Deniel Kiz

American writer and scholar-linguist, author of ten novels and several dozen short stories, of which only 10 belong to science fiction. The writer published his early stories under the pseudonyms “Kris Daniel,” “A. D. Locke,” and “Dominik Georg.” He was born in New York, in the famous Brooklyn neighborhood. He graduated from Brooklyn College, receiving a bachelor’s degree in psychology. From the age of 17 he served as a sailor in the U.S. Navy, where he was the ship’s treasurer. After demobilization, despite his parents’ wish that their son become a physician, he worked in the editorial office of Marvel Science Fiction. In the 1950s, after the magazine was closed, Keyes worked as assistant editor of Atlas Comics and wrote texts for comics, in particular for Journey into Unknown Worlds. In 1955–56 he wrote for the comic studios Shock Illustrated and Confessions Illustrated, using both his own name and pseudonyms. He also worked as a photographer for a fashion magazine and taught English at a school. At the same time, he completed the Brooklyn College extension program, defended a dissertation in English and American literature, after which he taught language and literature and gave creative writing courses at Wayne State University, and from 1966 at Ohio University in Athens, Ohio. In 2000 he was awarded the title of honorary professor of literature at that institution. He was married to Aurea Vasquez, had two daughters, and since 2003 lived in South Florida. His first publication, the story “Precedent” (1952), appeared in the May 1952 issue of Marvel Science Fiction. He then published three more stories, and the next one made him famous. The idea came to Keyes several years before publication, when he was teaching English to students with mental disorders, and consisted of the following question: “What would happen if it were possible to increase human intelligence artificially?” Four years later, in the April 1959 issue of The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, the story (more properly, a novelette) “Flowers for Algernon” was published. It received the Hugo Award in 1960, and six years later was rewritten as the novel of the same name, which in turn also received one of the major awards in science fiction, the Nebula Award, in 1967. Thus, Daniel Keyes became the only author to win the