Olaf Stapledon

This 1937 successor to Last and First Men offers another entrancing speculative history of the future. Cited as a key influence by science-fiction masters such as Doris Lessing, its bold exploration of the cosmos ventures into intelligent star clusters and mingles among alien races for a memorable vision of infinity.

"No book before or since has ever had such an impact upon my imagination," declared Arthur C. Clarke of Last and First Men. This masterpiece of science fiction by British philosopher and writer Olaf Stapledon (1886–1950) is an imaginative, ambitious history of humanity's future that spans billions of years. Together with its follow-up, Star Maker, it is regarded as the standard by which all earlier and later future histories are measured. The protagonist of this compelling novel is humanity itself, stripped down to sheer intelligence. It evolves through the ages: rising to pinnacles of civilization, teetering on the brink of extinction, surviving onslaughts from other planets and a decline in solar energy, and constantly developing new forms, new senses, and new intellectual abilities. From the present to five billion years into the future, this romance of humanity abounds in profound and imaginative thought.

Sirius is Thomas Trelone's great experiment - a huge, handsome dog with the brain and intelligence of a human being. Raised and educated in Trelone's own family alongside Plaxy, his youngest daughter, Sirius is a truly remarkable and gifted creature. His relationship with the Trelones, particularly with Plaxy, is deep and close, and his inquiring mind ranges across the spectrum of human knowledge and experience. But Sirius isn't human and the conflicts and inner turmoil that torture him cannot be resolved.

John Wainwright is a freak—a human mutation with an extraordinary intelligence which is both awesome and frightening to all who come into contact with him. Ordinary humans were just playthings to John—subjects for an endless chain of experiments. Their feelings, and sometimes even their lives, are expendable. Odd John has a plan—to create a new order on Earth, a new supernormal species. But the world is not ready for such a change...

The greatest future histories in science fiction. In Last and First Men the protagonist is "mankind" in an ultimate definition — intelligence. Star Maker , in a sense its sequel, is concerned with the history of intelligence in the entire cosmos.

Two of the finest future histories ever written, each concerning a central question: If and when a superior being is introduced into a culture, how will either survive? Odd John is the definitive fictionalization of the mutated superman who has to decide what to do with his gifts, while Sirius concerns a dog with superhuman mentality.

Though this is a work of fiction, it does not pretend to be a novel. It has no hero but man. Since its purpose is not the characterization of individual human beings, no effort has been made to endow its few persons with distinctive personalities. There is no plot, except the theme of man's struggle in this awkward age to master himself and to come to terms with the universe.

The Flames was Stapledon's last major work of fiction before he died. After having narrowed his scope from the huge cosmic histories of Last and First Men (history of humanity) and Star Maker (history of the universe, Dante-esque cameo by God at the end) to the earthbound Odd John (super-man) and Sirius (super-dog), The Flames reads like an attempt to stuff them all into a 50-page novella. It's supremely confused, but the evident moroseness of an author who, in the face of a second world war, has decided that his imagination will not help, gives The Flames an immediacy that you never see in other top-flight fantasists like Borges. It is written in Stapledon's trademark stiff prose, which places it stylistically closer to H.G. Wells than to any contemporaneous science fiction originating from the United States' pulps, and if Stapledon had read any of them, it doesn't show. Even though Stapledon had rejected Wells for being too cynical, The Flames has a sludgy melancholy that allows joy only in the most ironic way. The story consists of three segments, each of which undercuts the last. In the first, the sensitive narrator talks to a "flame" in a burning stone who tells of life on the sun and subsequent exile when the planets were formed, with a polite dispassion not so far from that of Hal Clement. Despite some ill-fitting foreshadowing, the revelations in the second part that the flames are hellbent on manipulating humanity to help them thrive and pursue their spiritual aims, through mind control if necessary. To this end the flame reveals that he and his comrades caused the narrator's wife to commit suicide, so the narrator could devote himself fully to his studies and establish contact with the flames. This is all vaguely silly and melodramatic, and trivializes the first section. I don't know if Stapledon read Charles Fort, but he treads on similar territory here, and with no better luck than Fort or Eric Frank Russell in The Sinister Barrier. But in the third segment, Stapledon plays down the mind-control aspect and the particulars of the flames' existence to focus on their religious history, which is a rewrite of the tail end of Star Maker: advanced beings, including the flames, join into a single cosmic mind that then searches the total vision of reality. This time, though, the revelation of the total indifference of the Maker (who, while not quite absent, is not as personified as it is in Star Maker) is catastrophic and the cosmic mind collapses. Star Maker ended with a little homily on the significance of humanity's efforts; "The Flames" ends with the flames deciding that a Loving God is such a great idea that He must exist, and stupidly start the whole process up again, killing the narrator in the process for questioning them. All this comes as a shock after the first two parts, which had alluded to the flames' abstract spirituality but had only used it as a differentiating point between their minds and human emotional experience. Stapledon suddenly seems possessed by a need to rewrite his previous optimism from fifteen years before. The only hint of this comes late in the first segment, where, after receiving a noetic emotional experience from the flames (a great idea that Stapledon abandons), the narrator thinks he's seen God, and the flame responds, in what sounds like a rebuke from Stapledon to his younger self: Just because you have had an exciting and clarifying experience you persuade yourself that you must have had a revelation of the heart of the universe. source: www.waggish.org

Last & First Men: A Story of the Near & Far Future is a future history sf novel written in 1930 by British author Olaf Stapledon. A genre work of unprecedented scale, it describes history from the present onwards across two billion years & 18 distinct human species, of which our own is the most primitive. Its conception of history is based on the Hegelian dialectic, following a repetitive cycle with many varied civilizations rising from & descending back into savagery over millions of years, but it's also one of progress, as later civilizations rise to far greater heights than the 1st. The book anticipates the science of genetic engineering & is an early example of the fictional supermind; consciousness composed of telepathically-linked individuals. In 1932, he followed Last & First Men with the less acclaimed Last Men in London. His other great novel, Star Maker (1937), may also be considered a sequel, but is even more ambitious in scope, being a history of the entire universe. Last Men in London (1932) is a sf novel by Stapledon. The narrator is the same member of the 18th & final human species who purportedly induced him to write Last & First Men. Last Men in London is the story of this being's exploration of the consciousness of a present-day Englishman named Paul, from childhood thru service with an ambulance crew in the WWI (mirroring Stapledon's own personal history) to adult life as a schoolteacher faced with a "submerged superman" in his class nicknamed Humpty. The inadequacies of Paul's character, the various dilemmas he has to face during his life & the occasional influence of the advanced being who shares his experiences, provide a semi-autobiographical platform on which to expound philosophical & moral beliefs.

1974 1st Am Ed. Hyperion

OLAF STAPLEDON: The Ultimate SF Writer - Brian AldissIt was at the moment of creation that the nebulae first found awareness. And they were to burn with it for countless millennia, changing, struggling, shifting on an axis that had only the Mystery at its centre.The Launching of the Cosmos, the First Cosmical War, the appearance of Bright Heart the saint and of Fire Bolt the revolutionary - all led to that Mystery - the terrifying, eternally fascinating enigma of the Nebula Maker...NEBULA MAKER is a recently discovered novel by Olaf Stapledon, an epic of the universe's evolution that is both separate from and complementary to his acclaimed masterpiece STAR MAKER

Olaf Stapledon (1886-1950), philosopher, novelist, educator, and social activist had an imagination unlike that of any other figure in modernist literature. Along with H.G. Wells he is remembered as one of the most original and influential pioneers of twentieth-century science fiction.This first broadly inclusive anthology of Stapledon's work offers a generous sampling of his fictional gems, including sections of his best known novels, Last and First Men, Odd Men, and Star Maker, and the complete text of two novellas, now back in print for the first time in fifty years, The Flames and Old Man in New World, as well as a selection of other writings, some previously unpublished, including essays, poems, and letters.These writings reveal the prophetic vision and utopian convictions that run through Stapledon's work, and provide the broad context readers need to grasp the scope of his vision and to appreciate his great epic works, which are classics of science fiction.

1983 1st US Pbk Ed Dodd, Mead 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

A bomber is killed in battle along with all of his companions; but something wakes in his dying, which is first a spirit bomber-crew, then the spirit of all those killed in battle, then the spirit of man, the cosmos and the Universal Spirit.

1. A WEDDING FIASCO2. VICTOR'S EARLY LIFE3. BEGINNINGS OF OUR FRIENDSHIP4. BUSINESS MAN AND SOLDIER5. NEW START6. MAGGIE'S EARLY LIFE7. UNCERTAIN HAPPINESS8. A DISTRESSING INTERLUDE9. VICTOR FORGES AHEAD10. CHECK11. GLOOM12. STRANGE TRIUMPH***a selection from the first A WEDDING FIASCO 1921 VICTOR HAD REFUSED his bride at the altar! That was the brute fact which agitated the little party in the vestry. No amount of explanation could mitigate it. As best man I had been in a good position to observe events; and even I, who had formerly been fairly intimate with Victor, was completely taken by surprise. True, I had long suspected that there was something queer about him; but up to the very moment of his quietly shattering remark, as he put the ring into his pocket, I had no idea that anything serious was amiss. James Victor Cadogan-Smith, later to be known as plain Victor Smith, had seemed the ideal bridegroom. He was the son of a successful colonial administrator who had climbed by his own ability from a very lowly position, and had recently acquired a knighthood. The family had been humble "Smiths" until Victor's father had married the only child of a more aristocratic family, and had agreed to splice his wife's name to his own. The new "Cadogan-Smith" assured his friends that he had done this mainly to please his father-in-law. But in later life he used to say, "In those days my snobbery was unconscious." His son Victor was born in 1890. He was now a bridegroom of thirty-one, and certainly a catch for any girl. Looking at him in his wedding clothes, one could not help using the cliché "every inch a gentleman". His financial prospects were excellent. He was already reputed to be one of the most brilliant young business men of his city, and he was well established as a junior partner in a great shipping firm. Victor had come through the Great War, as we called it in those days, undamaged and with a Military Cross; and now, in the brief period of optimism that followed the war, it seemed that he had excellent prospects of working out for himself a triumphant business career in the phase of post-war recovery. To crown all, he had secured as his bride the charming daughter of the head of his firm. The wedding celebrations had been planned in appropriate style. The only factor which was not in perfect harmony with the spirit of the occasion, I fear, was the best man. I had been greatly flattered by Victor's request that I should fill this office, but I could not help wondering why he had not asked one of his many more presentable friends. His subsequent behaviour toward me almost suggested that he regretted his choice. Certainly I did not fit at all into the picture of a smart wedding; and from the moment when I found that I should have to hire a conventional wedding garment my heart had failed me. Victor must have found me a very inefficient manager, for he had to re-arrange almost everything that I had undertaken. I knew, of course, that in one of his moods he had sometimes an almost obsessive passion for correctness, but I had been surprised and exasperated by his meticulous scrutiny of every detail of our clothing and of the time- table of the honeymoon tour. At the church, Victor's erect and perfectly tailored figure had seemed the very pattern of orthodoxy; and Edith, I am sure, must have been admired by the whole congregation as the ideal bride, so "radiant" was she (yes, that is the fatally right word), and so expensively adorned.

William Olaf Stapledon was a British philosopher and author of several influential works of science fiction.Stapledon's writings directly influenced Arthur C. Clarke, Brian Aldiss, Stanisław Lem, C. S. Lewis and John Maynard Smith and indirectly influenced many others, contributing many ideas to the world of science fiction. ...more

Science fiction has its immortals -- authors whose impact was so tremendous that they belong in a class by themselves. Olaf Stapledon extended the boundaries of science fiction to the infinite, and there are few of the major authors who do not directly or indirectly owe him a great debt. This volume of his uncollected short science fiction and fantasy (only one having previously appeared in the United States) includes in addition to the five stories, an uncollected radio script from which this volume takes its title and an uncollected 1948 address to the British Interplanetary Society. To this collection Sam Moskowitz has contributed an authorized biography of Olaf Stapledon from prime sources that make it the most definitive and authentic to date.

William Olaf Stapledon - known as Olaf Stapledon - was a British philosopher and author of several influential works of science fiction. Stapledon’s writings directly influenced C.S. Lewis, John Maynard Smith, Arthur C. Clarke, Bertrand Russell, and indirectly influenced many others.“Olaf Stapledon was one of the most creative thinkers of our time. His influence on philosophy and science fiction is incalculable.” - Greg BearThis collection Modern MagicianEast is WestArms Out of HandA World of SoundThe Seed and the FlowerThe Road to the Aide Post

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A Collection of the Best of Olaf Stapledon

***Hyperlinked Table of Contents***William Olaf Stapledon (10 May 1886 – 6 September 1950) — known as Olaf Stapledon — was a British philosopher and author of several influential works of science fiction.Stapledon's writings directly influenced Arthur C. Clarke, Brian Aldiss, Stanisław Lem, John Gloag, Naomi Mitchison, C. S. Lewis, Vernor Vinge, John Maynard Smith, and indirectly influenced many others, contributing many ideas to the world of science fiction. The "supermind" composed of many individual consciousnesses forms a recurring theme in his work. Star Maker contains the first known description of what are now called Dyson spheres. Last and First Men features early descriptions of genetic engineering and terraforming. Sirius describes a dog whose intelligence is increased to the level of a human being's.In thie ebook:Last And First Men. A Story of the Near and Far FutureOdd John. A Story Between Jest and EarnestThe Flames: A FantasySirius: A Fantasy of Love and DiscordLast Men in London Death into LifeDarkness and the LightA Man DividedStar MakerCollected Stories

This early work by Olaf Stapledon was originally published in 1914 and we are now republishing it with a brand new introductory biography. 'Latter-Day Psalms' is a collection of poetry. William Olaf Stapledon was born on 10th May 1886 in Wallasey, on the Wirral Peninsula near Liverpool, in England. He completed a Ph.D. in philosophy at the University of Liverpool and his first published work of prose A Modern Theory of Ethics (1929) was based on his doctoral thesis. The following year, Stapledon published his first work of fiction Last and First Men (1930), the success of which enabled him to become a full-time writer. He had a great impact in the field of science fiction, influencing notable authors such as Arthur C. Clarke and Brian Aldiss.

Four Encounters is an unfinished work by the writer and philosopher Olaf Stapledon, written in the late 1940s but only published 26 years after the author's death. It takes place in contemporary (post World War II) Britain, and describes four meetings with various characters who are named for the spiritual quality that best defines a Christian, a scientist, a mystic and a revolutionary. There were originally to have been ten encounters, but Stapledon died before the project was completed.

After a brief stint as a teacher at Manchester Grammar School, he worked in shipping offices in Liverpool and Port Said from 1910 to 1913. During ... He wrote A Modern Theory of Ethics, which was published in 1929. ... Olaf Stapledon was cremated at Landican Crematorium; his widow Agnes and their ... A Modern Magician.

William Olaf Stapledon was a British philosopher and author of several influential works of science fiction.Stapledon's writings directly influenced Arthur C. Clarke, Brian Aldiss, Stanisław Lem, C. S. Lewis and John Maynard Smith and indirectly influenced many others, contributing many ideas to the world of science fiction.

DigiCat Publishing presents to you this special edition of "Interplanetary Man?" by Olaf Stapledon. DigiCat Publishing considers every written word to be a legacy of humankind. Every DigiCat book has been carefully reproduced for republishing in a new modern format. The books are available in print, as well as ebooks. DigiCat hopes you will treat this work with the acknowledgment and passion it deserves as a classic of world literature.

A World of Sound was written in the year 1936 and is one of the most popular novels of William Olaf Stapledon. The science fiction and romance novel has been translated into several other languages around the world. It explores themes of love, societal structures, and the potential for conflict between scientific advancement and human connection.

Enjoy this meticulously edited SF Collection, filled with space adventures, dystopian novels and apocalyptic Last and First A Story of the Near and Far Future Last Men in London Odd A Story Between Jest and Earnest Star Maker Darkness and the Light A Fantasy of Love and Discord Death into Life Short The Flames (1947) The Seed and the Flower The Road to the Aide Post A Modern Magician East is West A World of Sounds Arms Out of Hand

"Arms Out of Hand is a science fiction short story. Stapledon's writings directly influenced Arthur C. Clarke, Brian Aldiss, Stanislaw Lem, C. S. Lewis and John Maynard Smith and indirectly influenced many others, contributing many ideas to the world of science fiction."