Background
The ideas for Flowers for Algernon developed over 14 years and were inspired by events in Keyes's life, starting in 1945 with Keyes's conflict with his parents, who were pushing a pre-medical education despite his desire to pursue a writing career. Keyes felt that his education was driving a wedge between himself and his parents, and this led him to wonder what would happen if it were possible to increase a person's intelligence.[4][8][10] Based on these considerations, Keyes further developed his ideas for Flowers for Algernon by transforming the initial concept into what Keyes asserted as "a classic tragedy".[11] Keyes, in his 1999 memoir Algernon, Charlie and I: A Writer's Journey, explains more about his creative writing process and relates key insights for the conception of Flowers for Algernon. He said that he was inspired by Aristotle's dictum in the Poetics, which states that a tragedy can only occur for the highborn, because one could only have a tragic fall from a great height.[11] Keyes's thought was: "let's test that".[11] He therefore made his story's main character a person who was initially "lowborn" (a mentally disabled young man) who then became a "highborn" after the intelligence-enhancing procedures.[11] His goal was to elevate such a character to the heights of genius at the cost of being disconnected before having them lose it all.
A pivotal moment occurred in 1957 while Keyes was teaching English to students with disabilities, and one of them asked if it would be possible for the student to be put into an ordinary class (mainstreamed) if he worked hard and became smart.[4][12] Keyes also witnessed the dramatic change in another learning-disabled student who regressed after he was removed from regular lessons. Keyes said that "When he came back to school, he had lost it all. He could not read. He reverted to what he had been. It was a heart-breaker."[4]
Characters in the book were based on people in Keyes's life. The character of Algernon was inspired by a university dissection class, and the name was inspired by the poet Algernon Charles Swinburne.[13] Nemur and Strauss, the scientists who develop the intelligence-enhancing surgery in the story, were based on professors Keyes met while in graduate school.[14] Events that Charlie experiences were also based on Keyes's life, including the Rorschach test and Charlie's frustration with it, which was inspired by Keyes' past experience with the test when he was exploring the causes of his anxiety as a college student. As he was developing his story, he satirically transformed his frustrating Tests and Measurements advisor into Burt, the tester who similarly frustrates Charlie.[11]
In 1958, Keyes was approached by Galaxy Science Fiction magazine to write a story, at which point the elements of Flowers for Algernon fell into place.[13] When the story was submitted to Galaxy, however, editor Horace Gold suggested changing the ending so that Charlie retained his intelligence, married Alice Kinnian, and lived happily ever after.[15] Keyes refused to make the change and sold the story to The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction instead.[13]
Keyes worked on the expanded novel between 1962 and 1965[16] and first tried to sell it to Doubleday, but they also wanted to change the ending. Again, Keyes refused and gave Doubleday back their advance.[15] Five publishers rejected the story over the course of a year[15] until it was published by Harcourt in 1966.
Publication
The short story "Flowers for Algernon" was first published as the lead story in the April 1959 issue of The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction.[17][13] It was later reprinted in The Best from Fantasy and Science Fiction, 9th series (1960),[18] the Fifth Annual of the Year's Best Science Fiction (1960),[19] Best Articles and Stories (1961),[20] Literary Cavalcade (1961),[20] The Science Fiction Hall of Fame, Volume One, 1929–1964 (1970),[21] and The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction: A 30-Year Retrospective (1980).[18]
The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction reprinted the original short story in its May 2000 issue along with an essay titled "Algernon, Charlie and I: A Writer's Journey" by the author.[22] The magazine's cover announced the combination with "Flowers for Algernon / Daniel Keyes / the story and its origin".
The expanded novel was first published in 1966 by Harcourt Brace with the Bantam paperback following in 1968.[20] As of 1997 the novel had not been out of print since its publication.[15] By 2004, it had been translated into 27 languages, published in 30 countries and sold more than 5 million copies.[23] [24]
