Donovan's Brain

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Donovan's Brain is a 1942 science fiction novel by Curt Siodmak.

The story revolves around an attempt to keep alive the brain of millionaire megalomaniac W.H. Donovan after an otherwise fatal plane crash. Donovan, who has been pioneering the method of keeping the brain alive in electrically charged saline solution, becomes the first recipient of his treatment. Gradually, the increasingly evil brain develops telepathic abilities and becomes able to control the mind of Dr. Patrick Cory, the character who is keeping the brain alive.

The brain uses Cory to do his bidding, mainly to ensure that his hefty fortune is inherited by his chosen benefactor. Cory becomes increasingly like Donovan himself, his physique and manner morphing into the image of the departed scientist. Donovan's crazed bidding culminates in an attempt by Cory to kill a young girl who stands in the way of his plan. After this, Cory turns on the brain and resists its hypnotic power by repeating the rhyme "He thrusts his fists against the posts and still insists he sees the ghosts" over and over. He destroys the housing tank with an ax and leaves the brain of Donovan to die, thus ending his reign of madness once and for all.

The novel has been adapted for the screen several times, most notably as The Lady and the Monster (1944) and Donovan's Brain (1953), the latter starring Nancy Reagan née Davis. Imitations of the story have included the Star Trek episode "Spock's Brain" and the character of Uncle Irvin in The City of Lost Children, the 1995 fantasy film.[1]

In 1982, the lp album release of the 1944 radio version (from the series Suspense and starring Orson Welles) won the Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album.

The title is satirized in an episode of Big Guy and Rusty the Boy Robot, called "Donovan's Brainiac", where the nephew of Dr. Donovan uses the brain of the Legion Ex Machina's Number Five in a robot he built for a science fair.

A reference to the title can also be found at the end of the Larry Niven short story Becalmed in Hell, in which the character Eric, who lives as a brain and spinal cord on life-support, and works as the directly-connected controller of a NASA exploratory vessel, signs a telegram "DONOVAN'S BRAIN", either as a joke of his own or because Niven surnamed the character "Donovan" in homage.

The novel has become somewhat of a cult, with fans including Stephen King. King discusses the novel in his own book Danse Macabre and the line Cory uses to resist Donovan is repeated to similar effect in his horror novel, It.