I picked Olaf Stapledon a few weeks ago when I came across his name somewhere and now I can’t remember where. I was already familiar with the name but can’t find anything on my shelves to back that up, I suspect I read his books in my dim, dark past when I wasn’t necessarily remembering the books I was reading with books borrowed from somewhere. Anyway, enough about me let me share a little of my research with you.

Stapledon, born in Cheshire, England in 1886. He was a philosopher and science fiction author, two fields which have some synchronicity in my mind, I’ve seen many science fiction authors philosophise about some of the inventions in their books and how they’d affect humanity.

He was writing early enough to be an influence on several prominent science fiction authors notably Arthur C Clarke (I happened to have started reading some of his short stories last night), Brian Aldiss and Stanislaw Lem.

During the last few years of his life he travelled extensively on lecture tours becoming the only Briton allowed a visa for the USA to visit New York for the Conference for World Peace in 1949. Not long after WWII is a very apt time for a conference of this nature, I do wonder how those conferences went, especially as the US and Russia were involved in a cold war at that time.

Some of his most noted works are Last and First Men, Starmaker and Odd John, this last title’s rights were snapped up in the 1960s with David McCallum slated to play the title role, it’s a pity it never happened. I’ve mentioned McCallum before with his roles in The Man From U.N.C.L.E. and N.C.I.S.