SPITZ, Jacques

(1896-1963)

   French writer whose first sf novel of interest, L'agonie du globe (1935; trans Margaret Mitchiner as Sever the Earth 1936 UK), describes the consequences attendant upon the splitting of the planet into two halves 50 miles (80km) apart. In La Guerre des mouches ("War of the Flies") (1938) mutated flies defeat humanity, keeping alive only a fewabject specimens, one of whom tells the tale. The SCIENTIST protagonist of L'Homme elastique ("The Elastic Man") (1938) discovers a method ofcompressing atoms, allowing him (on request) to create an army of tiny soldiers, who turn out to be examples of Homo superior (SUPERMAN). In L'Oeil du purgatoire ("The Eye of Purgatory") (1945) a mad scientistdevelops a bacillus which, when injected into the protagonist, allows (or forces) him to see the future wherever he looks - a condition which becomes purgatorial as he sees deeper and deeper into the destinies of those around him, until eventually he is capable of perceiving little more than corpses.

   JC

   See also: FRANCE.