author
Alfred Bester
1913–1987
A dazzling stylist of mid-century science fiction, he helped make the genre feel faster, stranger, and more psychologically intense. Best known for The Demolished Man and The Stars My Destination, he left a small body of work with an outsized influence.
3 Audiobooks
About the author
Born in New York City in 1913, Alfred Bester studied at the University of Pennsylvania and went on to work across several kinds of popular storytelling. Before and alongside his science fiction, he wrote for comics, radio, and television, which helps explain the speed, sharp dialogue, and theatrical energy that run through his fiction.
He is best remembered for a brief but remarkable run of science-fiction work in the 1950s. The Demolished Man won the first Hugo Award for Best Novel in 1953, and The Stars My Destination remains one of his most admired books. Readers and critics have often singled out his imagination, restless style, and interest in telepathy, identity, and social pressure.
Although he published far less fiction than many of his peers, his reputation only grew over time. Bester died in Pennsylvania in 1987, and he is still widely seen as one of the boldest and most inventive voices in American science fiction.