"Kirk Allen" was the pseudonym given to a patient of Robert Mitchell Lindner's, in his book The Fifty-Minute Hour. Born in Hawaii in 1918, "Kirk" soon became obsessed with a series of novels, the protagonist of which shared his name.[1] Due to "Allen's" anonymity, it is unclear what the series was, apart from the fact that it was science fiction. Some have theorized[2] that the series was the "Barsoom" books, by Edgar Rice Burroughs, featuring the main character "John Carter".
"Kirk" attended University, and became a scientist, working with the United States Military on a classified research project during World War II, which helped to bring about the war's end.[1]
Meanwhile, convinced that the novels were his personal biography, he "filled in" many omitted details from the novels, from his own "recollection".[1] He was incredibly thorough, creating full-color maps, sketches, a glossary of names and terms, socio-economic data, etcetera.[3] In his own words:
“My first effort, then, was to remember. I started by fixing in my mind, and later on paper in the forms of maps, genealogical tables, and so on, what the author of my biography had put down. When I had this mastered, by remembering I was able to correct his errors, fill in many details, and close gaps between one volume of the biography and the next."[1]
Eventually, he reached the outer limits of the scope of the novels, and began to "recall" his/the character's further adventures. He even began to hallucinate being in the various settings of his stories, physically experiencing them.[1]
Soon, his employers became aware of his psychotic condition, and demanded that he get psychiatric treatment. Reluctantly, he conceded.[3] His psychoanalyst was Lindner, who would eventually write a popular case-study of Allen.
Lindner eventually cured Allen, by immersing himself in the fantasy world, but in the process became himself obsessed.[3]
Paul Linebarger (better known by his nom de plume, Cordwainer Smith) was long rumored to have been the original "Kirk Allen," [4] According to Cordwainer Smith scholar Alan C. Elms,[2] this speculation first reached print in Brian Aldiss's 1973 history of science fiction, Billion Year Spree; Aldiss, in turn, claimed to have gotten the information from Leon Stover.[5] More recently, both Elms and librarian Lee Weinstein[6] have gathered circumstantial evidence to support the case for Linebarger's being "Allen," but both concede there is no direct proof that Linebarger was ever a patient of Lindner's or that he suffered from a disorder similar to that of "Kirk Allen." [7]
In 2011, Stan Lee created the comic book series "Starborn", based on the story of Kirk Allen.[8]
Carl Sagan wrote about this case in Chapter 10 of his book The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark, Ballantine Books, March 1996.