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January 10, 2023

Almanac of Story Tellers: Jerome Bixby

Every day brings a new story.  And each day contributes to the art of story telling -- in prose and poetry, in music, on the stage, on the screen, and, of course, in books

Today is a story of January 11th.

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    It is the 11th day of the year, leaving 354 days remaining in 2022
   
    On this date in 1923, the writer Jerome Bixby was born in Los Angeles.


    He told his stories --fantastical, imaginative, terrible, and filled with horror -- in short stories and screenplays. Most of his works were science fiction or horror, sometimes a combination of the two, or in the genre known today as speculative fiction.

    His earliest collection, in 1964, was titled Devils Scrapbook. It came out when he was most popular, having worked as a writer for the original Star Trek television series.

    But perhaps his best known story and screenplay, It's a Good Life, was shown on the original Twilight Zone, and as one of the episodes in Twilight Zone: The Movie, which came out in 1983. It is considered one of the best science fiction stories of all time. 

    It tells the story of a young boy who could read minds, and had whisked away his hometown, all alone, somewhere out into space. People could only think good thoughts about him, regardless of what was happening, or Anthony would banish them out to the cornfield on the edge of town and space. (A follow-up, It's Still a Good Life, was shown on the new Twilight Zone series in 2003. It again stars Bill Mumy as Anthony and Cloris Leachman as his mother. Mumy's daughter, Liliana, plays his young daughter in this sequel.)

    In the 1950s, Bixby wrote for or edited a number of science fiction anthology magazines, including Planet Stories, Planet Comics, Galaxy Science Fiction, and Thrilling Wonder Stories.

    Bixby died in 1998.

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