Flying Saucers and the Three Men

It's hard to tell if Albert Bender was just trying to cook up a good tall tale or if he actually believed that he had lived through the preposterous events he describes in Flying Saucers and the Three Men. There are hints of mental and emotional instability in Bender's writing, and at times I had the sneaking suspicion that his misadventures with the Men in Black were very real to him. They were supposed to seem real to the reader, in any case, though I can't imagine anyone taking this book at face value even in 1962. Bender churns out some decent purple prose ("Would that unearthly-looking figure with the diabolical eyes be waiting there to greet me when I opened the door?"), but moves right into tinfoil hat territory when describing show more his journey to the cavernous underground base of his alien escorts, allegedly located beneath the surface of Antarctica.

The concept he introduced to popular culture survives and thrives, but Bender himself is little more than a footnote today. Such is the whim of fate. show less