George Griffith (1857–1906), full name George Chetwynd Griffith-Jones, was a prolific British science fiction writer and noted explorer who wrote during the late Victorian and
Edwardian
The Edwardian era or Edwardian period of British history spanned the reign of King Edward VII, 1901 to 1910 and is sometimes extended to the start of the First World War. The death of Queen Victoria in January 1901 marked the end of the Victori ...
age. Many of his visionary tales appeared in magazines such as ''
Pearson's Magazine
''Pearson's Magazine'' was a monthly periodical that first appeared in Britain in 1896. A US version began publication in 1899. It specialised in speculative literature, political discussion, often of a socialist bent, and the arts. Its contribut ...
'' and ''
Pearson's Weekly
''Pearson's Weekly'' was a British weekly periodical founded in London in 1890 by Arthur Pearson, who had previously worked on '' Tit-Bits'' for George Newnes.
The first issue was well advertised and sold a quarter of a million copies. The paper' ...
'' before being published as novels. Griffith was extremely popular in the United Kingdom, though he failed to find similar acclaim in the United States, in part due to his
utopian socialist
Utopian socialism is the term often used to describe the first current of modern socialism and socialist thought as exemplified by the work of Henri de Saint-Simon, Charles Fourier, Étienne Cabet, and Robert Owen. Utopian socialism is often de ...
views. A journalist, rather than a scientist, by background, what his stories lack in scientific rigour and literary grace they make up for in sheer exuberance of execution.
:"To-night that spark was to be shaken from the torch of Revolution, and to-morrow the first of the mines would explode...the armies of Europe would fight their way through the greatest war that the world had ever seen." – from Griffith's most famous novel '' The Angel of the Revolution''.
Life
He was the son of a vicar who became a schoolmaster in his mid-20s. After writing freelance articles in his spare time, he joined a newspaper for a short spell, then authored a series of secular pamphlets including ''Ananias, The Atheist's God: For the Attention of
Charles Bradlaugh
Charles Bradlaugh (; 26 September 1833 – 30 January 1891) was an English political activist and atheist. He founded the National Secular Society in 1866, 15 years after George Holyoake had coined the term "secularism" in 1851.
In 1880, Brad ...
''. After the success of Admiral Philip H. Colomb's '' The Great War of 1892'' (itself a version of the more famous ''
The Battle of Dorking
''The Battle of Dorking: Reminiscences of a Volunteer'' is an 1871 novella by George Tomkyns Chesney, starting the genre of invasion literature and an important precursor of science fiction. Written just after the Prussian victory in the Franc ...
''), Griffith, then on the staff of ''Pearson's Magazine'' as a clerk addressing envelopes and mailing labels, submitted a synopsis for a story entitled '' The Angel of the Revolution''. It remains his best and most famous work. It was among the first of the so-called ''marvel tales,'' epitomised by
Jules Verne
Jules Gabriel Verne (;''Longman Pronunciation Dictionary''. ; 8 February 1828 – 24 March 1905) was a French novelist, poet, and playwright. His collaboration with the publisher Pierre-Jules Hetzel led to the creation of the ''Voyages extraor ...
. Marvel tales featured such things as heavier-than-air flying machines, compressed air guns, submarines, profoundly convenient political developments, wooden heroes with no readily apparent sexual tastes, and spectacular aerial, land, or undersea combat. Later novels, such as ''The Gold Finder'' developed the heroes' romantic interests. His short stories were very similar to the future war tales of George Chesney and his imitators along with the political utopianism of
William Morris
William Morris (24 March 1834 – 3 October 1896) was a British textile designer, poet, artist, novelist, architectural conservationist, printer, translator and socialist activist associated with the British Arts and Crafts Movement. He ...
' ''
News from Nowhere
''News from Nowhere'' (1890) is a classic work combining utopian socialism and soft science fiction written by the artist, designer and socialist pioneer William Morris. It was first published in serial form in the ''Commonweal'' journal begin ...
''. He wrote a sequel, serialised as ''The Syren of the Skies'' in ''Pearson's Magazine''. It was later published as a novel titled with the name of its main character, '' Olga Romanoff''.
Although overshadowed by
steampunk
Steampunk is a subgenre of science fiction that incorporates retrofuturistic technology and aesthetics inspired by 19th-century industrial steam-powered machinery. Steampunk works are often set in an alternative history of the Victorian era or ...
novels 100 years before the term was even coined.
Michael Moorcock
Michael John Moorcock (born 18 December 1939) is an English writer, best-known for science fiction and fantasy, who has published a number of well-received literary novels as well as comic thrillers, graphic novels and non-fiction. He has work ...
claims that the works of George Griffith had a dramatic impact on his own writing. The concept of revolutionaries imposing "a ''pax aeronautica'' over the earth", at the center of ''The Angel of the Revolution'', was taken up by Wells many years later, in ''
The Shape of Things to Come
''The Shape of Things to Come'' is a work of science fiction by British writer H. G. Wells, published in 1933. It takes the form of a future history which ends in 2106.
Synopsis
A long economic slump causes a major war that leaves Europe dev ...
''. Wells himself once wrote that Griffith's ''Outlaws of the Air'' was an "aeronautical classic".
Though a less accomplished writer than
Upton Sinclair
Upton Beall Sinclair Jr. (September 20, 1878 – November 25, 1968) was an American writer, muckraker, political activist and the 1934 Democratic Party nominee for governor of California who wrote nearly 100 books and other works in seve ...
,
George Bernard Shaw
George Bernard Shaw (26 July 1856 – 2 November 1950), known at his insistence simply as Bernard Shaw, was an Irish playwright, critic, polemicist and political activist. His influence on Western theatre, culture and politics extended from ...
, and H.G. Wells, his novels were extremely popular in their day, seeing many printings . Griffith's stories foreshadowed
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
and foretold a
utopian
A utopia ( ) typically describes an imaginary community or society that possesses highly desirable or nearly perfect qualities for its members. It was coined by Sir Thomas More for his 1516 book ''Utopia'', describing a fictional island society ...
communist revolution in the United States. It also predicted that Great Britain would ally itself with Germany against a Franco-Russian-Italian alliance, almost the exact opposite of what actually happened when
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
started. Griffith also employed the concepts of the
air to surface missile
An air-to-surface missile (ASM) or air-to-ground missile (AGM) is a missile designed to be launched from military aircraft at targets on land or sea. There are also unpowered guided glide bombs not considered missiles. The two most common prop ...
and
VTOL
A vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) aircraft is one that can take off and land vertically without relying on a runway. This classification can include a variety of types of aircraft including helicopters as well as thrust-vectoring fixed-win ...
aircraft. He wrote several tales of adventure set on contemporary earth, while ''The Outlaws of the Air'' depicted a future of aerial warfare and the creation of a Pacific island
utopia
A utopia ( ) typically describes an imaginary community or society that possesses highly desirable or nearly perfect qualities for its members. It was coined by Sir Thomas More for his 1516 book ''Utopia (book), Utopia'', describing a fictional ...
.
Sam Moskowitz
Sam Moskowitz (June 30, 1920 – April 15, 1997) was an American writer, critic, and historian of science fiction.
Biography
As a child, Moskowitz greatly enjoyed reading science fiction pulp magazines. As a teenager, he organized a branch of ...
described him as "undeniably the most popular science fiction writer in England between 1893 and 1895." Some of his books (especially ''The Gold Finder'') also reflected a belief in the undesirability of racial mixing, due to a supposed deficiency in the black race. These beliefs were similar to those of some of the revolutionary type of socialists of the time, such as
Jack London
John Griffith Chaney (January 12, 1876 – November 22, 1916), better known as Jack London, was an American novelist, journalist and activist. A pioneer of commercial fiction and American magazines, he was one of the first American authors to ...
.
His science fiction depicted grand and unlikely voyages through the
Solar System
The Solar SystemCapitalization of the name varies. The International Astronomical Union, the authoritative body regarding astronomical nomenclature, specifies capitalizing the names of all individual astronomical objects but uses mixed "Solar S ...
in the spirit of Wells or
Jules Verne
Jules Gabriel Verne (;''Longman Pronunciation Dictionary''. ; 8 February 1828 – 24 March 1905) was a French novelist, poet, and playwright. His collaboration with the publisher Pierre-Jules Hetzel led to the creation of the ''Voyages extraor ...
, though his explorers donned space suits remarkably prescient in their design. ''Honeymoon in Space'' saw his newly married adventurers, exemplars of the "Race that Rules", exploring planets in different stages of geological and Darwinian evolution on an educational odyssey drawing heavily on earlier cosmic voyages by
Camille Flammarion
Nicolas Camille Flammarion FRAS (; 26 February 1842 – 3 June 1925) was a French astronomer and author. He was a prolific author of more than fifty titles, including popular science works about astronomy, several notable early science fic ...
,
W. S. Lach-Szyrma
The Reverend Wladislaw Somerville Lach-Szyrma, M.A., F.R.H.S. (25 December 1841 – 25 June 1915) was a British curate, historian and science fiction writer. He is credited as one of the first science fiction writers to use the word "Martian ...
, and
Edgar Fawcett
Edgar Fawcett (May 26, 1847 – May 2, 1904) was an American novelist and poet.
Biography
Early life and education
Fawcett was born in New York City on May 26, 1847 and spent much of his life there. Educated at Columbia College, he obtained th ...
. Its illustrations by Stanley L. Wood have proved more significant, providing the first depictions of slender, super-intelligent aliens with large, bald heads – the archetype of the famous Greys of modern science fiction. His short story "The Great Crellin Comet", published in 1897, was the first story to not only include a 10-second countdown for a space launch (though a countdown of sorts is included in Jules Verne's 1887 novel, ''
The Purchase of the North Pole
''The Purchase of the North Pole'' or ''Topsy-Turvy'' (french: Sans dessus dessous) is an adventure novel by Jules Verne, published in 1889. It is the third and last novel of the Baltimore Gun Club, first appearing in ''From the Earth to the Moo ...
''), but also the first story to suggest that a cometary collision with Earth could be stopped by human intervention.
As an explorer of the real world, he shattered the existing record for voyaging around the world at the behest of
Sir Arthur Pearson
''Sir'' is a formal honorific address in English for men, derived from Sire in the High Middle Ages. Both are derived from the old French "Sieur" (Lord), brought to England by the French-speaking Normans, and which now exist in French only as ...
, completing his journey in just 65 days. He also helped discover the source of the
Amazon River
The Amazon River (, ; es, Río Amazonas, pt, Rio Amazonas) in South America is the largest river by discharge volume of water in the world, and the disputed longest river system in the world in comparison to the Nile.
The headwaters of t ...
. This was documented in ''
Pearson's Magazine
''Pearson's Magazine'' was a monthly periodical that first appeared in Britain in 1896. A US version began publication in 1899. It specialised in speculative literature, political discussion, often of a socialist bent, and the arts. Its contribut ...
'' before being published as a book, ''Around the World in 65 Days'', in 2009. He died of
cirrhosis of the liver
Cirrhosis, also known as liver cirrhosis or hepatic cirrhosis, and end-stage liver disease, is the impaired liver function caused by the formation of scar tissue known as fibrosis due to damage caused by liver disease. Damage causes tissue repai ...
, at the age of 48, in 1906.
Legacy
His son was the engineer
Alan Arnold Griffith
Alan Arnold Griffith (13 June 1893 – 13 October 1963), son of Victorian science fiction writer George Griffith, was an English engineer. Among many other contributions he is best known for his work on stress and fracture in metals that is no ...
, who was the originator of the Griffith crack theory concerning brittle materials such as glass.
Inca
The Inca Empire (also known as the Incan Empire and the Inka Empire), called ''Tawantinsuyu'' by its subjects, (Quechua for the "Realm of the Four Parts", "four parts together" ) was the largest empire in pre-Columbian America. The admin ...
From 2003 onwards Heliograph Inc. published editions of ''A Honeymoon in Space'' and ''Stories of Other Worlds'', ''The Angel of the Revolution'' and ''The Syren of the Skies''.
In 2006 Apogee Books released ''The World Peril of 1910'' as part of its series of classic science fiction.
In 2008 Apogee released ''Around the World in 65 Days'', an anthology of travel writing. The book collects Griffith's world travels, including one trip around the world done in a record-breaking 65 days. In addition, many of Griffith's other adventures are included. His trip to South America is recounted in "A Railway Beyond the Clouds", "A Ride to the City of the Sun", "A Paradise of Tomorrow", "The Most Majestic Mountain", and "Los Medanos". His travels of North America in "The Snake-Dancers of Arizona" are somehow even more exotic. Griffith claims to have made the first intentional flight across the English Channel in "To France by Air". In "When will the 20th Century Begin?", Griffith discusses the intricacies of time zones, something with which he had quite a lot of practice. The Apogee edition includes an introduction by Griffith's grandson, John Griffith, relating some of the family history, particularly of
Alan Arnold Griffith
Alan Arnold Griffith (13 June 1893 – 13 October 1963), son of Victorian science fiction writer George Griffith, was an English engineer. Among many other contributions he is best known for his work on stress and fracture in metals that is no ...
, and a biography of George Griffith by editor
Robert Godwin
Robert Godwin (born 1958 in England) is a British author who has written about rock music and spaceflight. Early in his career he was a rock music impresario who managed a venue in Burlington, Ontario and founded Griffin Music.
Personal infor ...
.
In 2009, Leonaur Press released ''The Angel of the Revolution'' and ''Olga Romanoff'' as a two-volume set entitled ''Empire of the Air'' in both hardback and paperback.
In 2011 Apogee Books released ''A Honeymoon in Space''.
Project Gutenberg Australia
Project Gutenberg Australia, abbreviated as PGA, is an Internet site which was founded in 2001 by Colin Choat. It is a sister site of Project Gutenberg, though there is no formal relationship between the two organizations. The site hosts free eboo ...
The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction
''The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction'' (SFE) is an English language reference work on science fiction
Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and f ...