Olaf Stapledon - Bio

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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 Stapledon’s meticulously organized scrapbooks, still extant in the home

of his final years, built on Simon’s 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.

Stapledon’s 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 author’s 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 genius— 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

Stapledon’s 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 Stapledon’s 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 war—if 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, Stapledon’s 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

Men. Alien symbiotic life, engineered changes in the human form, ecology, overpopulation,

longevity, the history of future civilizations, and the telling of a story of other worlds from a

philosophical rather than an action approach—these are but a few of Stapledon’s major thematic

contributions to the science fiction that followed him.

Therefore, it was not unexpected, when he flew to America on March 23, 1949, to participate

in the Communist-inspired Cultural and Scientific Conference for Peace, that there would be

science fiction enthusiasts like myself eager to hear him. In the company of men for whom time

has not diminished my appellation "contemptible," he had little to say in this conference,

apparently being used as window dressing to lend the gathering a note of respectability. While in

this country Stapledon managed to spend one evening at the Hydra Club, a social group of

professional science fiction writers, but was unable to accept an invitation to a meeting of the

Eastern Science Fiction Association.

In the next decade relatively little attention was paid to Stapledon except for the issuance of

the collection To the End of Time (1953), edited by Basil Davenport. This is a handsome

omnibus volume of some 400,000 words comprising five major works: Last and First Men, Star

Maker, Odd John, Sirius and The Flames, the second, fourth and last being printed in the United

States for the first time. Because of the incredible flood of science fiction that was appearing that

year, however, the book failed to create a new stir of interest in Stapledon.

Here we must pause to note the specific (and possibly surprising) fact that aside from book

reviews, fewer than a dozen articles which by any stretch of the imagination could be called

important had been written about the man in all this time. It was not until a decade after his death

that the first comprehensive critical appraisal, my own "Olaf Stapledon: Cosmic Philospher,"

finally appeared. While researching this work, I became acutely aware that more information

about him was needed than was available from secondary sources. Any author whose main thrust

is philosophical and humanistic can have his work evaluated best in context with his own

background and personality.

In April, 1976, I visited his wife Agnes, as well as Wolfgang Brueck, a man who lived for

years in the Stapledon household virtually as an adopted son. The insights they supplied, together

with information available from other sources, make it possible to present a fuller picture of the

life, family, personality and motivations of Olaf Stapledon and to attach more relevant meanings

to declarations in his works.

The family has a most distinguished genealogy, with origins traced back to the early

fourteenth century (the name was then spelled "Stapeldon"). These are found in the Diocese of

Exeter Episcopal Register, specifically the book Register of Walter de Stapeldon, Bishop of

Exeter, compiled by the Rev. F.C. Hingeston Randolph, M.A. of Oxford, rector of Ringmore and

Prebendary of Exeter, published in London by George Bell and Sons in 1892. In his introduction

Randolph informs us that ". . . Bishop Stapeldon was one of the foremost statesmen of his day,

and advisor of King Edward the Second." Among the services he performed for the king was a

special diplomatic trip to France. It is believed that Exeter College, which originally was called

"Stapeldone Halle," was named in the Bishop’s memory. Randolph’s book also contains a list of

all subscribers and the number of copies each one received. Among them was William Stapledon

of Lakenham, Lando Hall, near Bideford (two copies). The comprehensive record of the

Stapledon family tree remains in the hands of Agnes Stapledon.

William Olaf Stapledon was born May 10, 1886, in Wallasey (now Merseyside), Cheshire,

England. This is not far from Liverpool. His father was William Clibbett Stapledon and his

mother Emmeline Miller Stapledon. The grandfather was founder of William Stapledon and

Sons, an agency with offices in Port Said and in Suez, which supplied water and coal to ships

passing through the Suez Canal. It was the job of Olaf’s father to see that they did so safely.

Alfred Holt and Co. of Liverpool, owners of the Blue Funnel Line, were impressed by his

experience and competence in maritime matters and invited him to join their firm’s head office

in a high managerial position.

The first six years of Olaf’s childhood were spent at Port Said, although his mother had

returned to England to give birth, which proved an extremely difficult one. As a result, Olaf was

rather a lonely child. His closest friend was Rip, a rough-haired terrier which he never forgot and

whose literary echo undoubtedly sounds in some of the animals in Stapledon’s books.

He got along extremely well with his father, who was a great educator and who had a fine

library of classical literature. Many volumes in this were passed on to Olaf and are still in the

possession of Agnes Stapledon. He did not get along as well with his mother, who was

extraordinarily possessive and fearful for his welfare, though by nature she was a kind and gentle

person. Like her husband she also had literary interests; her idol was John Ruskin, with whom

she corresponded extensively.

Ruskin—through his mother—appears to be one of the major influences in Olaf’s adolescent

life. Ruskin, the son of wealthy parents, established himself early as an outstanding poet and

eventually became one of the leading art authorities and social critics of the nineteenth century.

He was ahead of his time in supporting national education, condemning industry for wasting

natural resources and polluting the land, in battling for old-age pensions and championing the

organizing of labor. He also advocated the return to a simpler, less artificial life, and this aspect

of his philosophy attracted a sincere and adoring cult. Emmeline Stapledon was so firmly

convinced of Ruskin’s belief that old handicrafts be kept alive6 that she procured a spinning

wheel. Her cousins supported this enthusiasm and made a pilgrimage to Brantwood, on Coniston

Water, where Ruskin lived. Ruskin’s works were always at hand and discussion of them was

perpetual in the household, so it is easy to understand Olaf’s advocacy for the cause of the

working man and his enthusiasm for socialism in general.

While Emmeline imbued her son with social science, William emphasized the rudiments of the

natural sciences. The boy absorbed enough of both to create that remarkable combination of

philosophy, sociology and science whose balance elevates his writings to their level of greatness.

Olaf’s agnosticism also derived from his parents. His father apparently subscribed to no sect at

all, so any direct religious influence would therefore have had to come from his mother. She was

a Unitarian. Unitarianism is an offshoot of Protestantism which rejects the Trinity and the

divinity of Christ and believes—like the Jews—that God is a single being. Unitarians do,

however, accept the teachings of Christ, emphasizing his ethics and morality. They stress the

importance of character and are known for their tolerance of other religions.

In his mature years Stapledon denied that he was a Christian, although the increasing strain of

mysticism in his work from the 1940’s on indicated a deep-rooted sense of religiosity. In The

Opening of the Eyes his position is that of a "disbeliever in God," because of the hopelessness of

finding any final answers through man acquired knowledge. He also seems to espouse clearly a

higher temporal sphere of existence:

Thus seemingly the scientific temper itself is being forced to conceive that the intricate universe of our

extant science is but a province within an ampler, stranger universe. And so we are surely compelled to

take seriously once more the thought that this world of time and space is but the threshold to another world.

We, who formerly . . . rejected all wild rumours of the unseen reality, must now, it seems, earnestly attend

to those who claim access to that sphere, assuring us that all souls are destined to pass over to it.

Olaf Stapledon had six years of elementary education at Abbotsholme, a progressive boarding

school located in Uttoxeter, Derbyshire. The founder of the school was Dr. Cecil Reddie, who

believed that certain young people should be educated for leadership and responsibility. Olaf

performed extremely well there, but one of the things he most clearly remembered about his stay

was acquiring a first-hand knowledge of how to wash sheep.

His higher education was acquired at Balliol College, Oxford, where he earned both B.A. and

M.A. degrees in history, completing these before the onset of World War I (it was not until after

the war that he received his Ph.D. from the University of Liverpool). His grades at Oxford were

middling. During that period he attained his full physical growth of five feet, eight inches and

140 pounds weight, a weight that seldom varied for the rest of his life. He was muscular and

rowed in the college eight.

If we can accept A Man Divided as autobiographical, we may infer that Stapledon’s first

amatory experiences occurred at Oxford. In this book he expresses the view that the protagonist,

Victor, knew intellectually that sexual prudery was wrong but was emotionally bound up with it.

Victor talks of his experiences at school with two women, one of them older than himself.

Looking back on these liaisons from the perspective of age he is convinced that Freud was wrong

and that there may have been more value in Victorian standards than he was willing at the time

to acknowledge. Victor finds his experiences to be satisfying physically but otherwise sterile,

and he did not continue or resume these relationships.

The foregoing is a prelude to stating that there is much discussion of sex and sexual mores in

Stapledon’s novels. Today, when readers are accustomed to accept the raunchiest material

without blinking, it is easy to overlook the fact that for their time the cast of all his works is

unusually candid and direct. Sexual customs of his fictional civilizations are described just as

fully as their science, art and philosophy. Incest is strongly implied in Odd John. The plot of

Sirius pivots on the sexual relationship between a woman and a dog with human intelligence.

Wife-lending occurs in Last Men in London. When Stapledon’s characters describe their sexual

education, it is not unreasonable to wonder how much of the author’s own experience is being

recounted. Freudian analysis aside, the sex in Stapledon’s fiction adds rather than detracts,

lending another dimension of richness to his best works.

After Olaf left Oxford, his father got him a job with the Blue Funnel Line of Liverpool, where

he performed various minor managerial duties without enthusiasm. It was his father’s hope that

he would make a good showing and eventually inherit his own excellent, well-paying position.

Olaf liked ships but not the paperwork that went with them. At one point he could not account

for 20 pounds of petty cash, which may have been a factor in his eventual leaving.

Following this, he accepted a position as Master at Manchester Grammar School. His favorite

teaching technique was setting up events in history like plays and having his class act them out.

The noise and activity of this got on the nerves of other instructors, and the job lasted only a

year. For short periods after this he worked for William Stapledon and Sons in Port Said, running

a motorboat to reach and board ships to see if they needed coal before or after their canal

passage. (The firm was still in business when Egypt closed the canal after the 1967 war with

Israel, in the control of a cousin.) Olaf’s family—particularly his mother—did not want him

away from home and discouraged his Port Said efforts. They were also happy when a hoped-for

position at the University of Wales fell through.

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OlafStapledon:TheManBehindtheWorksbySamMoskowitzWHENANAUTHORWHOHASACHIEVEDSOMEDEGREEofgreatnessdies,andasumming-upisinorder,themagnitudeofhisachievementisalwaysenhancedifitcanbeshownthatcriticsfailedtoacknowledgehisvirtuesduringtheyearshesoughttoattainareputation.NoonewhohasseenOlafStapledon’smeticu...

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Olaf Stapledon - Bio

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