User:DoctorWho42/Death to the Keeper

"Death to the Keeper" is a short story by American author Barry N. Malzberg under the pseudonym K. M. O'Donnell. It was first published in the August 1968 issue of The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction.

Background
Originally, it lost Pyramid Novel Contest to Piers Anthony. It was rewritten as a novelette and sold to The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction editor Edward L. Ferman in December.

Publication history
"Death to the Keeper" was first published in the August 1968 issue of The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction. In 1969, it appeared in the book Final War and Other Fantasies. In 1975, the book The Many Worlds of Barry Malzberg includes it. In 1979, it was republished in the book Malzberg at Large.

Plot
Television show INVESTIGATIONS host William Piper relates how he's not responsible for what happened after an October 31 episode. In the episode, actor George Stone played the president and kills himself live on television. Piper publishes the journal of George Stone to show his state of mind before the filming. Most of the journal is written as a stageplay he acts in. On July 11, 1959, Stone played King Lear in Denver. During the production, Stone may have caused the death of another actor but he is not sure. In Queens, Stone is set to begin his play Misery Loves Company when he receives news from the radio the Keeper is dead. The stage manager tells him he has to announce the cancellation of the performance. He tells the audience the news. However, they stare at him as if he killed the Keeper. He takes it personally. The event continues to plague him. He decides to appear on the television show INVESTIGATIONS with self-sacrifice in mind. He and his wife Wander Miller celebrate his 38th birthday. They talk about his plan to appear on television to "purge national guilt." Before his appearance, Stone recounts various tidbits in his life. At age 10, he learned from his mother Miriam about his Jewish background. In 1953, he got married to a designer named Simone Tarquin. They don't understand each other. At the end, Piper justifies the publication of the journal.

Reception
Upon its publication in 1968, The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction editor Edward L. Ferman commended O'Donnell with "That he writes these stories so well, with a narrative that could be called gripping, but goes further and does a good deal of worrying and shaking, is a reason for our thinking that he is one of the most interesting new voices in sf." In its 1969 reprint for Ace Books's Barry N. Malzberg collection Final War and Other Fantasies, the author appraised his assassination stories with "Death To The Keeper is chronologically the first and the best of them."