Alfred Bester

Alfred Bester was an American science fiction writer and scriptwriter whose best-known novels appeared in the 1950s. Born in New York in 1913, he studied both the sciences and the humanities before he began writing professionally.

The Demolished Man was serialized in Galaxy magazine in 1952 and published as a book in 1953. It won the first Hugo Award for Best Novel. His other major novel, The Stars My Destination, was first published in Britain in 1956 under the title Tiger! Tiger!, with the American edition following in 1957. Later novels include Golem100 and The Deceivers.

Bester also built a long career outside of books. He wrote comics for DC, including Superman, Batman and Green Lantern stories, scripted radio serials such as The Shadow and Charlie Chan, and wrote for the television series Tom Corbett, Space Cadet. For many years he was a feature writer and then senior literary editor at Holiday magazine, until it closed in 1977. The Science Fiction Writers of America named him a Grand Master, an honor presented in 1988, the year after his death, and he was inducted into the Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame in 2001.