The Child Buyer: A Novel in the Form of Hearings Before the Standing Committee on Education, Welfare, & Public Morality of a certain State Senate, Investigating the conspiracy of Mr. Wissey Jones, with others, to Purchase a Male Child

TitleThe Child Buyer: A Novel in the Form of Hearings Before the Standing Committee on Education, Welfare, & Public Morality of a certain State Senate, Investigating the conspiracy of Mr. Wissey Jones, with others, to Purchase a Male Child
Year for Search1960
AuthorsHersey, John [Richard](1914-93)
Date Published1960
PublisherAlfred A. Knopf
Place PublishedNew York
KeywordsMale author, US author
Annotation

Dystopia concerned with a corporate attempt to establish a pool of pliant brain power by purchasing children when very young and conditioning them to solve complex problems. The conditioning includes complete isolation, emptying the mind of all knowledge and emotion, feeding it the data need to solve the problems, and eliminating all the senses except a limited sense of touch.

Additional Publishers

Rpt. New York: Bantam Books, 1961. U.K. ed. London: Hamish Hamilton, 1961. A play was written by Paul Shyre, The Child Buyer: A Drama in Three Acts Adapted from the Novel by John Hersey. London: Samuel French, 1962. It was first performed May 3, 1962, by The Theatre Group at UCLA and had a brief run in New York in 1969-70. 

Holding Institutions

PSt

Author Note

(1914-93)

Full Text

1960 Hersey, John [Richard] (1914-93). The Child Buyer: A Novel in the Form of Hearings Before the Standing Committee on Education, Welfare, & Public Morality of a certain State Senate, Investigating the conspiracy of Mr. Wissey Jones, with others, to Purchase a Male Child. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. Rpt. New York: Bantam Books, 1961. U.K. ed. London: Hamish Hamilton, 1961. A play was written by Paul Shyre, The Child Buyer: A Drama in Three Acts Adapted from the Novel by John Hersey. London: Samuel French, 1962. It was first performed May 3, 1962, by The Theatre Group at UCLA and had a brief run in New York in 1969-70. PSt

Dystopia concerned with a corporate attempt to establish a pool of pliant brain power by purchasing children when very young and conditioning them to solve complex problems. The conditioning includes complete isolation, emptying the mind of all knowledge and emotion, feeding it the data need to solve the problems, and eliminating all the senses except a limited sense of touch. The author is best-known for his book Hiroshima (1946).