Daniel Keyes

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One of the most crucial conflicts that happens often in society is the lack of respect to people. Most often the role of intelligence plays a major part in the perceiving of one’s character. No one has better expressed this message than Daniel Keyes as he displays these qualities in the book Flowers for Algernon. From his personal encounters in life, Keyes has created a moving story that has inspired many readers and has brought light into many obscure topics. Daniel Keyes was born on August 9, 1927 in the city of Brooklyn, New York. Throughout his younger years in life, he had grown up in the Depression and was raised in a poverty-stricken family. His mother, Betty, had her own beauty shop and self trained in the profession while his father, Willie, had his own junk store where he would sell miscellaneous items. Although …show more content…

In Daniel’s first years of college he would write science fiction novels and he even worked for a fictional magazine company. As he finished up his college classes he moved to Ohio and taught as a Professor of English at Ohio University in 1966. Later he began teaching his final job as an English teacher to mentally disabled adults. While educating these students he started writing short stories on his free time and during this experience he got his motivation for his first novel, Flowers for Algernon, which was introduced in 1959. From this short novel, Keyes has been honored with many awards such as the Nebula Award for best science fiction novel and also the Hugo Award for the best short fictional story. Also while achieving these awards, this story went on to be a popular television drama called “Charly”. Not only did he get praised from these organization, but his former college honored Keyes with the Distinguished Alumnus Medal of Honor in 1988 within Brooklyn University in New York

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