writer who wakes up after an alcoholic blackout and discovers that someone is out to destroy his life. According to Bester, the TV show elements were based on his experiences working on The Paul Winchell Show. A contemporary novel with no science fiction elements, it did not receive wide attention. It did, however, earn Bester a fair amount of money from the sale of the paperback reprint rights (the book appeared in paperback as The Rat Race). He also received a substantial sum of money from a movie studio for the film option to the book. Reportedly, Jackie Gleason was interested in starring as the variety show writer and licensed movie rights to the story; however no movie was ever made of Who He? Still, the payout from the film option was large enough that Alfred and Rolly Bester decided they could afford to travel to Europe for the next few years. They lived mainly in Italy and England during this period. The Stars My Destination (1956) Bester's next novel was outlined while he was living in Britain and then written mostly when he was living in Rome. The Stars My Destination (also known as Tiger! Tiger!) had its origins in a newspaper clipping that Bester found about Poon Lim, a shipwrecked World War II sailor on a raft, who had drifted unrescued in the Pacific for a world record 133 days because passing ships thought he was a lure to bring them within torpedo range of a hidden submarine. From that germ grew the story of Gully Foyle, seeking revenge for his abandonment and causing havoc all about him: a science fiction re-telling of Alexandre Dumas' The Count of Monte Cristo with teleportation added to the mix. It has been described as an ancestor of cyberpunk. First published in book form in the UK in June 1956 as Tiger! Tiger!, The Stars My Destination was subsequently serialized in Galaxy, where The Demolished Man had also appeared. It ran in four parts (October 1956 through January 1957) and the book was published in the USA later in 1957. Though repeatedly voted in polls the "Best Science Fiction Novel of All Time", The Stars My Destination would prove to be Bester's last novel for 19 years. A radio adaptation was broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 1991 and again in 1993. Film adaptations of The Stars My Destination have been frequently