Guide Note:
Flower for Algernon is the first-person narrative of Charlie Gordon, a mentally retarded man who undergoes treatment to improve his intelligence after the treatment works on a laboratory mouse named Algernon.
Fast Facts:
- Author: Daniel Keyes
- Publication: 1959 (short story) and 1966 (novel)
- Short story won Hugo Award for Best Short Fiction
- Novel won 1966 Nebula Award
- Novel banned by some schools because of its sexual content
- Adapted into plays in French, Polish, Japanese, and Czech
- Cliff Robertson, who played Charlie in the 1968 film adaption won an Academy Award and NBR Best Actor Award for the role