Brain Snacks: Tasty Tidbits of Knowledge
Pat Frank is not our author's real name. Pat Frank is in fact Harry Hart Frank, a war journalist and government consultant. Didn't put much effort into obscuring his identity, huh? (Source)
Fort Repose may not be an actual town in Florida, but many believe it to be based on the tiny city of Mount Dora. What a great draw for tourists. (Source)
Alas, Babylon was quite influential when it was published, but nowhere did it hit harder than with John Lennon, legendary member of the Beatles. Lennon's anti-war fervor was supposedly kicked into high gear after he finished reading Pat Frank's post-apocalyptic novel. (Source)
In the early 2000s, a mysterious commenter named John Titor appeared on the Internet claiming to be a time traveler from the future. It was predictably but disappointingly a total hoax, but many people identify Titor's story as being heavily influenced by Alas, Babylon. (Source)
Pat Frank had a post-apocalyptic obsession, if his novels are any indication. His first novel, Mr. Adam, is about a nuclear explosion that renders the entire male population infertile. 1956's Forbidden Zone, on the other hand, is about Soviet sleeper agents trying to destroy the U.S. (Source)