Appel, Benjamin
Entry updated 12 September 2022. Tagged: Author.
(1907-1977) US author, long and variously active, known mainly for such work outside the sf field as Brain Guy (1934) and The Raw Edge (1958). In his sf novel, The Funhouse (1959; vt The Death Master 1974), satirical (see Satire) and Linguistic sideshows sometimes illuminate the story of two Utopias as the Chief of Police from the anti-technological Reservation is called upon to save a future America (the Computer-dominated Funhouse) from atomic demolition. The Devil and W. Kaspar (1977), a fantasy, replays the central motif of The Funhouse, when the Devil in the title gives the eponymous ascetic a chance to save the world from nuclear Holocaust. [JC]
Benjamin Appel
born New York: 13 September 1907
died Monmouth, New Jersey: April 1977
works
- The Funhouse: An Eyewitness Report of the Historic Search for the World's Most Dangerous Weapon, the A-I-D (New York: Ballantine Books, 1959) [pb/Ben Shahn]
- The Death Master (New York: Popular Library, 1974) [vt of above: pb/Paul Lehr]
- The Devil and W. Kaspar (New York: Popular Library, 1977) [pb/Paul Lehr]
works as editor
- The Fantastic Mirror: Science Fiction across the Ages (New York: Pantheon, 1969) [anth: of excerpts linked by commentary: hb/]
links
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