Alexander Key
Alexander Key was an American author and artist, born in 1904 in La Plata, Maryland. He is best known for his children's science fiction novels, particularly "Escape to Witch Mountain," which became a popular film in 1975 and was remade in 1995. Key trained as an artist at the Chicago Art Institute during the 1920s and began his career as a commercial artist and art teacher, illustrating books while still a student. His literary work often features gifted children with supernatural abilities, exploring themes of isolation and conflict between youth and adult society. Key's notable works include "The Forgotten Door," which garnered the Lewis Carroll Shelf Award in 1972, and "The Incredible Tide," which inspired the anime series "Future Boy Conan." Although his stories received significant media attention, only a few of his works remain in print today. Key's legacy lies in his ability to engage young readers with suspenseful narratives and complex themes.
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Subject Terms
Alexander Key
Writer
- Born: September 21, 1904
- Birthplace: La Plata, Maryland
- Died: July 25, 1979
- Place of death: Eufaula, Alabama
Biography
Best known as the author of Escape to Witch Mountain, Alexander Key trained as an artist at the Chicago Art Institute during the early 1920’s and worked throughout his life as both an artist and a writer, specializing in children’s science fiction but also producing adult fiction and magazine articles.
Born in 1904 in La Plata, Maryland, Key’s parents died when he was a child and he shuttled from relative to relative until he was seventeen, when he traveled to Chicago for school. He began illustrating books while still a student but did not graduate. He worked as a commercial artist and later as an art teacher in Chicago before he wrote his first children’s book, The Red Eagle.
He wrote numerous articles for periodicals as diverse as the Saturday Evening Post, Cosmopolitan, and the Elks’s magazine, but he is best known for his suspenseful and action-filled juvenile fiction, which usually features gifted children with supernatural abilities such as telepathy or teleportation. Key used the alien difference of these children to explore themes of isolation from and contention within adult society.
His novel The Forgotten Door received the Lewis Carroll Shelf Award in 1972, and Escape to Witch Mountain was made into a film in 1975 (it was remade in 1995). The anime television series Future Boy Conan is based on Key’s 1970 novel The Incredible Tide. Despite the media interest in his work, only The Forgotten Door and the Witch Mountain stories remain in print.