Keyes expanded it to book length, revealing more about Charlie's early background, and in 1967 it won the Nebula award for best novel. Charlie knows that the eloquence of his own thoughts and language will soon begin to slip away.įlowers for Algernon was first published in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction in 1959 and won the Hugo award for best short story the following year. But a flaw is discovered in the surgical procedure and Charlie witnesses the regression of Algernon, a white mouse upon which it had been tested. Eventually classed as a genius, Charlie discovers cruelty and resentment in others and struggles with thoughts and emotions he has previously not had to contend with. Charlie records his progress in diary entries that are at first awkwardly expressed and badly spelled, but which grow more sophisticated as his mental capacity improves. Daniel Keyes, who has died aged 86, wrote the admired science-fiction story Flowers for Algernon, the tale of Charlie Gordon, a janitor with an IQ of 68 whose life is transformed when his intelligence is increased by surgery.

Daniel keyes