NationMaster - Encyclopedia: Olaf Stapledon

William Olaf Stapledon (May 10, 1886 – September 6, 1950) was a British philosopher and author of several influential works of science fiction. Image File history File links Olaf_Stapledon. ... is the 130th day of the year (131st in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1886 (MDCCCLXXXVI) was a common year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Sunday of the 12-day slower Julian calendar). ... is the 249th day of the year (250th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1950 (MCML) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... For the album by the Kaiser Chiefs see Employment (album) Employment is a contract between two parties, one being the employer and the other being the employee. ... A literary genre is one of the divisions of literature into genres according to particular criteria such as literary technique, tone, or content. ... Science fiction is a form of speculative fiction principally dealing with the impact of imagined science and technology, or both, upon society and persons as individuals. ... The philosopher Socrates about to take poison hemlock as ordered by the court. ... H. G. Wells at the door of his house at Sandgate Herbert George Wells (September 21, 1866 - August 13, 1946) was an English writer best known for his science fiction novels such as The War of the Worlds and The Time Machine. ... John Burdon Sanderson Haldane (November 5, 1892 - December 1, 1964), who normally used J.B.S. as a first name, was a geneticist born in Scotland and educated at Eton and Oxford University. ... Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (October 15, 1844 â€“ August 25, 1900) (IPA: ) was a 19th-century German philosopher. ... Sir Arthur Charles Clarke, CBE (born 16 December 1917) is a British science-fiction author and inventor, most famous for his novel 2001: A Space Odyssey, and for collaborating with director Stanley Kubrick on the film of the same name. ... Brian Wilson Aldiss, OBE, (born August 18, 1925 in East Dereham, Norfolk) is a prolific English author of both general fiction and science fiction. ... The title given to this article is incorrect due to technical limitations. ... is the 130th day of the year (131st in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1886 (MDCCCLXXXVI) was a common year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Sunday of the 12-day slower Julian calendar). ... is the 249th day of the year (250th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1950 (MCML) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... Science fiction is a form of speculative fiction principally dealing with the impact of imagined science and technology, or both, upon society and persons as individuals. ...

Life

He was born in Seacombe, Wallasey, on the Wirral peninsula near Liverpool, the only son of William Clibbert Stapledon and Emmeline Miller. The first six years of his life were spent with his parents at Port Said. He was educated at Abbotsholme School and Balliol College, Oxford, where he acquired a BA in Modern History in 1909 and a Masters degree in 1913. 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. Seacombe is a village on Wirral, Merseyside,England Categories: UK geography stubs | Wirral, Villages and Towns ... Wallasey is a large town on the mouth of the River Mersey, at the north-eastern corner of the Wirral. ... The Wirral is a peninsula in North West England bounded by the River Dee to the west and the River Mersey to the east. ... Location within England Coordinates: , Sovereign state United Kingdom Constituent country England Region North West England Ceremonial county Historic county Merseyside Lancashire Admin HQ Liverpool City Centre Founded 1207 City Status 1880 Government - Type Metropolitan borough, City - Governing body Liverpool City Council Area - Borough & City 43. ... Port Said (postcard around 1915) Port Said (31. ... Abbotsholme School is a private boarding and day school located at Rocester in Staffordshire, England. ... and of the Balliol College College name Balliol College Named after John de Balliol Established 1263 Sister college St Johns College, Cambridge Master Andrew Graham JCR President Helen Lochead Undergraduates 403 MCR President Chelsea Payne Graduates 228 Location of Balliol College within central Oxford , Homepage Boatclub Balliol College (pronounced... Year 1909 (MCMIX) was a common year starting on Friday (link will display full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Thursday of the 13-day-slower Julian calendar). ... Year 1913 (MCMXIII) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Tuesday of the 13-day-slower Julian calendar). ... The Manchester Grammar School (MGS) is an independent boys school (ages 11-18) in Fallowfield, Manchester, England. ... Location within England Coordinates: , Sovereign state United Kingdom Constituent country England Region North West England Ceremonial county Historic county Merseyside Lancashire Admin HQ Liverpool City Centre Founded 1207 City Status 1880 Government - Type Metropolitan borough, City - Governing body Liverpool City Council Area - Borough & City 43. ... Port Said (postcard around 1915) Port Said (31. ... Year 1910 (MCMX) was a common year starting on Saturday (link will display calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Friday [1] of the 13-day-slower Julian calendar). ... Year 1913 (MCMXIII) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Tuesday of the 13-day-slower Julian calendar). ...

During World War I he served with the Friends' Ambulance Unit in France and Belgium from July 1915 to January 1919. On 16 July 1919 he married Agnes Zena Miller (1894-1984), an Australian cousin whom he had first met in 1903, and who maintained a correspondence with him throughout the war from her home in Sydney. They had a daughter, Mary Sydney Stapledon (1920-), and a son, John David Stapledon (1923-). In 1920 they moved to West Kirby, and in 1925 Stapledon was awarded a PhD in philosophy from the University of Liverpool. He wrote A Modern Theory of Ethics, which was published in 1929. However he soon turned to fiction to present his ideas to a wider public. Last and First Men was very successful and prompted him to become a full-time writer. He wrote a sequel, and followed it up with many more books on subjects associated with what is now called Transhumanism. â€œThe Great War â€ redirects here. ... The Friends Ambulance Unit was a volunteer ambulance service, founded by British Quakers, and mostly staffed by conscientious objectors, that operated from 1914-1919, 1939-1946 and 1946-1959 in twenty-five countries around the world. ... Year 1915 (MCMXV) was a common year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Thursday[1] of the 13-day-slower Julian calendar). ... Year 1919 (MCMXIX) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar). ... is the 197th day of the year (198th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1919 (MCMXIX) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar). ... 1900 (MCMIII) was a common year starting on Thursday (link will display calendar) of the Gregorian calendar or a common year starting on Friday of the 13-day slower Julian calendar. ... The Sydney Opera House on Sydney Harbour Sydney (pronounced ) is the most populous city in Australia, with a metropolitan area population of approximately 4. ... 1920 (MCMXX) was a leap year starting on Thursday. ... Sunset over the Marine Lake West Kirby is a town located on the north west corner of the coast of the Wirral Peninsula, Merseyside, England. ... Year 1925 (MCMXXV) was a common year starting on Thursday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... The philosopher Socrates about to take poison hemlock as ordered by the court. ... The University of Liverpool is a university in the city of Liverpool, England. ... Year 1929 (MCMXXIX) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... Natasha Vita-Mores Primo is an artistic depiction of a hypothetical posthuman of transhumanist speculation. ...

In 1940 the family built and moved into Simon's Field, in Caldy. After 1945 Stapledon travelled widely on lecture tours, visiting the Netherlands, Sweden and France, and in 1948 he spoke at the Congress of Intellectuals for Peace in Wrocław, Poland. He attended the Conference for World Peace held in New York in 1949, the only Briton to be granted a visa to do so. In 1950 he became involved with the anti-apartheid movement; after a week of lectures in Paris, he cancelled a projected trip to Yugoslavia and returned to his home in Caldy, where he died very suddenly of a heart attack. Year 1940 (MCMXL) was a leap year starting on Monday (link will display the full 1940 calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... Caldy is a picturesque village on the Wirral Peninsula. ... Year 1945 (MCMXLV) was a common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar). ... Year 1948 (MCMXLVIII) was a leap year starting on Thursday (link will display the 1948 calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... Motto: Miasto spotkaÅ„ (the meeting place) Coordinates: , Country Poland Voivodeship Lower Silesian Powiat city county Gmina WrocÅ‚aw Established 10th century City Rights 1262 Government - Mayor RafaÅ‚ Dutkiewicz Area - City 292. ... â€œNYâ€ redirects here. ... 1949 (MCMXLIX) was a common year starting on Saturday (the link is to a full 1949 calendar). ... Year 1950 (MCML) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... In response to an appeal by Albert Luthuli, the British Anti-Apartheid Movement (AAM) was founded in London on 26 June 1959 at a meeting of South African exiles and their supporters [1]. Julius Nyerere would summarize its purpose: [2]. Originally called the Boycott Movement, it would expand its focus... City flag City coat of arms Motto: Fluctuat nec mergitur (Latin: Tossed by the waves, she does not sink) The Eiffel Tower in Paris, as seen from the esplanade du TrocadÃ©ro. ... Yugoslavia (Jugoslavija in the Latin alphabet, ÐˆÑƒÐ³Ð¾ÑÐ»Ð°Ð²Ð¸Ñ˜Ð° in Cyrillic; English: South Slavia) describes three political entities that existed one at a time on the Balkan Peninsula in Europe, during most of the 20th century. ... Caldy is a picturesque village on the Wirral Peninsula. ...

Work

His work directly influenced Arthur C. Clarke, Brian Aldiss, Stanisław Lem, C.S. Lewis and John Maynard Smith and indirectly influenced countless others, contributing so many ideas to the world of science-fiction (most of them inspired by his readings in philosophy) that they are too numerous to list. Although his work predated the appearance of the word "transhuman" in 1966, both the transhuman condition and the supermind (composed of many individual consciousnesses) form recurring themes in his work. Star Maker also contained the first known description of Dyson spheres. Freeman Dyson credits this novel with giving him the idea. Last and First Men also featured early descriptions of genetic engineering and terraforming. Sirius describes a dog whose intelligence is increased to the level of a human being's. Sir Arthur Charles Clarke, CBE (born 16 December 1917) is a British science-fiction author and inventor, most famous for his novel 2001: A Space Odyssey, and for collaborating with director Stanley Kubrick on the film of the same name. ... Brian Wilson Aldiss, OBE, (born August 18, 1925 in East Dereham, Norfolk) is a prolific English author of both general fiction and science fiction. ... StanisÅ‚aw Lem (1966). ... Clive Staples Lewis (November 29, 1898 – November 22, 1963), commonly referred to as C. S. Lewis, was an author and scholar. ... Professor John Maynard Smith[1], F.R.S. (6 January 1920 â€“ 19 April 2004) was a British evolutionary biologist and geneticist. ... Natasha Vita-Mores Primo is an artistic depiction of a hypothetical posthuman of transhumanist speculation. ... Star Maker (1937) is a cornerstone work of science fiction by Olaf Stapledon, in which he undertakes the immense task of describing the entire history of life in the universe. ... A cut-away diagram of an idealized Dyson shellâ€”a variant on Dysons original conceptâ€”1 AU in radius. ... Freeman John Dyson (born December 15, 1923) is a British-born American physicist and mathematician, famous for his work in quantum mechanics, solid-state physics, nuclear weapons design and policy, and for his serious theorizing in futurism and science fiction concepts, including the search for extraterrestrial intelligence. ... Last and First Men: A Story of the Near and Far Future is a science fiction novel written in 1930 by the British author Olaf Stapledon. ... An iconic image of genetic engineering; this autoluminograph from 1986 of a glowing transgenic tobacco plant bearing the luciferase gene, illustrating the possibilities of genetic engineering. ... Artists conception of a terraformed Mars in four stages of development. ... Sirius is a 1944 science fiction novel by the British author Olaf Stapledon. ...

His fiction often represents the strivings of some intelligence that is beaten down by an indifferent universe, and its inhabitants which, through no fault of their own, fail to comprehend these lofty yearnings. It is filled with protagonists who are tormented by the conflict between their "higher" and "lower" impulses. Last and First Men (a projected history of humanity) and Star Maker (a sketched history of the Universe) in particular were highly acclaimed by figures as diverse as J. B. Priestley, Virginia Woolf and Winston Churchill. Their philosophy repelled C. S. Lewis, whose Cosmic Trilogy was written partly in response to a perceived amorality, although Lewis admired Stapledon's "invention, though not his philosophy" and described him as "a corking good writer". In fact Stapledon was an agnostic who was hostile to religious institutions, but not to religious yearnings, a fact which set him at odds with H. G. Wells in their correspondence. John Boynton Priestley, OM (13 September 1894, Bradford - 14 August 1984, Warwickshire) was an English writer and broadcaster . ... For the American childrens writer, see Virginia Euwer Wolff Virginia Woolf (nÃ©e Stephen) (January 25, 1882 â€“ March 28, 1941) was an English novelist and essayist regarded as one of the foremost modernist literary figures of the twentieth century. ... Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill, KG, OM, CH, TD, FRS, PC (Can) (30 November 1874 â€“ 24 January 1965) was a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1940 to 1945 and again from 1951 to 1955. ... Clive Staples Lewis (29 November 1898 â€“ 22 November 1963), commonly referred to as C. S. Lewis, was an Irish author and scholar. ... The Space Trilogy, Cosmic Trilogy or Ransom Trilogy is a trilogy of three science fiction novels by C. S. Lewis. ... The term agnosticism and the related agnostic were coined by Thomas Henry Huxley in 1869. ... Herbert George Wells (September 21, 1866 â€“ August 13, 1946), better known as H. G. Wells, was an English writer best known for such science fiction novels as The Time Machine, The War of the Worlds, The Invisible Man, The First Men in the Moon and The Island of Doctor Moreau. ...

None of his novels or short stories have been filmed, although George Pal bought the rights to Odd John. George Pál (February 1, 1908 - May 2, 1980) was a Hungarian-born American animator and film producer. ... Odd John is a 1936 science fiction novel by the British author Olaf Stapledon which explores the theme of the superman. ...

Together with his philosophy lectureship at the University of Liverpool (which now houses the Olaf Stapledon archive), Stapledon lectured in English literature, industrial history and psychology. He wrote many non-fiction books on political and ethical subjects, in which he advocated the growth of "spiritual values", which he defined as those values expressive of a yearning for greater awareness of the self in a larger context ("personality-in-community"). The philosopher Socrates about to take poison hemlock as ordered by the court. ... The term English literature refers to literature written in the English language, including literature composed in English by writers not necessarily from England; Joseph Conrad was Polish, Robert Burns was Scottish, James Joyce was Irish, Dylan Thomas was Welsh, Edgar Allan Poe was American, Salman Rushdie is Indian, V.S... Industry in the sense of professional manufacturing has existed for millennia, since the first cities rose. ... Psychology (from Greek: ÏˆÏ…Ï‡Î®, psukhÄ“, spirit, soul; and Î»ÏŒÎ³Î¿Ï‚, logos, knowledge) is both an academic and applied discipline involving the scientific study of mental processes and behavior. ...

Bibliography

Fiction

Last and First Men: A Story of the Near and Far Future is a science fiction novel written in 1930 by the British author Olaf Stapledon. ... Last Men in London (1932) is a science fiction novel by Olaf Stapledon. ... Odd John is a 1936 science fiction novel by the British author Olaf Stapledon which explores the theme of the superman. ... Star Maker (1937) is a cornerstone work of science fiction by Olaf Stapledon, in which he undertakes the immense task of describing the entire history of life in the universe. ... Darkness and the Light (1942) is a science fiction novel by Olaf Stapledon. ... Old Man in New World is a short story by Olaf Stapledon, published as a separate volume by George Allen and Unwin in 1944. ... Sirius is a 1944 science fiction novel by the British author Olaf Stapledon. ... Four Encounters is an unfinished work by the writer and philosopher Olaf Stapledon, written in the late 1940s but only published by Brans Head Books in 1976, 26 years after the authors death. ...

Non-fiction

Poetry

Collections

External links

Categories: People from Wallasey | 1886 births | 1950 deaths | British philosophers | British science fiction writers | Alumni of Balliol College, Oxford | People associated with the University of Liverpool The Internet Speculative Fiction Database is a database of bibliographic information on science fiction and related genres such as fantasy fiction and horror fiction. ... is the 130th day of the year (131st in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1886 (MDCCCLXXXVI) was a common year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Sunday of the 12-day slower Julian calendar). ... Poulton is an area of the town of Wallasey, on the Wirral Peninsula in England. ... Wallasey is a large town on the mouth of the River Mersey, at the north-eastern corner of the Wirral. ... is the 249th day of the year (250th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1950 (MCML) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... Caldy is a picturesque village on the Wirral Peninsula. ...

Contents

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