The Contaminated Man 1977 UK), a borderline-sf tale about the psychological consequences of anindustrial accident involving radioactive contamination, has received less attention. After a long silence in the sf field, a new novel from DK was projected for the early 1990s.

   JC

   See also: ALIENS; CINEMA; CONCEPTUAL BREAKTHROUGH; The MAGAZINE OF FANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTION ; NUCLEAR POWER; PSYCHOLOGY; RADIO.