| Alfred Bester
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(1913 - 1987)
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Alfred Bester was a New York jew who who was educated in both the humanities and the sciences, studying at the University of Pennsylvania and Columbia. His city roots and his study of psychology inform all his writing as he deals with the urban living of the future andf the inner-workings of the mind. He was a professional scriptwriter and journalist whose first science ficiotn novel 'The Broken Axiom' won an amateur story competition run by the magazine thrilling Wonder Stories in 1939.
In 1953 he won the first Hugo Award for Best novel for The Demolished Man and in 1988 was awarded the Science Fiction Writers of America Grand Master Award.
Withing the SF field he wrote short stories, a small number of novels and in 1942 he started working on comics for both DC and Marvel, including Superman, Batman and Green Lantern. However, his chief occupation continued to be mainstream writing and he 1946 he started scritping for radio serials. In the late 1950s he became a feature writer for Holiday magazine, eventually becoming senior literary editor. He only returned to science fiction writing after the magazine folded in the 1970s.
He died in 1987 after a long illness, and left his house and literary estate to the bartender.
Bester is one of the fore-runners of the Cyberpunk movement, as he deals with the mind as well as the technology of the future.
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