Before We Read: Writer’s Notebook If it were possible, would you want to see what the future holds for you in ten years… even if you couldn’t change it? Write one benefit of knowing the future as well as one negative.

Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes

The Author: Daniel Keyes Daniel Keyes was born in Brooklyn in He was educated at Brooklyn College, where he received an A.B. degree in He worked briefly as a magazine associate editor and taught high school English while pursuing his own writing career.

Flowers for Algernon Keyes was still teaching high school English when he first published the work that would make his reputation. The original short story version of "Flowers for Algernon" appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction in After the story won the Hugo Award for best science fiction story of the year and was adapted as a television drama, Keyes expanded the story into a novel, published in The novel won the Nebula Award of the Science Fiction Writers of America and was filmed in 1968 as Charly. The film was a notable success, earning Cliff Robertson an Academy Award as Best Actor for his portrayal of the main character, Charlie Gordon.

Daniel Keyes Keyes returned to Brooklyn College, received an A.M. degree in 1961, and went on to teach English on the university level. At Ohio University, in the 1970s he became Professor of English and director of the university's creative writing center. Although none of Keyes' other work has achieved the popular and critical success of Flowers for Algernon, he has continued to write while pursuing a full-time career in English academics and was given the Author Emeritus honor by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America in Now retired and living in Florida, Keyes has recently completed a new novel and seen his work attain tremendous popularity abroad.

Brief Summary The title character Algernon is a laboratory mouse who has undergone surgery to increase his intelligence by artificial means. The story is told as a series of "progress reports" written by Charlie, the first human test subject for the surgery, and touches upon many different ethical and moral themes such as the treatment of the mentally disabled.

Style Both the novel and the short story are written in an epistolary style, collecting together Charlie's personal "progress reports" from a few days before the operation until the end. In the beginning, the reports are full of spelling errors and use cumbersome language. Following the operation, however, one of the first signs of Charlie's increased intelligence are his improved accuracy in spelling, grammar and punctuation and his word choice.

Style cont. Charlie's emotional development is also made apparent through the progress reports. Initially, Charlie writes warmly about his "friends" at the bakery. Only later does Charlie realize that people he thought were his friends have been tormenting him for fun rather than laughing with him. The story gives the reader enough information to understand the true situation and to recognize Charlie's naiveté even though Charlie himself fails to understand the significance of what he is writing at the time.