Olaf Stapledon: Speaking for the Future

by Robert Crossley

William Olaf Stapledon is best remembered for the extraordinary works of speculative fiction he published between 1930 and 1950. As a novelist, he was known as the spokesman for the Age of Einstein and has influenced writers as diverse as Virginia Woolf, Arthur C. Clarke, and Doris Lessing. This biography is the first to draw on a vast body of unpublished and private documents—interviews, correspondence, archival material, and papers in private hands—to reveal fully the internal struggles that shaped Stapledon's life and reclaim for public attention a distinctive voice of the modern era. Late in his life in an unpublished "letter to the future" Stapledon unwittingly provided the rationale for his "It is just possible that my very obscurity may fit me to speak more faithfully for my period than any of its great unique personalities. A pacifist in World War I, an advocate of European unity and world government, one of the first teachers in the Workers' Educational Association, and an early protestor against apartheid, Stapledon turned utopian beliefs into practical politics. With roots in the shipping worlds of Devon, Liverpool, and the Suez Canal, he was transformed from a self-described provincial on the margins of English literary and political life into a visionary idealist who attracted the attention of scientists, journalists, and novelists, and, given his left-wing political affiliations, even the F.B.I. Stapledon's novels— Last and First Men, Star Maker, Odd John, and Sirius —have gathered a passionate following, and they have seldom been out of print in the last twenty-five years. But the personal experiences and political commitments that shaped this creative work have, until now, barely been known. Robert Crossley's work reveals how, in public and in private, in his social activism as in his fiction, Olaf Stapledon embodied many of the modern era's anxieties and hopes that allow his works to continue to speak to and for the future.

494 pages, Hardcover

Published July 1, 1994

Reviews

[Jim · Rating 5 out of 5]

An outstanding scholarly biography of this minor, relatively forgotten, yet profoundly influential writer. Crossley's research is exhaustive drawing upon close readings of Stapledon's published works, letters (many from family archives), personal interviews, and even marginalia from books Stapledon owned. From thi source material, which he treats critically, Crossley presents a sympathetic, personal portrait and an account of Stapledon's intellectual and literary development. In doing so, he weaves together the various strands of Stapledon's written work (including his science fiction writings, his more purely philosophical work, and even his early poetry) as well as his political activism and personal life-- into a comprehensive and compelling whole. The level of detail about some matters might be more than a casual reader would appreciate, but I have no doubt that book will be regarded as the definitive biography of Stapledon for decades.

[Einzige · Rating 4 out of 5]

Stapledon’s First and Last Men and especially his Star Maker are powerful works of imagination which received a very positive critical reception, however his life and the great majority of his works remain fairly obscure. It was the desire to understand more and to go beyond the limited summaries online that led me to this work, which certainly is exhaustive on his life and career.

With respect to his other non fiction works but for Odd John, Sirius (the original of drafting being far more risque than the published product) and to a lesser extent a Man Divided they don’t seem to be particularly noteworthy and would mostly be of interest to Stapledon fans, particularly given that he weaves in biographical elements in his works.

As for his non fiction it largely fits into that narrow school of British utopianism seen in characters like Wells and Russel though notably with a more spiritual element. Its a political project that seeks (or more accurately sought) a form of socialism that would end the problems of capitalism while preserving liberal values and individualism in opposition to marxist authoritarianism. Further more the method to create this society would be enlightened co-operation instead of a violent revolution. His work on practical ethics and his final posthumous work summarising his spiritual views sounded promising but both are relatively difficult and costly to access.

It is understandable why his life has received limited attention, it had a slightly alternative start and was largely comfortable albeit it was one that was broadly disappointing to him. He found little enjoyment or success in his political work and while he had some success in writing it was never enough to support him or secure him rewarding educational work – though fortunately he was insulated from this due to a wealthy father and inheritance.

As a final aside there were some brutally and painfully cringy moments in the last decade of his life where he experimented with polyamory to the great distress of his wife who tried and failed to convince herself she was okay with it.