"Olaf Stapledon - Bio" - читать интересную книгу автора (Stapledon Olaf)

Olaf Stapledon: The Man Behind the Works
by Sam Moskowitz
WHEN AN AUTHOR WHO HAS ACHIEVED SOME DEGREE of greatness dies, and a
summing-up is in order, the magnitude of his achievement is always enhanced if it can be shown
that critics failed to acknowledge his virtues during the years he sought to attain a reputation. No
one who has seen Olaf StapledonтАЩs meticulously organized scrapbooks, still extant in the home
of his final years, built on SimonтАЩs Field along Mill Hey Lane in Caldy, West Kirby, Wirral,
England, could ever make that claim. The literally hundreds of notices, from virtually every
newspaper-and book-reviewing medium in the English-speaking world, especially of the early
titles Last and First Men, Odd John, and Star Maker, must be read to be believed. Many are of
extraordinary length, often written by critics whose names are still recognizable and command
respect.
StapledonтАЩs works are imaginative, deeply philosophical, and involved with sociological and
political problems; mind-staggering concepts flood their pages in torrential cascade. They
challenge the understanding of the average reader constantly. Yet the critics and reviewers,
perhaps incredibly, seem to have read them thoroughly, comprehended them fully, and been
immensely impressed. Review after review pays homage to the authorтАЩs universe-expanding
imagination, to the importance of his philosophical approach, to his social understanding, and to
his skill at melding these things together into works that are outstanding examples of the science
fiction art. Some reviewers call him a geniusтАФ and in no casual manner. Unfavorable notices are
rare. If critical recognition is a valid mark of literary success, Stapledon may be said to have
reached the apex early.
There seems little question that it was because of these reviews that Olaf Stapledon decided to
become a full-time writer and to use income from a family inheritance to maintain himself
through most of his life from 1932 on. At no time did the proceeds from his published works
even begin to pay his living costs, but he understandably decided he had found his metier and
that the advantages in this career outweighed the disadvantages.
With the outbreak of World War II, paper shortages curtailed the size of the editions of
StapledonтАЩs works and diverted public attention from the type of books he was writing. Two
titles appeared in 1939: the two volume Pelican Philosophy and Living: New Hope for Britain,
completed earlier and now published with a "Postscript Preface on the War," which
acknowledged that some of the contents were already being superseded by current events; and
Saints and Revolutionaries, one of the "I Believe" series published by William Heinemann. In
the war years that followed there was also Beyond the Isms, a Searchlight paperback printed in
1942; Darkness and the Light, a sort of Last and First Men in a minor key the same year; and in
1944, Sirius, possibly StapledonтАЩs finest sustained piece of writing. Although it did not appear
till 1946, Death into Life was undoubtedly also written during the war years.
As a result of those limited editions (none of which was published outside England until after
the warтАФif at all), the fact that several were topical (and therefore became outdated quickly), as
well as the more limited appeal of nonfiction titles, the quantity, quality and length of the
reviews they received diminished considerably. There was, however, some acknowledgment of
the brilliance of Sirius, the best of his wartime writings.
Despite this, StapledonтАЩs reputation in England continued to grow, and the magnitude of his
intelligence and imagination was widely recognized. After his death the philosophical world that
had been the essence of his life, and to whose journals he had frequently contributed, promptly
proceeded to forget him. Indeed, I cannot find a single major history of philosophy written in
England after World War II that grants him so much as a footnote.
His influence on the science fiction world, on the other hand, has been profound and self-
perpetuating. The concept of galactic empires reflected in the works of E.E. Smith, A.E. Van
Vogt, Isaac Asimov, and even television scripts of Star Trek, derive directly from Last and First