At 16, he worked as a waiter to pay for his first year's tuition as a medical student at New York University. As a young boy growing up in the Depression, he delivered sandwiches and worked in factories and, at the age of 14, would do a shift as a delivery man's assistant for the East New York Bagel Bakery from 4am until 7am, before being dropped off at school. Keyes was born in Brooklyn, New York, son of Betty and William. It appears on reading lists for schools and has been a regular target for censorship, the most common complaint being that it is sexually explicit in parts, as Charlie struggles to understand and express his desires. It was filmed as Charly (1968), directed by Ralph Nelson and starring Cliff Robertson, who received an Academy Award for best actor.įlowers for Algernon also succeeded in other forms: on TV (a 1961 adaptation, The Two Worlds of Charlie Gordon a 2000 TV movie starring Matthew Modine and a 2006 French TV movie) as a play, adapted by David Rogers (1969) and a musical, Charlie and Algernon, first produced in Canada in 1978 and later on Broadway, with a London production in 1979, starring Michael Crawford, under the title Flowers for Algernon plays in France, Australia, Poland and Japan radio adaptations in the UK, Ireland and Czechoslovakia and as a modern dance work. Keyes expanded it to book length, revealing more about Charlie's early background, and in 1967 it won the Nebula award for best novel. Charlie knows that the eloquence of his own thoughts and language will soon begin to slip away.įlowers for Algernon was first published in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction in 1959 and won the Hugo award for best short story the following year.

But a flaw is discovered in the surgical procedure and Charlie witnesses the regression of Algernon, a white mouse upon which it had been tested. Eventually classed as a genius, Charlie discovers cruelty and resentment in others and struggles with thoughts and emotions he has previously not had to contend with. Charlie records his progress in diary entries that are at first awkwardly expressed and badly spelled, but which grow more sophisticated as his mental capacity improves. Daniel Keyes, who has died aged 86, wrote the admired science-fiction story Flowers for Algernon, the tale of Charlie Gordon, a janitor with an IQ of 68 whose life is transformed when his intelligence is increased by surgery.

Daniel keyes novel