Pat Frank (1908–1964)
Author of Alas, Babylon
About the Author
Disambiguation Notice:
Born Harry Hart.
Image credit: Courtesy of the NYPL Digital Gallery (image use requires permission from the New York Public Library)
Works by Pat Frank
The long way round 2 copies
alas, baylon 1 copy
Associated Works
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Legal name
- Frank, Harry Hart
- Birthdate
- 1907-05-05
- Date of death
- 1964-10-12
- Gender
- male
- Occupations
- journalist
government consultant - Organizations
- Jacksonville Journal
New York World
New York Evening Journal
Washington Times-Herald
United States Office of War Information - Short biography
- "Pat Frank" was the lifelong nickname adopted by the American writer, newspaperman, and government consultant, who was born Harry Hart Frank (1908-1964), and who is remembered today almost exclusively for his post-apocalyptic novel Alas, Babylon. Before the publication of his first novel Mr. Adam launched his second career as novelist and independent writer, Frank spent many years as a journalist and information handler for several newspapers, agencies, and government bureaus. His fiction and nonfiction books, stories, and articles made good use of his years of experience observing government and military bureaucracy and its malfunctions, and the threat of nuclear proliferation and annihilation. After the success of Alas, Babylon, Frank concentrated on writing for magazines and journals, putting his beliefs and concerns to political use, and advising various government bodies. In 1960 he served as a member of the Democratic National Committee. In 1961, the year in which he received an American Heritage Foundation Award, he was consultant to the National Aeronautics and Space Council. From 1963 through 1964 the Department of Defense made use of Frank's expertise and advice, and this consultancy turned out to be his last response to his country's call. His other books include Mr. Adam and Forbidden Area.
- Cause of death
- alcoholism
- Nationality
- USA
- Birthplace
- Chicago, Illinois, USA
- Places of residence
- Tangerine, Florida, USA
- Place of death
- Jacksonville, Florida, USA
- Disambiguation notice
- Born Harry Hart.
- Associated Place (for map)
- Florida, USA
Members
Discussions
Group Read - Alas Babylon in The 11 in 11 Category Challenge (June 2011)
Reviews
This was more fascinating as a time capsule than as a book. What did people who actually lived through the height of the Cold War imagine a nuclear exchange and aftermath would look like? Most depictions we're familiar with come from the latter part of the war, the 70s and 80s, bleak portrayals inspired by nuclear accidents and better models for what mass nuclear fallout looks like, bigger stockpiles of higher yield weapons at that.
Alas, Babylon doesn't describe that bleak radioactive show more hellscape; instead, while a lot of people close to military sites die, life keeps rolling along afterwards. Society's reliance on technology is on the order of radios and telephones, not integral to every part of existence. Electric washing machines are still a luxury item, primitive hand cranked tools are still all around. There are looters and thieves, but no roaming bands of raiders or people reduced to cannibalism because nature is dying or toxic.
Perhaps the most dated part of the book is the characters who appear like thin stereotypes to a modern reader. The cultural biases of the 50s abound in the depiction of women and some race relations. For a nuclear apocalypse where good hearted people can shrug their shoulders and put their back into rebuilding, this is it. show less
Alas, Babylon doesn't describe that bleak radioactive show more hellscape; instead, while a lot of people close to military sites die, life keeps rolling along afterwards. Society's reliance on technology is on the order of radios and telephones, not integral to every part of existence. Electric washing machines are still a luxury item, primitive hand cranked tools are still all around. There are looters and thieves, but no roaming bands of raiders or people reduced to cannibalism because nature is dying or toxic.
Perhaps the most dated part of the book is the characters who appear like thin stereotypes to a modern reader. The cultural biases of the 50s abound in the depiction of women and some race relations. For a nuclear apocalypse where good hearted people can shrug their shoulders and put their back into rebuilding, this is it. show less
Perhaps the most well-balanced of the 1950s post-apocalyptic fiction boom, Pat Frank's Alas, Babylon is certainly a fine counterpart to the meticulous apocalyptic saga Earth Abides by George R. Stewart and the more mundane and literary On the Beach by Nevil Shute (I've not yet read A Canticle for Leibowitz, the other oft-mentioned title in this company). Whereas those other books have their odd elements that the reader has to push through in order to appreciate them, Alas, Babylon is the show more closest to being a crowd-pleaser. That is, if 'crowd-pleaser' is something you can say about the depiction of a nuclear holocaust and its aftermath, something that was terrifyingly plausible to Frank's first generation of readers.
On such a, well, apocalyptic scale, Frank's book works because it invests in its characters. Though sometimes a bit obvious in its drivers and its flashpoints (leadership pressures, food, security, companionship), these character conflicts work. We invest in Randy Bragg's rise to become leader of his isolated community; we share Mark's fatalism as the impending nuclear war enters its first stages; we even care about Dan's medical tools and Alice's travails at the library. Each of the characters, even the minor ones and the minors (i.e. the children), get their moments to shine, and we get PoV chapters from them to help with this. The big moments are well-staged and well-written, and the small details (such as the message from Jacksonville stopping instantaneously (pg. 112)) can be disturbing. Horror and hope and everything in between are delivered ably by the author.
If Alas, Babylon sometimes feels routine in its reading, it's because the post-apocalyptic genre has been done to death since Frank's book was published in 1959. This can hardly be said to be a mark against the book, for Alas, Babylon is one of the originators of all those tropes: the sober gut-punch of the nuclear flash as the world ends; the survivalist tropes of getting clean water and sustainable food; the problems of defending against bandits; the sense of purpose as unlikely candidates rise to the challenge of rebuilding their community.
The author's background as a journalist and political commentator sometimes comes through. Frank intended the book to be a public service, a warning against atomic brinkmanship and M.A.D., as well as a basic guidebook on how to prepare for the aftermath, how to find a good water source and be aware of radiation and so on. To this end, certain passages can feel didactic, with Frank directing the story towards scenes where his characters can become his mouthpiece, delivering a pointed opinion or educatory example. That said, this never grates, for Frank has invested in his characters and his writing ability is enough to smooth the edges of these inserts and asides.
When you take a step back, the book can look quite unremarkable, but when you are turning its pages you appreciate every moment of it. It is an easy, character-driven story that also gets across the strange horror of atomic destruction and the regenerative hope that can be found in the people who survive it. Whereas most post-apocalyptic stories focus on the misery, the destruction and the degeneration of law and order, Alas, Babylon argues that "the world changes… [but] people don't" (pg. 197). For all that the book can seem routine in retrospect, it is this optimistic tack which places it on a different footing to all the post-apocalyptic imitators that came after it. show less
On such a, well, apocalyptic scale, Frank's book works because it invests in its characters. Though sometimes a bit obvious in its drivers and its flashpoints (leadership pressures, food, security, companionship), these character conflicts work. We invest in Randy Bragg's rise to become leader of his isolated community; we share Mark's fatalism as the impending nuclear war enters its first stages; we even care about Dan's medical tools and Alice's travails at the library. Each of the characters, even the minor ones and the minors (i.e. the children), get their moments to shine, and we get PoV chapters from them to help with this. The big moments are well-staged and well-written, and the small details (such as the message from Jacksonville stopping instantaneously (pg. 112)) can be disturbing. Horror and hope and everything in between are delivered ably by the author.
If Alas, Babylon sometimes feels routine in its reading, it's because the post-apocalyptic genre has been done to death since Frank's book was published in 1959. This can hardly be said to be a mark against the book, for Alas, Babylon is one of the originators of all those tropes: the sober gut-punch of the nuclear flash as the world ends; the survivalist tropes of getting clean water and sustainable food; the problems of defending against bandits; the sense of purpose as unlikely candidates rise to the challenge of rebuilding their community.
The author's background as a journalist and political commentator sometimes comes through. Frank intended the book to be a public service, a warning against atomic brinkmanship and M.A.D., as well as a basic guidebook on how to prepare for the aftermath, how to find a good water source and be aware of radiation and so on. To this end, certain passages can feel didactic, with Frank directing the story towards scenes where his characters can become his mouthpiece, delivering a pointed opinion or educatory example. That said, this never grates, for Frank has invested in his characters and his writing ability is enough to smooth the edges of these inserts and asides.
When you take a step back, the book can look quite unremarkable, but when you are turning its pages you appreciate every moment of it. It is an easy, character-driven story that also gets across the strange horror of atomic destruction and the regenerative hope that can be found in the people who survive it. Whereas most post-apocalyptic stories focus on the misery, the destruction and the degeneration of law and order, Alas, Babylon argues that "the world changes… [but] people don't" (pg. 197). For all that the book can seem routine in retrospect, it is this optimistic tack which places it on a different footing to all the post-apocalyptic imitators that came after it. show less
A famously memorable read, probably the only post-apocalyptic nuclear-war novel that could classify as a pleasant beach-read. That's partly because this is the only nuclear-war novel that I can think of where arguably the protagonists are better off after the war than before it. The community at the heart of the story draws together more closely, even to some extent eliding racial divisions, and the lead character matures and becomes a respected political leader. Most of the people within show more the community who suffer direct consequences from the war are greedy or foolish. It's not that the book is optimistically in favor of nuclear war, but many of the assumptions it makes about what such a war would be like were overriden by the later growth of nuclear arsenals and an improved understanding of the likely consequences of such a conflict. show less
Alas, Babylon was one of the more perplexing literary experiences I’ve had this year. Written by Pat Frank, it’s the story of Randy Bragg and a small Florida town, Fort Repose, after America and the Soviet Union declare war in the late 1950s.
Randy’s doing nothing much in the family house in Fort Repose, Florida except drinking and charming local women–with the exception of his neighbor Florence, who suspects him of being a Peeping Tom–when his brother sends a cable with their code show more phrase, Alas, Babylon.
“As the minutes and hours eroded away, and no word came from Moscow, he became more and more certain that a massive strike had been ordered. He diagnosed this negative intelligence as more ominous than almost anything that could’ve happened.”
Randy begins grocery shopping while Mark packs up his family in Omaha to send them to Randy’s house and together with the neighbors, they navigate survival after a missile strike.
“The sight of war’s roseate birthmark on the sky choked back their words.”
A Review in Three Parts
The Time Traveler’s Version: five stars
Most likely, the ideal way to experience this book published in 1959 was to be born in 1935-1945. Much of the story has a strong philosophical tone best contextualized by the time period. I found it fascinating that Frank is partly aware of the influence of cultural epoch: “The incident was important only because it was self-revelatory. Randy knew he would have to play by the old rules. He could not shuck his code, or sneak out of his era.” However, there’s so much contained that is commentary on the conflicts of the era: the tiniest beginnings of Civil Rights and Equal Rights reflected in Randy’s relationships with women and the black family living next door remain strongly influenced by his chivalry and paternalism. Then there’s the general confidence people have that there is an ‘after,’ as in ‘after the government comes and restores everything," and the hope that nuclear strikes are survivable. In the decades since, our confidence in systems has diminished while belief in the survival of the strong has grown.
Nonetheless, it was an influential book during its time, and one of the few early apocalyptic that have the feel of reality as people then understood it. Frank was a career journalist who worked in New York and Washington and as a war correspondent during WWII and during the Korean War, and I felt like Mark’s experiences at the command post sounded real.
The Audio Version: five stars
The second best way–to those lacking access to Kemper’s time-mower–is to listen to the Audible version read by Will Patton. It won a well-deserved Audie in 2012 and was even more enjoyable than my reading. Patton is a fabulous voice actor and brought each word to life. Although it is mostly from Randy’s point of view, there are other view points, along with specific and general dialogue. Patton nailed almost every one, with the only exception being a “Boston Radcliffe” accent. The southern inflections sounded genuine and even a ten year-old girl was done well, but my favorite were his variations on the radio. From the verbal swagger of a radio jockey to the clipped tones of a Civil Defense broadcast, I too felt like I was listening to a broadcast. When Patton voiced Randy’s thought, “squashed his face like a potato,” I laughed out loud at a line I hadn’t noticed when reading. Clearly, a superior reader who won me as a fan.
The Modern Version: three and 1/2 stars
I tend to skim a lot, particularly toward the end of a book. It’s been a lifelong habit and likely one of the reasons I enjoy re-reading books. My first read through was done at my normal pace and I finished the book feeling satisfied. I started over with the audio, listening to Will Patton reading. I loved his voice acting–but started to hear the words more clearly. Frank is clearly ambivalent about equality of many kinds, and it is demonstrated in Randy’s philosophical musings, in privileged interaction with others, and with authorial choices in plotting. Let’s just say that in 2016, you wouldn’t give the black kid a spear and the white kid a gun, or have so many discussions about “going back to our Neolithic days.” While women get a whiff of equality in Randy's girlfriend, Liz, half-proposing and a woman being left in control of the United States, there's a lot ofne of Randy’s former lovers, Rita, who is basically characterized as an “exotic” “man-collector.” Then there's the bizarre episode where Mark's wife Helen has a 'mental break' and is psychoanalyzed by Liz and the Doctor.
I do believe none of the characterization is ill-intentioned, but as a modern reader, its the same-ol’ ‘-isms, and just because they seem benevolent doesn’t mean they aren’t tiresome. Further, we are now an audience that is fairly well educated on disasters, so some of the mistakes we witness Randy and the community make seem laughable.
My suggestion is to read it, but it’ll work best if you borrow a time-mower (keys hanging on a hook in the shed) or listen to Will Patton.
Many, many thanks to the people who suggested it when I was looking for an apocalypse, and a thousand thanks to Naomi who shared her audio copy. show less
Randy’s doing nothing much in the family house in Fort Repose, Florida except drinking and charming local women–with the exception of his neighbor Florence, who suspects him of being a Peeping Tom–when his brother sends a cable with their code show more phrase, Alas, Babylon.
“As the minutes and hours eroded away, and no word came from Moscow, he became more and more certain that a massive strike had been ordered. He diagnosed this negative intelligence as more ominous than almost anything that could’ve happened.”
Randy begins grocery shopping while Mark packs up his family in Omaha to send them to Randy’s house and together with the neighbors, they navigate survival after a missile strike.
“The sight of war’s roseate birthmark on the sky choked back their words.”
A Review in Three Parts
The Time Traveler’s Version: five stars
Most likely, the ideal way to experience this book published in 1959 was to be born in 1935-1945. Much of the story has a strong philosophical tone best contextualized by the time period. I found it fascinating that Frank is partly aware of the influence of cultural epoch: “The incident was important only because it was self-revelatory. Randy knew he would have to play by the old rules. He could not shuck his code, or sneak out of his era.” However, there’s so much contained that is commentary on the conflicts of the era: the tiniest beginnings of Civil Rights and Equal Rights reflected in Randy’s relationships with women and the black family living next door remain strongly influenced by his chivalry and paternalism. Then there’s the general confidence people have that there is an ‘after,’ as in ‘after the government comes and restores everything," and the hope that nuclear strikes are survivable. In the decades since, our confidence in systems has diminished while belief in the survival of the strong has grown.
Nonetheless, it was an influential book during its time, and one of the few early apocalyptic that have the feel of reality as people then understood it. Frank was a career journalist who worked in New York and Washington and as a war correspondent during WWII and during the Korean War, and I felt like Mark’s experiences at the command post sounded real.
The Audio Version: five stars
The second best way–to those lacking access to Kemper’s time-mower–is to listen to the Audible version read by Will Patton. It won a well-deserved Audie in 2012 and was even more enjoyable than my reading. Patton is a fabulous voice actor and brought each word to life. Although it is mostly from Randy’s point of view, there are other view points, along with specific and general dialogue. Patton nailed almost every one, with the only exception being a “Boston Radcliffe” accent. The southern inflections sounded genuine and even a ten year-old girl was done well, but my favorite were his variations on the radio. From the verbal swagger of a radio jockey to the clipped tones of a Civil Defense broadcast, I too felt like I was listening to a broadcast. When Patton voiced Randy’s thought, “squashed his face like a potato,” I laughed out loud at a line I hadn’t noticed when reading. Clearly, a superior reader who won me as a fan.
The Modern Version: three and 1/2 stars
I tend to skim a lot, particularly toward the end of a book. It’s been a lifelong habit and likely one of the reasons I enjoy re-reading books. My first read through was done at my normal pace and I finished the book feeling satisfied. I started over with the audio, listening to Will Patton reading. I loved his voice acting–but started to hear the words more clearly. Frank is clearly ambivalent about equality of many kinds, and it is demonstrated in Randy’s philosophical musings, in privileged interaction with others, and with authorial choices in plotting. Let’s just say that in 2016, you wouldn’t give the black kid a spear and the white kid a gun, or have so many discussions about “going back to our Neolithic days.” While women get a whiff of equality in Randy's girlfriend, Liz, half-proposing and a woman being left in control of the United States, there's a lot ofne of Randy’s former lovers, Rita, who is basically characterized as an “exotic” “man-collector.” Then there's the bizarre episode where Mark's wife Helen has a 'mental break' and is psychoanalyzed by Liz and the Doctor.
I do believe none of the characterization is ill-intentioned, but as a modern reader, its the same-ol’ ‘-isms, and just because they seem benevolent doesn’t mean they aren’t tiresome. Further, we are now an audience that is fairly well educated on disasters, so some of the mistakes we witness Randy and the community make seem laughable.
My suggestion is to read it, but it’ll work best if you borrow a time-mower (keys hanging on a hook in the shed) or listen to Will Patton.
Many, many thanks to the people who suggested it when I was looking for an apocalypse, and a thousand thanks to Naomi who shared her audio copy. show less
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