The Last Generation
by
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It was the work of the devil, it was the will of God, but for whatever reason between Hell and Hereafter, the order of Mammalia, Homo Sapiens ceased to reproduce itself on the planet Earth at the precise moment it entered the year 2020.
By the end of the quarter of the following century, certainly not much beyond that, not a single human being could be expected to inhabit the planet.
Of the approximately half-million births to transpire on that fateful day, Mike Swain’s birth had been the last to be recorded, it being later determined that this dubious distinction over other births elsewhere in the world was “won” by a microsecond. It had taken place at the venerable Michael Reese Hospital in Chicago, Illinois.
Mike Swain was the youngest person on the planet. Last to be born, he would, theoretically, be the last to die. He was painfully aware of the poignant fact. Today, January 1, 2050, was his thirtieth birthday.
Mike stood in the center of what
had once been a school. Instead of children there were only dead leaves
skittering along the blacktop, long bleached by the sun and fissured, with
weeds clumping through the sinuous cracks. He was slightly under six feet tall
with deep-set eyes crinkling in contemplation. His skin was clear and pale with
a cleft chin in a square jaw and an upturned nose above thin lips. His hair was
dark and thick with a persistent cowlick that resisted management, giving him
an endearing little boy look that softened his otherwise solemn mien.
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About the Book
THE LAST GENERATION is written in the speculative genre. It is the year 2050. From its opening lines: “It was the work of the devil, it was the will of God, but for whatever reason between Hell and Hereafter, the order of Mammalia, Homo Sapiens, ceased to reproduce itself on the planet Earth at the precise moment it entered the year 2020.
“By the end of the quarter of the following century, certainly not much beyond, not a single human being could be expected to inhibit the planet.”
For thirty relentless and frustrating years all the world’s resources, brainpower and energies of the last doomed generation on earth have been pooled to probe the utmost cataclysm ever to befall mankind--the chilling loss of the next generation--an all-consuming mega-search to restore man’s greatest gift-- procreation.
Millions die daily and there is no replenishment. The world no longer suffers hunger and starvation and pollution, for with new technologies beyond dreams, life for a dwindling population has never been more bountiful and benign. Boundaries are meaningless and it is the longest history without war.
For thirty years the resumption of procreation has eluded massive worldwide research. Until Mike Swain, microbiologist, the last man on earth to be born and theoretically, will be the last to die, stumbles upon the remedy.
Power and wealth beyond calculation is his if he will reveal his life-renewal discovery.
Long dormant greed and lust
erupts and corruptive power is unleashed by an international cabal to wrest
this arcane knowledge from Mike. THE LAST GENERATION becomes a magnified
“Maltese Falcon” of the future. Whoever knows the secret of life controls the
world. Men, corporations and nations will lie, cheat, conspire and kill for it.
One man’s innate humanity is pitted against forces beyond his control to
pitilessly drive and hurtle him to a suspenseful unforeseen climax.
About the Author
For the past thirty years, Oliver Crawford has written scrpts for many notable series. A wide diversity that is virtually a history of television itself.
His career has spanned the so-called Golden Age of Television of live action dramas for such fondly remembered shows as KRAFT THEATRE, LUX VIDEO THEATRE, RAWHIDE, BEN CASEY, THE FUGITIVE, FOUR STAR THEATRE, QUINCY, BIG VALLEY, BONANZA, TELEPHONE TIME, SCHLITZ PLAYHOUSE OF STARS, THE JAZZ SINGER(Jerry Lewis version), RIFLEMAN, WAGON TRAIN, I SPY, PERRY MASON, IRONSIDE, STAR TREK, LOVE AMERICAN-STYLE, WILD, WILD, WEST, KOJAK, GILLIGAN’S ISLAND, THE BOLD ONES, SIX MILLION DOLLAR MAN, MANNIX, KAZ and MOVIE-OF-THE-WEEK among others. His film credits include, MAN FROM THE ALAMO (starring Glen Ford), THE ENEMY GENERAL (starring Van Johnson) and GIRL IN THE WOODS (starring Forrest Tucker).
His awards include Emmy nominations for CLIMAX! and LINEUP, a Writers Guild nomination for OUTER LIMITS. He is a winner of the National Conference of Christian and Jews Brotherhood Award for a DEATH V ALLEY DAYS script.
Oliver Crawford has been been a story consultant for IRON HORSE (starring Dale Robertson), MEDICAL CENTER (Chad Everett and James Daly) and MADIGAN (starring Richard Widmark).
He co-wrote with Sid Kuller the Bob Hope Bicentennial Record Album: THIS COUNTRY IS TWO HUNDRED YEARS OLD AND THERE IS STILL HOPE (Capitol Records). Also special material for Redd Foxx.
A novel, THE EXECUTION was published by St. Martin’s Press and made into a two-hour presentaton by NBC starring Loretta Swit, Valerie Harper, Jessica WaIters, Sandy Dennis, Barbara Barrie and Rip Torn.
For 26 years a member of Board of Directors, Writers Guild of America, he is also a member of the Dramatists Guild and the Authors League of America.
He served as Associate Professor of Filmmaking, Loyola Marymount University. He has been a part of the Speakers Bureau of the Writers Guild of America and has addressed disparate groups, including business and senior citizen organizations and student groups at the University of Southern California, University of Oregon.
Of interest: Oliver Crawford is
one of two hundred writers blacklisted during the infamous McCarthy period. He
is among the only ten percent that recovered their careers.