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"Conflict of Wisdom." Typed Manuscript (TMs).
10 leaves, plus cover sheet. Corrected throughout in Stapledon's hand with amendments, additions, and strikeouts. At the top edge of the cover sheet Gawsworth has written: "Published by me / when editing ENQUIRY / (1949) / John Gawsworth." Accompanied by a handwritten note (ANS) from Stapledon to Gawsworth dated 17 July 1949 returning a corrected proof of the essay. The essay, published in ENQUIRY, August 1949, addresses the "need both for fidelity to the spirit and agnosticism about the ultimate ends of the universe." - Satty and Smith C190. William Olaf Stapledon (1886-1950) "is best remembered for the extraordinary works of speculative fiction 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 ... Stapledon's novels -- LAST AND FIRST MEN (1930), ODD JOHN (1935), STAR MAKER (1937), and SIRIUS (1944) -- have gathered a passionate following, and they have seldom been out of print in the last twenty-five years ... In his social activism as in his fiction, Stapledon embodied many of the of modern era's anxieties and hopes that allow his works to continue to speak to and for the future." - Robert Crossley.
WAKING WORLD.
London: Methuen & Co. Ltd., [1934]. Octavo, pp. [i-iv] v-viii 1-280 + 8-page publisher's catalogue dated "634" at bottom of page 8 inserted at rear, original red cloth, spine panel stamped in gold. First edition. 1523 copies printed. Collection of essays on politics, humanism, and science. Satty and Smith A5.1.
ODD JOHN: A STORY BETWEEN JEST AND EARNEST.
London: Methuen & Co. Ltd., [1935]. Octavo, pp. [i-iv] v [vi] 1-282 + 8-page publisher's catalogue dated "835" at bottom of page 8 inserted at rear, original blue cloth, spine panel stamped in dark blue. First edition, first impression. 3096 copies printed, this copy with later form of inserted catalogue dated "835" on page 8. Stapledon's third novel. "... the most radically thoughtful of the many fictional extrapolations of ON THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES and one of the least comfortable in its conclusion. Above all it exposes the flimsiness of thinking that 'Superman' will always be on the side of the police, that evolution has stopped, or that from now on evolution will only take place nicely." - Survey of Science Fiction Literature IV, pp. 1583-87. "Although the narrative voices Stapledon's biases, it remains perhaps the finest early novel in which mankind is unable to accept and live with advanced mutations (supermen)." - Clareson, Science Fiction in America, 1870s-1930s 720. Anatomy of Wonder (1976) 3-58; (1981) 2-99; (1987) 2-110; (1995) 2-120; and (2004) II-1070. Clute and Nicholls (eds), The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction (1993), p. 1152. Locke, A Spectrum of Fantasy, p. 205. Sargent, British and American Utopian Literature, 1516-1985, Additions. Stableford, Scientific Romance in Britain 1890-1950, pp. 206-09. In 333. Bleiler (1978), p. 185. Reginald 13558. Satty and Smith A6.1.1.1.
SIRIUS: A FANTASY OF LOVE AND DISCORD.
London: Secker & Warburg, 1944. Octavo, pp. [1-4] 5 [6] 7-200, original brown cloth, spine panel stamped in dark brown. First edition, first impression. The world as seen through the eyes of an intelligent dog and his observations on society. "The story is convincing and genuinely moving, a classic of the genre." - Anatomy of Wonder (1987) 2-111. Anatomy of Wonder (2004) II-1071. Clareson, Science Fiction in America, 1870s-1930s 721. Survey of Science Fiction Literature V, pp. 2085-90. Bleiler (1978), p. 185. Reginald 13561. Satty and Smith A14.1.1.
SIRIUS: A FANTASY OF LOVE AND DISCORD.
London: Secker & Warburg, 1944. Octavo, pp. [1-4] 5 [6] 7-200, original brown cloth, spine panel stamped in dark brown. First edition. The world as seen through the eyes of an intelligent dog and his observations on society. "The story is convincing and genuinely moving, a classic of the genre." - Anatomy of Wonder (1987) 2-111. Anatomy of Wonder (2004) II-1071. Clareson, Science Fiction in America, 1870s-1930s 721. Survey of Science Fiction Literature V, pp. 2085-90. Bleiler (1978), p. 185. Reginald 13561. Satty and Smith A14.1.1.
STAR MAKER.
London: Methuen & Co. Ltd., [1937]. Octavo, pp. [i-iv] v-ix [x] xi-xii 1-339 [340: printer's imprint], original blue cloth, spine panel stamped in red. First edition, first impression. 2513 copies of this issue were distributed. The author's fourth novel, often regarded as Stapledon's greatest work, and one of the very few truly seminal modern SF novels. "... mind-boggling imaginative tour de force..." - Survey of Science Fiction Literature V, pp. 2150-55. "... a tremendously exciting exposition of Stapledon's philosophy, which extends his thought to its logical conclusion." - Anatomy of Wonder (1976) 3-60. "A magnificent work by any standards; the most important speculative work of the period." - Anatomy of Wonder (1995) 2-121. "LAST AND FIRST MEN is just slightly an atheist's tract, based largely on nineteenth-century thought, and in particular on Winwood Reade's MARTYRDOM OF MAN. In STAR MAKER, the atheism has become a faith in itself, so that it inevitably approaches higher religion, which is bodied forth on a genuinely new twentieth-century perception of cosmology. It therefore marks a great step forward in Stapledon's art, the thought unfolding with little sense of strain through chapter after chapter. It is magnificent. It is almost unbearable ... LAST AND FIRST MEN and STAR MAKER soar far beyond the accepted limits of science fiction ... Stapledon is the great classical example, the cold pitch of perfection as he turns scientific concepts into vast ontological epic prose poems, the ultimate SF writer." - Aldiss and Wingrove, Trillion Year Spree: The History of Science Fiction, p. 198. Stapledon's "influence, both direct and indirect, on the development of many concepts which now permeate genre SF is probably second only to that of H. G. Wells." - Clute and Nicholls (eds), The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction (1993), pp. 1151-53. Anatomy of Wonder (1981) 2-101; (1987) 2-112; and (2004) II-1072. Bleiler, The Guide to Supernatural Fiction 1514. Clareson, Science Fiction in America, 1870s-1930s 722. Clarke, Tale of the Future (1978), p. 72. Gerber, Utopian Fantasy (1973), p. 153. Locke, A Spectrum of Fantasy, pp. 205. Sargent, British and American Utopian Literature, 1516-1985, p. 215. Stableford, Scientific Romance in Britain 1890-1950, pp. 209-12. In 333. Bleiler (1978), p. 185. Reginald 13562. Satty and Smith A7.1.1.1.