'Alas, Babylon,' written by Pat Frank, resident of Jacksonville Florida 50 years ago (scared the living s--- out of me as a 14 year old boy when I read it)

 

If you really believe that Putin might use nuclear weapons then this book maybe more than any other might begin to prepare you for what happens when nukes fly. I read this at about age 14 because it was recommended by my English Teacher then in Junior High and it literally scared the S--- out of me then. But, I suppose if you are a survivalist this might be a book you want to read now because of what Biden has already said about nukes regarding Putin.

Because Putin at the very least might blackmail the world through the use of nukes. If Putin is dying like many medical professionals believe worldwide he has absolutely nothing to lose by blackmailing the world with his nukes which is pretty scary in itself.

 

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https://www.jacksonville.com/story/lifestyle/2009/06/15/pat-frank-s-alas-babylon-50-years-later/15982686007/

Pat Frank's 'Alas, Babylon,' 50 years later

He wrote 'Alas, Babylon' 50 years ago, during a life that took him from Jacksonville to 'all the continents and all the oceans.'

Matt Soergel

He loved to tell a tale — party yarns of his globe-trotting exploits, a made-up children’s story that went on every night for years, a best-selling novel about a world in radioactive flames.

He loved to booze — epic drinking bouts that went on for weeks, until his money ran out and he had another story to write.

And he loved women, who loved him right back, he was so damned charming. One quick story: His brother remembers going to his Atlantic Beach house one day and finding several naked or just-about naked women, hanging about the place. No big deal, apparently.

In his 57 years, Pat Frank went from Jacksonville Journal cub reporter to international war correspondent, from novelist to government official. He saw Mussolini dead, hanging from his feet in Milan. He traveled with John F. Kennedy on his 1960 presidential campaign. He wrote a Hollywood script for Rock Hudson.

It’s his novel “Alas, Babylon,” though, that is Frank’s lasting legacy — a harrowing, human story published 50 years ago, in 1959. The novel, set in a small Florida town after a nuclear attack on the United States, was an instant hit. It’s been reprinted many times; it’s found on high school reading lists; and it’s invariably put high on lists of the best post-apocalyptic fiction.

And it lives on, a half-century later, on YouTube, where high school students have posted numerous video adaptations of “Alas, Babylon” (wrote one admirer: “I just finished that book. It kicked butt.”)

Five years after “Alas, Babylon” was published, Pat Frank would be dead, his body shutting down after decades of drinking. The years of adventuring and boozing and writing finally caught up with him, here in Jacksonville, his hometown.