It was during these years that Bester met Rolly Goulko, a future radio actress, whom he married on September 16, 1936.īester's literary career began when he won an amateur story competition hosted by Thrilling Wonder Stories magazine in April of 1939 with his submission, a short story entitled 'The Broken Axiom.' While it is rumored that the editors of Thrilling Wonder Stories, already familiar with Bester's talent, designed the competition as a means of propelling his career, his aptitude at writing short fiction and science fiction was clearly evident Bester spent the next several years supporting himself by producing short stories to be published in Thrilling Wonder Stories magazine and Astonishing Stories magazine, such as 'Voyage to Nowhere' (1940), 'The Mad Molecule' (1941), and 'Adam and No Eve' (1941). After receiving his BA in 1935, Bester decided to continue his education by enrolling as a post-graduate student at Columbia University to study law and later at New York University to study protozoology, but he terminated his studies and dropped out of both universities before completing a degree. When he came of age, Bester attended the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, where he studied a wide variety of subjects and, in 1934, joined the prestigious Philomathean Society, one of the oldest literary societies in the United States. His home life was characterized from an early age by a liberal attitude towards religion and society in Bester's own words: 'I was born a Jew but the family had a laisser faire attitude toward religion and let me pick my own faith for myself. His father, a shoe salesman, provided modestly for the family which, as Bester himself described it, was hardworking and middle class. Alfred Bester was born on December 18, 1913, in New York City to James J.

Γκόλεμ 100, Τόμος Α' by Alfred Bester