Alexander Hill Key (September 21, 1904 – July 25, 1979) was an American

science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel unive ...

writer who primarily wrote

children's literature Children's literature or juvenile literature includes stories, books, magazines, and poems that are created for children. Modern children's literature is classified in two different ways: genre or the intended age of the reader. Children's ...

Early life

Key was born in 1904 in LaPlatte, Maryland. His parents, Alexander Hill and Charlotte (Ryder) Key, soon moved the family to Florida where he spent the next 6 years of his life. His father owned a sawmill and cotton gin, which were burned by nightriders shortly before his father's death. Between the time of his father's death and his mother's death in an accident when he was 15, Key attended at least 14 different schools, including a military school in Georgia. After his mother's death, he was raised by various relatives for the rest of his childhood. At 18, he enrolled in the School of the Art Institute in Chicago, Illinois which he attended between 1921-1923.

Literary work

His novel ''

Escape to Witch Mountain ''Escape to Witch Mountain'' is a science fiction novel written by Alexander Key in 1968. It was adapted for film by Disney as '' Escape to Witch Mountain'' in 1975 which spawned the ''Witch Mountain'' franchise. The novel was illustrated by ...

'' was made into a popular live-action film by Disney in 1975, 1995, and again in 2009. The sequel was made into another popular film in 1978. His novel ''

The Incredible Tide ''The Incredible Tide'' is a post-apocalyptic science fiction novel for young adults written by Alexander Key, published in 1970. It was the source material for the 1978 Japanese anime television series '' Future Boy Conan'', directed by Hayao ...

'' became a popular

anime is Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside of Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, in Japan and in Japane ...

series called ''

Future Boy Conan , also known as ''Conan, The Boy in Future'', is a Japanese post-apocalyptic science fiction anime series. It is an adaptation of American science-fiction writer Alexander Key's 1970 novel ''The Incredible Tide''. It was broadcast for twenty ...

'' in 1978. He is known for his portrayals of alien but human-looking people who have tremendously strong

psychic A psychic is a person who claims to use extrasensory perception (ESP) to identify information hidden from the normal senses, particularly involving telepathy or clairvoyance, or who performs acts that are apparently inexplicable by natural laws, ...

psionic In American science fiction of the 1950s and 1960s, psionics was a proposed discipline that applied principles of engineering (especially electronics) to the study (and employment) of paranormal or psychic phenomena, such as telepathy and psychok ...

abilities, a close communion with nature, and who can telepathically speak with animals. In his nonfiction book ''The Strange White Doves'', he professed his belief that animals are conscious, thinking, feeling, perceiving, independent, and self-aware intelligent beings, and that they have subtle ways of communicating, perhaps via

empathy Empathy is the capacity to understand or feel what another person is experiencing from within their frame of reference, that is, the capacity to place oneself in another's position. Definitions of empathy encompass a broad range of social, co ...

telepathy Telepathy () is the purported vicarious transmission of information from one person's mind to another's without using any known human sensory channels or physical interaction. The term was first coined in 1882 by the classical scholar Frederic W ...

. The protagonists of Key's books are often ostracized, feared, or persecuted because of their astonishing abilities or extraterrestrial origins, and Key uses this as a clear metaphor for racism and other prejudice. In several of his novels (most notably ''The Case of the Vanishing Boy''), Key portrays some sort of communal withdrawal from society by a group of like-minded individuals. Key sometimes depicted government-sponsored

social services Social services are a range of public services intended to provide support and assistance towards particular groups, which commonly include the disadvantaged. They may be provided by individuals, private and independent organisations, or administe ...

for children as inefficient or even counterproductive in its efforts: in ''The Forgotten Door'', social services is presented as a clearly undesirable alternative for the protagonist Little Jon, and, in ''Escape to Witch Mountain'', Tony and Tia actively flee the system. In both cases, however, it is for a very logical reason: the characters are "not from around here". All they want to do is go home and, happily, a few of us locals have the decency to help them do so (Key's ''The Forgotten Door'' predates ''

E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial ''E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial'' (or simply ''E.T.'') is a 1982 American science fiction film produced and directed by Steven Spielberg and written by Melissa Mathison. It tells the story of Elliott, a boy who befriends an extraterrestrial, d ...

'' by over 10 years). The plot of Key's ''The Magic Meadow'' is even more poignant for any reader who has ever been bedridden in a hospital. Its ending in particular is phenomenally optimistic. That was another Alexander Key theme: that good and decent people deserve to escape ''to'' a place worthy of them.

Selected works

As illustrator

* ''In the Light of Myth: Selections from the World's Myths'', compiled and interpreted by Rannie B. Baker (1925) * ''Real Legends of New England'', G. Waldo Browne (1930) * ''The Book of Dragons'', selected and edited by O. Muiriel Fuller (1931) * ''Suwannee River: Strange Green Land'', Cecile Hulse Matschat (1938)

As writer

* ''The Red Eagle: A Tale for Young Aviators'' (1930) *''Liberty or Death'' (1936) *''With Daniel Boone on the Caroliny Trail'' (1941) *''The Wrath and the Wind'' (1949) *''Island Light'' (1950) *''Sprockets: A Little Robot'' (1963) *''Rivets and Sprockets'' (1964) *''The Forgotten Door'' (1965) *''Bolts: a Robot Dog'' (1966) *''Mystery of the Sassafras Chair'' (1968) *''

'' (1968) *''The Golden Enemy'' (1969) *''

'' (1970) *''Flight to the Lonesome Place'' (1971) *''The Strange White Doves'' (1972) *''The Preposterous Adventures of Swimmer'' (1973) *''The Magic Meadow'' (1975) *''Jagger, the Dog from Elsewhere'' (1976) *''The Sword of Aradel'' (1977) * ''

Return from Witch Mountain ''Return from Witch Mountain'' is a 1978 American science fiction–adventure film and a sequel to '' Escape to Witch Mountain'' (1975) and the second film in the ''Witch Mountain'' franchise. It was produced by Walt Disney Productions. It was w ...

'' (1978) – by Key based on the Disney motion picture; screenplay by

Malcolm Marmorstein Malcolm Marmorstein (August 9, 1928 – November 21, 2020) was an American screenwriter and director. Filmography Screenwriter *'' The Doctors'' (1963 – head writer) *''Dark Shadows'' (1966–67 – 82 episodes) *'' Peyton Place'' (1968 – 15 ...

, based on characters created by Key *''The Case of the Vanishing Boy'' (1979)

References

External links

* Read some of Mr. Key's out-of-print books online.
"Gone But Not Forgotten: Alexander Key"
��''The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books'', University of Illinois, November 2002
''The Forgotten Door''
a three-episode television series based on Key's novel of the same name, distributed by

ITV ITV or iTV may refer to: ITV *Independent Television (ITV), a British television network, consisting of: ** ITV (TV network), a free-to-air national commercial television network covering the United Kingdom, the Isle of Man, and the Channel Islan ...

and broadcast in 1966
Alexander Key: A Forgotten Author?
* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Key, Alexander 1904 births 1979 deaths 20th-century American novelists American children's writers American male novelists American science fiction writers United States Navy personnel of World War II People from La Plata, Maryland Writers from Jacksonville, Florida Novelists from Maryland 20th-century American male writers Novelists from Florida