SF authors born 1834-43: 1835

1. Samuel Butler

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Samuel Butler (1835-1902)

Butler is not a Radium-Age SF author. But he wrote two influential pre-Radium-Age SF novels.

Butler was an iconoclastic Victorian author who published a variety of works, including the Utopian satire Erewhon and the posthumous novel The Way of All Flesh, his two best-known works, but also extending to examinations of Christian orthodoxy, substantive studies of evolutionary thought, studies of Italian art, and works of literary history and criticism. Butler also made prose translations of The Iliad and The Odyssey which remain in use to this day.

His influence on literature, such as it was, came through The Way of All Flesh, which Butler completed in the 1880s but left unpublished in order to protect his family. And yet the novel, “begun in 1870 and not touched after 1885, was so modern when it was published in 1903, that it may be said to have started a new school,” particularly in the use of psychoanalytical modes of thought in fiction, which “his treatment of Ernest Pontifex [the hero of Butler's novel] foreshadows.”

Whether in his satire and fiction, his studies on the evidences of Christianity, his works on evolutionary thought or in his miscellaneous other writings, however, a consistent theme runs through Butler's work, stemming largely from his personal struggle with the stifling of his own nature by his parents, which led him on to seek more general principles of growth, development and purpose: “What concerned him was to establish his nature, his aspirations and their fulfillment upon a philosophic basis, to identify them with the nature, the aspirations, the fulfillment of all humanity – and more than that – with the fulfillment of the universe . . . His struggle became generalized, symbolic, tremendous.” The form that this search took was principally philosophic and – given the interests of the day – biological: “Satirist, novelist, artist and critic that he was, he was primarily a philosopher,” and in particular a philosopher who sought the biological foundations for his work: “His biology was a bridge to a philosophy of life which sought a scientific basis for religion and endowed a naturalistically conceived universe with a soul.” Indeed, “philosophical writer” was ultimately the self-description Butler himself chose as most fitting to his work.

* Erewhon, or Over the Range was published anonymously in 1872. The title is also the name of a country, supposedly discovered by the protagonist. In the novel, it is not revealed in which part of the world Erewhon is, but it is clear that it is a fictional country. Butler meant the title to be read as the word Nowhere backwards, even though the letters "h" and "w" are transposed. It is likely that he did this to protect himself from accusations of being unpatriotic, although Erewhon is obviously a satire of Victorian society. The greater part of the book consists of a description of Erewhon. The nature of this nation is intended to be ambiguous. At first glance, Erewhon appears to be a utopia, yet it soon becomes clear that this is far from the case. Yet for all the failings of Erewhon, it is also clearly not a dystopia, such as that depicted by George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four. As a satirical utopia, Erewhon has sometimes been compared to Gulliver's Travels; the image of utopia in this latter case also bears strong parallels with the self-view of the British Empire at the time. Erewhon satirizes various aspects of Victorian society, including criminal punishment, religion and anthropocentrism. For example, according to Erewhonian law, offenders are treated as if they were ill whilst ill people are looked upon as criminals. Another feature of Erewhon is the absence of machines; this is due to the widely shared perception by the Erewhonians that they are potentially dangerous. Butler was the first to write about the possibility that machines might develop consciousness by Darwinian Selection. ** The French philosopher Gilles Deleuze used ideas from Butler's book at various points in the development of his philosophy of difference. In Difference and Repetition (1968), he refers to what he calls "Ideas" as "erewhons." "Ideas are not concepts," he explains, but rather "a form of eternally positive differential multiplicity, distinguished from the identity of concepts." "Erewhon" refers to the "nomadic distributions" that pertain to simulacra, which "are not universals like the categories, nor are they the hic et nunc or now here, the diversity to which categories apply in representation." "Erewhon," in this reading, is "not only a disguised no-where but a rearranged now-here." In his collaboration with Félix Guattari, Anti-Œdipus (1972), Deleuze draws on Butler's "The Book of the Machines" to "go beyond" the "usual polemic between vitalism and mechanism" as it relates to their concept of "desiring-machines."

* Erewhon Revisited Twenty Years Later (Richards, 1901). Sequel, not considered to be as good.

SF authors born 1834-43: 1838

Note: Influential SF authors born in the Thirties are included on this blog, but they're rarely, if ever, Radium-Age authors themselves.

1. Edwin Abbott Abbott
2. Auguste Villiers de l'Isle-Adam

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Edwin Abbott Abbott (1838-1926)

English clergyman, educator, theologian, and Shakespearean scholar. Best known as the author of the mathematical satire and religious allegory Flatland (1884).

Dr. Abbott's liberal inclinations in theology were prominent both in his educational views and in his books. His Shakespearian Grammar (1870) is a permanent contribution to English philology. In 1885 he published a life of Francis Bacon. His theological writings include three anonymously published religious romances - Philochristus (1878), Onesimus (1882), and Sitanus (1906). Other works, too.


* Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions (A Square: Flatland, Seely & Co., London, 1884).

The story is about a two-dimensional world referred to as Flatland. The unnamed narrator, a humble square (the social caste of gentlemen and professionals), guides us through some of the implications of life in two dimensions. The Square has a dream about a visit to a one-dimensional world (Lineland), and attempts to convince the realm's ignorant monarch of a second dimension, but finds that it is essentially impossible to make him see outside of his eternally straight line.

The narrator is then visited by a three-dimensional sphere, which he cannot comprehend until he sees Spaceland for himself. This sphere, who remains nameless, visits Flatland at the turn of each millennium to introduce a new apostle to the idea of a third dimension in the hopes of eventually educating the population of Flatland of the existence of Spaceland. From the safety of Spaceland, they are able to observe the leaders of Flatland secretly acknowledging the existence of the sphere and prescribing the silencing of anyone found preaching the truth of Spaceland and the third dimension. After this proclamation is made, many witnesses are massacred or imprisoned (according to caste).

After the Square's mind is opened to new dimensions, he tries to convince the Sphere of the theoretical possibility of the existence of a fourth (and fifth, and sixth ...) spatial dimension. Offended by this presumption and incapable of comprehending other dimensions, the Sphere returns his student to Flatland in disgrace.

He then has a dream in which the Sphere visits him again, this time to introduce him to Pointland. The point (sole inhabitant, monarch, and universe in one) perceives any attempt at communicating with him as simply being a thought originating in his own mind (cf. Solipsism).

The Square recognizes the connection between the ignorance of the monarchs of Pointland and Lineland with his own (and the Sphere's) previous ignorance of the existence of other dimensions.

Once returned to Flatland, the Square finds it difficult to convince anyone of Spaceland's existence, especially after official decrees are announced - anyone preaching the lies of three dimensions will be imprisoned (or executed, depending on caste). Eventually the Square himself is imprisoned for just this reason.

In the book, men are portrayed as polygons whose social class is directly proportional to the number of sides they have; therefore, triangles, having only three sides, are at the bottom of the social ladder and are considered generally unintelligent, while the Priests are composed of multi-sided polygons whose shapes approximate a circle, which is considered to be the "perfect" shape. On the other hand, the female population is comprised only of lines, who are required by law to sway back and forth and sound a "peace-cry" as they walk, because when a line is coming towards an observer in a 2-D world, it appears merely as a point. The Square talks of accounts where men have been killed (both by accident and on purpose) by being stabbed by women. This explains the need for separate doors for women and men in buildings. Also, colors in Flatland were banned, when lower classes painted themselves to appear to be higher ordered.

In the world of Flatland, classes are distinguished using the "Art of Feeling" and the "Art of Sight Recognition". Feeling, practised by the lower classes and women, determines the configuration of a person by feeling one of their angles. The "Art of Sight Recognition", practised by the upper classes, is aided by "Fog", which allows an observer to determine the depth of an object. With this, polygons with sharp angles relative to the observer will fade out more rapidly than polygons with more gradual angles. The population of Flatland can "evolve" through the Law of Nature, which states: "a male child shall have one more side than his father, so that each generation shall rise (as a rule) one step in the scale of development and nobility. Thus the son of a Square is a Pentagon; the son of a Pentagon, a Hexagon; and so on."

This rule is not the case when dealing with isosceles triangles (Soldiers and Workmen), for their evolution occurs through eventually achieving the status of an equilateral triangle, removing them from serfdom. The smallest angle of an isosceles triangle gains thirty minutes (half a degree) each generation. Additionally, the rule does not seem to apply to many-sided polygons; the sons of several hundred-sided polygons will often develop fifty or more sides more than their parents.

In the book, the three-dimensional Sphere has the ability to stand inches away from a Flatlander and observe them without being seen, can remove Flatland objects from closed containers and teleport them via the third dimension without traversing the space in between, and is capable of seeing and touching the inside and outside of everything in the two-dimensional universe; at one point, the Sphere gently pokes the narrator's intestines and launches him into three dimensions as proof of his powers.

As a satire, Flatland offered pointed observations on the social hierarchy of Victorian culture. However, the novella's more enduring contribution is its examination of dimensions; in a foreword to one of the many publications of the novella, noted science writer Isaac Asimov described Flatland as "The best introduction one can find into the manner of perceiving dimensions."[citation needed] As such, the novella is still popular amongst mathematics, physics and computer science students.

Several films have been made from the story, including a feature film in 2007 called Flatland. Other efforts have been short or experimental films, including one narrated by Dudley Moore and a short film with Martin Sheen titled Flatland: The Movie.

With the advent of modern science fiction from the 1950s to present day, Abbott's Flatland has seen a revival in popularity, especially among science fiction and cyberpunk fans. While not, strictly speaking, science fiction (it could more accurately be called "math fiction"), Flatland has often been categorized as such. Many works have have been inspired by the novella, including novel sequels, short films, and a feature film called Flatland.

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Auguste Villiers de l'Isle-Adam (1838-1889)

French poet, essayist, fiction writer. A member of the Breton nobility, descended from last Grand Master of the Knights of Malta. One of the founders of the Symbolist movement in France; pionner on women's rights.

Jean-Marie-Mathias-Philippe-Auguste, Comte de Villiers de l'Isle-Adam (1838-1889), pioneer of the Symbolist Movement, is known for his proto-science fiction works Axel (1885) and L'Eve Future (1886) and his "Cruel Tales" collected in The Scaffold. He also chronicled the colorful adventures of Doctor Bonhomet collected in The Vampire Soul. Poet Paul Verlaine called Villiers' works a "genial melange of irony, metaphysics and terror" and translator Brian Stableford dubs it "a bizarre literary landmark."

* Tomorrow's Eve (L'Eve future, 1886; full periodical publication in La vie moderne, 1884). The novel credited with popularizing the word "android." A philosophical novel using materials of science mythically to consider questions of personality and identity; in his preface, the author makes it clear that he is not writing about the living Edison, but the myth of Edison as the great magician of science. Edison is visited in Menlo, NJ, by a young Englishman, Lord Cecil Ewald, who is near-suicidal because although he lusts after his voluptuous mistress, Alicia Clary, he cannot tolerate her banal, vulgar personality. Edison provides Ewald with an android (French andreide) that will be a perfect reproduction of Alicia, but will have a more pleasing personality. Edison demonstrates Hadaly, an android he invented after realizing that men are attracted to artificial aspects of women — false breasts and hips, wigs and dentures — so why not go all the way artificial? (Hadaly is constructed of artificial flesh over a metal skeleton, and she runs on electric batteries.) Edison lures Alicia to his lab, hypnotizes her, then remodels Hadaly to look exactly like her. (Hello, Stepford Wives.) Here, things get confusing. Ewald confuses Hadaly for the real Alicia; Hadaly is activated by the submerged personality of the clairvoyant wife of a friend of his; Hadaly tells Ewald she is actually a free-floating spirit who used Edison to construct a body for her — but he wonders whether Edison programmed her to say so. (Hello, Philip K. Dick!) When Hadaly is accidentally destroyed, Ewald misses not her body but her personality. Everett F. Bleieler writes: "A remarkable work that deserves more attention than it has received... it is undoubtedly to be ranked in quality and thought-provoking power with Frankenstein, Erewhon, and We."

SF authors born 1834-43: 1842

Note: Influential SF authors born in the Thirties are included on this blog, but they're rarely, if ever, Radium-Age authors themselves.

1. Ambrose Bierce

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Ambrose Bierce (1842-1914?)

Ambrose Gwinnett Bierce was an American editorialist, journalist, short-story writer and satirist. Today, he is best known for his short story, "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" and his satirical dictionary, The Devil's Dictionary.

In 1887, he published a column called The Prattle and became one of the first regular columnists and editorialists to be employed on William Randolph Hearst's newspaper, the San Francisco Examiner, eventually becoming one of the most prominent and influential among the writers and journalists of the West Coast. He remained associated with Hearst Newspapers until 1906.

He wrote realistically of the things he had seen in the war in such stories as "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge," "Killed at Resaca," and "Chickamauga". Bierce was considered a master of "Pure" English by his contemporaries, and virtually everything that came from his pen was notable for its judicious wording and economy of style. In addition to his ghost and war stories, he published several volumes of poetry and verse. His Fantastic Fables anticipated the ironic style of grotesquerie that turned into a genre in the 20th century.

One of Bierce's most famous works is his much-quoted book, The Devil's Dictionary, originally an occasional newspaper item which was first published in book form in 1906 as The Cynic's Word Book. It consists of satirical definitions of English words which lampoon cant and political double-talk.

In 1913, Bierce traveled to Mexico to gain a firsthand perspective on that country's ongoing revolution. While traveling with rebel troops, the elderly writer disappeared without a trace.

* "Moxon's Master," in The Collected Works of Ambrose Bierce, Vol. 3: Can Such Things Be? (Walter Neale: Washington, 1909). One of two SF stories added to the enlarged edition of Bierce's 1893 story collection. The narrator visits his friend, Moxon, in San Jose. They discuss the nature of life and the properties of mechanism — specifically, what it what it is to be "thinking" and "intelligent" — while in the background there is a complex by-play with something in the next room. The narrator leaves, then returns to the house and heads toward the machine room, where he finds Moxon playing a chess game with an automaton. Moxon wins the game, and the automaton kills him in an apparent fit of rage. The narrator later questions whether what he saw was real, although he does not directly deny it. This sequence of events is usually interpreted as a story about a vicious robot that murdered its inventor; Bleiler, however, thinks it's more likely to be a murder mystery in which the young man was skillfully misled by the killers.
READ IT

Bierce books:

* The Fiend's Delight (1873)
* Cobwebs from an Empty Skull (1874)
* The Dance of Death (with Thomas A. Harcourt and William Rulofson, as William Herman) (1877)
* Tales of Soldiers and Civilians (also known as In the Midst of Life) (1891)
* Black Beetles in Amber (1892)
* The Monk and the Hangman's Daughter (1892)
* Can Such Things Be? (1893)
* Fantastic Fables (1899)
* The shadow on the dial, and other essays (1909)
* The Devil's Dictionary (1911) (first published in book form as The Cynic's Wordbook, 1906)
* Collected Works (1909)
* Write It Right (1909)
* A Horseman in the Sky, A Watcher by the Dead, The Man and the Snake (1920)??
* A Vision of Doom: Poems by Ambrose Bierce (1980)

SF authors born 1834-43: 1837

Note: Influential SF authors born in the Thirties are included on this blog, but they're rarely, if ever, Radium-Age authors themselves.

1. William Livingston Alden
2. William Dean Howells

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William Livingston Alden (1837-1908)

American writer. From 1893 resident in Great Britain. Author of humorous and general fiction. Historically important for establishing canoeing as a popular sport. He was in his mid-60s when he wrote a couple of Radium-Age SF stories.
NYT OBIT

* "'Wagnerium'" (London Magazine, November 1906). The 7th story about Professor Van Wagener, an eccentric scientist who invents improbable devices that cause problems once manufactured. Like L. Frank Baum's The Master Key (1901), these stories indicate an unease with the accelerated pace of technological change. In "Professor Van Wagener's Eye" (1895), the protagonist attaches electric lights to his maid, his cat, and finally inserts one into his eye; in "The Fatal Fishing Line" (1895), he devises a method for shocking fish when they are hooked, but ends up hooking himself to the wife of a neighbor; in "A Scientific Balloon," he invents an aluminum balloon [almost a lead zeppelin!] that doesn't release gas, ever, and so almost transports himself to his death in the upper atmosphere; in "A Flying March" (1896) and "Van Wagener's Flying Cat" he attaches small personal zeppelins to himself and his cat. In this story, the last of the series, we learn that radium and radioactivity were discovered not by Marie Curie — who was awarded a joint Nobel Prize in 1903 for her theory of radioactivity (a term coined by her), and the discovery of two new elements, polonium and radium) — but by Van Wagener. Nearly 30 years earlier, it seems, he showed the narrator a glowing substance that he kept in a leaden bowl — wagnerium, or what would later be named radium. Poor Van Wagener glowed in the dark, emitted abnormal heat, and finally exploded along with his laboratory, in what may be the first atomic explosion in SF.

* "The Earthquake" (Pearson's Magazine, October 1907). The eccentric inventor Collins has built a 45-foot-high conical structure in his backyward that permits him to store gravity, like electricity. While attempting to draw the moon itself down from the sky, he may or may not cause the San Francisco earthquake of '07. Black humor, same conceit as Alden's 1897 story "A Volcanic Valve," in which Krakatoa's deadly eruption is caused by the tinkering of an unnamed scientist who thinks he can create the world's largest steam-power plant.

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William Dean Howells (TK)

Note among other things that Howells was a Bellamyite. TK

* Through the Eye of the Needle: A Romance (Harper: New York and London, 1907). Some authorities consider it SF.