Mead, Shepherd
Entry updated 12 September 2022. Tagged: Author.
Working name of US author Edward Mead (1914-1994), in either Switzerland or the UK after 1957; he worked in advertising before turning to writing, and was active in various genres. Satire and comedy combine in most of his works, most pointedly in his best-known work, the nonfantastic mock instructional manual, How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying (1952), for the staged version of which he shared a Pulitzer Prize and a Tony. Satire also permeates his sf and fantasy novels: The Magnificent MacInnes (1949; vt The Sex Machine: (The Magnificent MacInnes): A Ribald Novel 1950), in which consumer society is satirized through the story of an electronic device that can make Predictions of personal preferences; The Big Ball of Wax: A Story of Tomorrow's Happy World (1954), in which Madison Avenue techniques are applied to corrupt a device that permits people to enter vicariously into the lives of others, a technique whose potential for good is subverted into a kind of feelie; and The Carefully Considered Rape of the World: A Novel About the Unspeakable (1966), in which Aliens artificially inseminate Earth females. [JC/PN]
see also: Leisure; Media Landscape.
Edward Mead
born St Louis, Missouri: 26 April 1914
died London: 15 August 1994
works (selected)
- The Magnificent MacInnes (New York: Farrar, Straus and Company, 1949) [hb/Paul Galdone]
- The Sex Machine: (The Magnificent MacInnes): A Ribald Novel (New York: Popular Library, 1950) [pb/Alex Schomburg]
- The Big Ball of Wax: A Story of Tomorrow's Happy World (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1954) [hb/Roy Doty]
- The Carefully Considered Rape of the World: A Novel About the Unspeakable (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1966) [hb/Lawrence Ratzkin]
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