ENGLAND, George Allan

(1877-1936)

   US explorer and author of, inter alia, 5 sf novels and over a dozen magazine serials and short stories from 1905 on; these appeared predominantly in Frank A. MUNSEY's magazines, where he was one of the more popular writers of the pre-1926 period, ranking as the closest rival in sf to Edgar Rice BURROUGHS. His stories were occasionally derivative: his serial "The House of Transformation" (1909) and his short story "The Thing from - Outside" (1923) are reminiscent of, respectively, H.G. WELLS's The Island of Dr Moreau (1896) and Algernon BLACKWOOD's "The Willows" (1907).Several themes recur in his writings. IMMORTALITY and the elixir of youth appear in his LOST-WORLD serial "Beyond White Seas" (1909-10) and in another serial, "The Elixir of Hate" (1911), which presents more sophisticated characterization and ethical analysis than appears elsewhere in his PULP-MAGAZINE work. Socialist thought, in the mode of Jack LONDON, shapes the anticapitalist stances of The Air Trust (1915) and The Golden Blight (1912 Cavalier; 1916); the first centres on a monopoly on air, the second on a ray that temporarily changes gold to ash. The latter has strong racist overtones, as does his most popular work, a long post- HOLOCAUST novel set in a devastated USA about 1000 years hence, Darkness and Dawn (1912-13 Cavalier as 3 separate serials, "Darkness and Dawn", "Beyond the Great Oblivion" and "The Afterglow"; fixup 1914; rev in 5 vols as Darkness and Dawn 1964, Beyond the Great Oblivion 1965, The People of the Abyss 1966, Out of the Abyss 1967, and The Afterglow 1967).Other works of interest include "The Empire of the Air" (1914), a serialized novel of INVASION by immaterial beings from the fourth DIMENSION, and "June 6, 2016" (1916), a short story with elaborate future gadgetry and a feminist twist. The Flying Legion (1920) is a heist story of the NEAR FUTURE involving advanced weaponry and the theft from Mecca of Islam's most sacred relic. "The Fatal Gift" (1915), a serial, deals with the production of a superwoman by plastic surgery. Lesser works are: "The Time Reflector" (1905), about an invention for viewing the past; "A Message from the Moon" (1907), in which advertising matter is projected onto the Moon; "My Time Annihilator" (1909), ostensibly about TIME TRAVEL to the past but really about madness; "He of the Glass Heart" (1911), featuring an artificial heart; and "Drops of Death" (1922), a scientific detective story. "The Tenth Question" (1916), a mathematical puzzle story (MATHEMATICS), was later rewritten by Stanley G. WEINBAUM as "Brink of Infinity" (1936).

   JE/EFB

   Other works: Keep Off the Grass (1919).

   See also: CITIES; DEVOLUTION; DISASTER; DISCOVERY AND INVENTION; DYSTOPIAS; EVOLUTION; HISTORY OF SF; INVISIBILITY; MONEY; MONSTERS; POLITICS; VILLAINS.