Alfred Bester

This article is about the science fiction author. For the character on Babylon 5, see Alfred Bester (Babylon 5).

Alfred Bester (born December 18, 1913 in New York City, died September 30, 1987) was a science fiction author and the winner of the first Hugo Award in 1953 for his novel The Demolished Man.

Career

Bester attended the University of Pennsylvania where he was a member of the Philomathean Society, and in 1936 married Rolly Goulko. His first short story, "The Broken Axiom", was published in Thrilling Wonder Stories (April 1939) after winning an amateur story competition. This competition was arranged so he could have a start on the business. He already knew some people and had given them some work to read, and they came up with the contest. He continued to publish short fiction, most notably in John W. Campbell's Astounding Science Fiction, and in 1942 he began working at DC Comics as a writer for Superman, Green Lantern, and other titles. It is popularly believed that Bester wrote the version of the Green Lantern Oath that begins "In brightest day, In blackest night". However, when queried on this point by F. Gwynplaine MacIntyre at the World Science Fiction Convention in Brighton, England in 1979, Bester stated that this oath was already in place before he began writing for that title. Bester was also the writer for Lee Falk's comic strips The Phantom and Mandrake the Magician while their creator served in World War II.

Bester stopped writing for Astounding around 1950 when its editor, John Campbell, became preoccupied with L. Ron Hubbard and Dianetics, the forerunner to Scientology. Bester then turned to Galaxy Magazine, where he found in H. L. Gold another exceptional editor as well as a good friend.

He also wrote one little-noted mainstream novel about this time, the 1953 Who He? (also published as The Rat Race).

After four years in the comics industry, Bester turned his attention to radio scripts, writing for The Shadow, Nick Carter Master Detective, and Charlie Chan. One of his radio scripts is "Stamps for Murder", written for Nero Wolfe. His short fiction was initially collected in Starburst (1958) and The Dark Side of the Earth (1964), with further collections appearing in the 1970s, including Star Light, Star Bright.

From the 1950s to the 1970s, he was chief literary editor of Holiday magazine. After the magazine ceased publication in the early 1970s, Bester returned to science fiction with more short stories and several more novels, although none approached the full brilliance exhibited in his earlier period.

His short stories, such as "The Men Who Murdered Mohammed" (about unsuccessful attempts to change history through time travel), cemented his reputation, but he is best known for two of his novels, The Demolished Man and The Stars My Destination (also known as Tiger! Tiger!). Bester also wrote one mainstream novel in the 1950s, Who He? aka The Rat Race, in which a TV game show host, waking up after an alcoholic blackout, discovers that someone is out to destroy his life. Bester's other novels include The Computer Connection aka Extro aka The Indian Giver (1975), Golem100 (1980), and The Deceivers (1982). One of the strengths of his novels is the skill with which Bester integrated his science fiction elements into his future societies.

The producer of the 1978 Superman movie sent his son off to search for a writer. The name Alfred Bester came up. Bester wanted to focus the story on Clark Kent as the real hero, while Superman was only "his gun." Bester was devastated when the producer declined to hire an unknown writer and decided to go with Mario Puzo, author of The Godfather.

Important works

The Demolished Man

The Demolished Man is a police procedural in which telepathy is relatively common; a major plot component is an obsessive tune that the protagonist has in his head to block his thoughts from casual scanning. This novel is dedicated to H. L. Gold, the editor of Galaxy, who both published it and made a number of suggestions during its writing. Originally Bester wanted the title to be Demolition!, but Gold talked him out of it.

The Stars My Destination

The Stars My Destination had its origins in a newspaper clipping that Bester found about a shipwrecked WW II sailor on a raft, who had drifted unrescued in the Pacific for days because passing ships thought he was a lure to bring them within torpedo range of a hidden submarine. From this germ grew the story of Gully Foyle, seeking revenge for his abandonment and causing havoc all about him: a science fiction re-telling of Alexander Dumas's The Count of Monte Cristo with teleportation added to the mix. It has been described as an ancestor of cyberpunk. Chapter Nine contains the line "Millions for nonsense, but not one cent for entropy," a parody of the Charles Cotesworth Pinckney quote: "Millions for defense, but not one cent for tribute." In Chapter Sixteen it becomes "Millions for defense, but not one cent for survival."

A radio adaptation of The Stars My Destination was broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 1991, although this may have been a repeat broadcast. ^* lists the play as a 60-minute episode, but the original running time was almost certainly 90 minutes.

Notable short stories

5,271,009, in which a character is placed within various science-fictional wish-fulfillment scenarios, and discovers the flaw in each (the Last Man on Earth, and no dentists...)
Fondly Fahrenheit, in which a malfunctioning android becomes murderously violent in hot weather. Not only is the android psychotic, but its owner is also unstable and projects his emotions onto the android. This is emphasized in the story by a remarkable shifting of viewpoint between third-person, and first-person singular and plural from the POV of both the android and the owner.
The Rollercoaster, written in the 1950s, in which there's an unusual, ahead-of-his-time treatment of violence and time travel.

Mainstream novel

Bester's 1953 novel Who He? aka The Rat Race concerns a TV game show host who wakes up after an alcoholic blackout and discovers that someone is out to destroy his life. It did not receive wide attention.

Homages to Bester

Bester has been memorialized by other science fiction writers in their own works. Notably, the character of Psi-Cop Alfred Bester is named after him (and the treatment of telepathy in Babylon 5 is similar to that in Bester's works), as is the time-travelling pest named Al Phee in Spider Robinson's Callahan's Crosstime Saloon series. (Bester was known as "Alfie" to many of his friends.)

In 1985, it was announced that Bester would be Guest of Honor at the 1987 World Science Fiction Convention, again to be held in Brighton. As the event neared, Bester was plainly too ill to attend, and Doris Lessing stepped in as a last-minute replacement. Bester died, alone, less than a month after the convention ... but not before learning that the Science Fiction Writers of America would honor him with their Grand Master Nebula award at their 1988 convention. Alfred Bester left everything to his bartender, who was surprised because he didn't even remember Bester.

F. Gwynplaine MacIntyre has written a series of stories — beginning with "Time Lines" (published in Analog, 1999) — about a time-traveling criminal named Smedley Faversham, who constantly runs afoul of a scientific principle called "Bester's Law". This term is MacIntyre's invention, but it is explicitly in homage to Alfred Bester's work: specifically, to Bester's 1958 story "The Men Who Murdered Mohammed". Bester's Law, as articulated by MacIntyre, states that a time-traveler who attempts to rewrite the past can only alter his or her own time-line, not anyone else's. Bester's Law is rigidly enforced by a legion of "time cops", whom MacIntyre's protagonist sneeringly refers to as "the Bester Boosters" and "the Bester-Busters".

Media References

From Simpson's Episode "Lisa's Substitute," Springfield Elementary student, Martin, campaigning for class president:

Martin: As your president, I would demand a science-fiction library, featuring the overlords of the genre: Asimov, Bester, Clarke!

Kid: What about Ray Bradbury?

Martin: (dismissingly) I am aware of his work.

External links

Alfred Bester Bibliography

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