Journey #65 - Knock by Frediric Brown (presented by X-Minus One)

The last man on Earth sat alone in a room. There was a knock on the door...

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Fredric Brown (October 29, 1906 – March 11, 1972) was an American science fiction and mystery writer. He was born in Cincinnati.  He is perhaps best known for his use of humor and for his mastery of the "short short" form—stories of 1 to 3 pages, often with ingenious plotting devices and surprise endings. Humor and a somewhat postmodern outlook carried over into his novels as well.

The famous pulp writer Mickey Spillane called Brown "my favorite writer of all time".  Science fiction and fantasy writer Neil Gaiman has also expressed fondness for Brown's work, having his novel Here Comes A Candle narrated by the character Rose Walker in the collection The Kindly Ones of The Sandman.  Brown also had the honor of being one of three dedicatees of Robert A. Heinlein's Stranger in a Strange Land.

X Minus One was a half-hour science fiction radio drama series broadcast from April 24, 1955 to January 9, 1958 in various timeslots on NBC.  Initially a revival of NBC's Dimension X (1950–51), the first 15 episodes of X Minus One were new versions of Dimension X episodes, but the remainder were adaptations by NBC staff writers, including Ernest Kinoy and George Lefferts, of newly published science fiction stories by leading writers in the field, including Isaac Asimov, Ray Bradbury, Philip K. Dick, Robert A. Heinlein, Frederik Pohl and Theodore Sturgeon, along with some original scripts by Kinoy and Lefferts.

Realated Links:

The War Of the Worlds by H.G. Wells, and its many adaptations
Signs
The Day if the Triffids
Independence Day
Mars Attacks!
The Twilight Zone - Hocus-Pocus and Frisby
Marvel's The Avengers
Star Wars: Episode 1 - The Phontom Menace
 

Theme music: Liberator by Man In Space

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