author
Alfred E. Maxwell
A little-known pulp-era science fiction writer, remembered today for the lively short story "Alpha Say, Beta Do." His work captures the playful, idea-driven spirit of mid-century magazine SF.
1 Audiobook
Alpha Say, Beta Do
by Alfred E. Maxwell
About the author
Alfred E. Maxwell is a fairly obscure science fiction author, and the clearest widely available record of his work is the short story Alpha Say, Beta Do. That story originally appeared in Planet Stories in Summer 1950 and has since been preserved by Project Gutenberg, helping keep his name in circulation for modern readers.
Because reliable biographical information about him is very limited online, only a few personal details can be stated with confidence. A Find a Grave record identifies an Alfred E. Maxwell born in 1921 and died in 1985, but without stronger corroboration it is safest to treat that as possible rather than definitive.
What does come through clearly is the tone of his fiction: brisk, imaginative, and interested in classic science-fiction ideas like space travel, duplication, and human identity. For readers who enjoy rediscovering forgotten pulp voices, his surviving work offers a small but intriguing window into the magazine science fiction of the early 1950s.