The Works of Alfred Bester

Alfred Bester was one of the most all around talented people to come out of the pulp fiction era. He was involved in many different forms, effortlessly moving between magazine editor, comic books, short stories, pulp novels, and other formats. His career began when he became tired of the academic grind at Columbia Law School. Taking a job in public relations, Bester often wrote during his off hours and it would not be long before his first break came. The Broken Axiom was the name of his first published story and was released in the magazine, Thrilling Wonder Stories, after it won a contest. Although the pay for the story was only a scant $50, it launched Alfred Bester into his chosen career.

He wrote several short stories over the next years, with most of them falling into the science fiction genre, before switching to work on comic books. He was hired by the DC Comics company to provide the scripting for such popular titles as The Green Lantern and Superman. Like with the early short stories, Bester decided to move out of the comic books genre after a few years and try his hand in another field. The next stop in Bester's career was the world of radio, where he became a common contributor of scripts for many radio drama programs, including The Shadow and CBS Radio Mystery Theater.

Alfred Bester would also spend some time in television, but it is his return to the science fiction genre of pulp novels that brought him the greatest acclaim. Contributing short stories to magazines, Bester also started working on novels, with one of the first being titled The Demolished Man. Of his pulp novels, this is one of the most recognized of his works. It won the first Hugo Award for best science fiction novel and remains a classic of the early 1950s science fiction works.