"Flowers for Algernon"

Yesterday, Brian Lindenmuth sent me a link to SFSignal's mind meld post. This post was about short stories, more specifically, most admired short stories by some writers, reviewers, and publishers. What amazed me about the list was how many of those stories I'd read and didn't consider sci-fi stories. You can find the list here http://www.sfsignal.com/archives/2009/07/mind-meld-memorable-short-stories-to-add-to-your-reading-list-part-1-of-2/ There's two pages, so be sure to click on the second page. There's also links to some of the stories that are available online.

One of the stories on the list that stuck out for me was "Flowers for Algernon" by Daniel Keyes. I remember reading this story in, if memory serves me, my high school senior English class, oh, so many years ago. Our teacher mimeographed the story from a magazine and passed out copies to us. Bless her for stepping outside the school books because she gave us the gift of a most magnificent story. A story that was written for us and the world we were living in, and a future we were looking forward to stepping into.

I was curious about the history of the story, so this morning I clicked on over to Wikipedia to read up on it and found that Mr. Keyes almost lost the very heart of "Flowers for Algernon". He'd submitted to an anthology, and the editor wanted him to give the story a "happy" ending. He stuck to his guns and refused, sending the story elsewhere. To change that ending would have made the story just one of many instead of the classic it is. And it is the sorrow of that ending that leaves the imprint of "Algernon" in my brain.

So, what about you? What short story has stuck with you over the years and why?