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Alfred Bester (Writer)
(12-18-1913
-
09-30-1987)
Age 74
Early in Alfred Bester's career he won a Sci Fi short story competition that his friend Robert Heinlein declined to enter. Heinlein instead sold his story to another magazine for $70, where as the prize was only $50.
He appeared in the following 7 episodes of Radio Mystery Theater
| Date | Episode | Title | Plot |
|---|---|---|---|
| 04/06/1976 | 0463 | The Boy Wonder | On a quest to find a missing child named Buchanan, his team slowly disappears one after another. It's no coincidence that the boy and his friends possess amazing talents, and only too late does the man learn the futility of his search. |
| 04/29/1976 | 0478 | Two Plus Two Equals Death | A young architect is pulled into the maddening rush of the circus when he falls for an enchanting dancer. His troubles begin when he learns his lover has an equally beautiful but heartless identical twin sister. Can he have one without the other? |
| 05/20/1976 | 0484 | The Walking Dead | In the future, all androids are mindless robots with one exception-- Rex, who is the most advanced of his kind. Society is threatened when he acquires a macabre obsession-- murdering women. |
| 07/19/1976 | 0499 | Future Eye | An investigator is sent back in time with a critical mission-- to secure a microchip which has a complete account of the world until 2976. It's a race against time to retrieve the technology which, in the wrong hands has the power to wipe out the future. |
| 09/28/1976 | 0526 | One Girl in a Million | A celebrity business consultant of the future, who makes his living helping corporations make huge decisions, searches the galaxy for an exact duplicate of his long dead girlfriend. Meanwhile, he feels compelled to kill anybody with the same last name as the man who killed his girlfriend. |
| 11/30/1976 | 0557 | Now You See Them, Now You Don't | The President wants to know the details of time travelers: During World War 5, soldiers experiencing combat fatigue are transport themselves back in time to the present. |
| 01/06/1977 | 0578 | The Man from Ultra | Solo Nakeela, an interstellar traveller who cannot know love, accidentally ruins the mind of the great Jeffrey Hale, a talented but fragile young artist. Can he help the young genius regain his sanity in time? |
9 Responses to Bester Alfred
I learned that Alfred Bester received the first Hugo Award given for his scifi mystery, "The Demolished Man", which I devoured. This morning as I was driving to work, I listened to "The Boy Wonder", first run on CBSRMT on April 6, 1976. Great story! He wrote six other scripts for CBSRMT as well, and I can't wait to check them out . I love it when I "discover" a great writer!
Keith
I'm not sure Bester won the very first Hugo ever handed out (maybe, though!), but he did receive the first "Best Novel" Hugo for _The Demolished Man_ at the 1953 Worldcon, held in Philadelphia. There were six other categories of awards that year, and at least at subsequent Worldcons the Best Novel has tended to be the final award. Hope you've gotten around to Bester's _The Stars My Destination_!
jms
His best known work is "The Stars My Destination" -- a 1950s novella. Stephen King paid homage to Bester with the short story, The Jaunt published in Skeleton Crew. He was a prolific sci-fi writer from the 1950s through the 1970s. I have two of his works in my library -- the aforementioned and The Demolished Man.
Bob
Actually, _The Stars My Destination_ (1956) is a full-fledged novel, not a novella. (Bester's "Hell Is Forever" would be an example of a novella.) Bob, you might wish to add Bester's story collection _Virtual Unrealities" to your library; it includes a number of great works adapted for CBSRMT, though the titles were changed.
jms
Some Alfred Bester trivia...
Author and Babylon 5 creator J.M. Strazinski paid tribute to Bester by naming his evil psi-cop character after him. Al Bester was played by Walter Koenig (Star Trek's Chekov).
AZ Mountain Geek
My two favorite CBSRMT stories are Future Eye and Boy Wonder. Intelligent, well-paced, and brought to life by the talents of extraordinary professionals. Listen to Tony Roberts in Future Eye. Every single line, pause, emphasis, and intonation illuminates the story into a stunning visage. A very enjoyable listen and a joy to share. -CK
Bill