The novel contains themes of morality and ethicality relevant to the treatment of the mental disable people. The story of the novel is told by a series of progress reports by Charlie Gordon, the human subject of the surgery. All rights reserved.The story of the novel is very interesting it revolves around a laboratory mouse by the name of Algernon which has gone through various surgeries in order to increase his intelligence. The line was wrapped around the block three times! They brought me gifts, flowers, candy, letters, and I sat there thinking, 'I feel like a rock star.'.' '.In both Japan and Germany, all my books have been published and never gone out of print.When I went to Tokyo, they drove me past the department store where I was going to go for signings. I was suffering, becuase I wanted the book published! But finally it appeared, and Flowers for Algernon has never gone out of print since.' I said, 'No, We'll give them back their advance.' It was rejected by five publishers over the period of a year. '.I finished the novel for Doubleday, but they wanted the ending changed. Horace came in from the other room and said, 'Dan, this is a good story, but I'm gonna tell you how to make it a great story: Charlie does not lose his intelligence he remains a super-genius, and he and Alice fall in love, they get married, and live happily ever after.'.' I was kind of nervous, because Horace was an important editor, and that was only my fifth short story I was submitting for publication. Have a cup of coffee, read a magazine.' Horace was an agoraphobic who ran poker games Friday night to Saturday dawn in his First Avenue apartment, and his office for Galaxy was there too. I called Horace Gold, and he said, 'Bring it over. 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!' The story, the novel, the movie Charly got the Academy Award for Cliff Robertson. is still in print in both hardcover and paperback, and studied in high schools all across the country. ' Flowers for Algernon has been published in about 30 countries, and each year I'm getting new foreign translations, and deals for reprints.

The sequel will be published in the US by Bantam when the film version of the first book appears from Warner, as The Crowded Room.

Nonfiction works include The Minds of Billy Milligan (1982), a sequel to which has appeared in Japan as The Milligan Wars: A True-Story Sequel (1994). Later works include the quasi-SF thriller The Touch (1968 UK 1977 as The Contaminated Man), and The Fifth Sally (1980). It was expanded to the novel Flowers for Algernon (1966) and in that form tied for the Nebula Award in 1967. (excerpted from Locus Magazine, June 1997)ĭaniel Keyes is best known for 'Flowers for Algernon', which won a 1960 Hugo for its original novelette version.

Flowers for algernon 1966