Austin Tappan Wright
Encyclopedia
Austin Tappan Wright was an American
legal scholar and author
, best remembered for his major work of Utopia
n fiction, Islandia
. He was the son of classical scholar John Henry Wright
and novelist Mary Tappan Wright
, the brother of geographer John Kirtland Wright
, and the grandfather of editor Tappan Wright King
.
, New Hampshire
. He married, November 14, 1912, Margaret Garrad Stone. They had four children, William Austin, Sylvia, Phyllis, and Benjamin Tappan. The family lived successively in Berkeley
, California
and Philadelphia
, Pennsylvania
. Wright died as a result of an automobile accident near Santa Fe
, New Mexico
on September 18, 1931. He was survived by his wife, children and brother.
in 1901, graduating with an A.B. degree in 1905. He enrolled in the Harvard Law School
in 1906, interrupting his course of study there to attend Oxford University for a year in 1906–1907 before returning and graduating cum laude with an LL.B. degree in 1908. He was on the editorial staff of the Harvard Law Review
during his last year at Harvard.
, Dunbar and Nutter in Boston, after which he taught at the School of Jurisprudence at the University of California, Berkeley
from 1916–1924. His teaching work was interrupted by a period in which he worked as assistant counsel to the U.S. Shipping Board and U.S. Shipping Board Emergency Fleet Corporation in San Francisco in World War I. He also practiced law with the San Francisco law firm of Thatcher and Wright after the war, from 1919–1924. From 1924 until his death in 1931 Wright taught at the University of Pennsylvania
. He also taught at Stanford University
in 1922, the University of Michigan
in 1924, and the University of Southern California
in 1931 as a visiting or acting professor. The subjects he taught included Agency, Common Law Procedure, Partnership, Corporations, Damages, Persons, Admiralty, Mortgages, Municipal Corporation, Military Law, and Torts, his own main interests being in Corporation Law and Admiralty. He published extensively in various legal journals, particularly the California Law Review
and the University of Pennsylvania Law Review
.
Few people outside Wright’s own family knew he had long been working on an extensive Utopian fantasy about an imaginary country he called Islandia, with an elaborately worked-out history, culture and geography, comparable in scope to J. R. R. Tolkien
’s life-long writings of Middle-earth
. In his papers he left a 2300-page manuscript of a novel exploring the country, with appendices including a glossary of the Islandian language, population tables, a historic peerage, and a gazetteer and history of each of its provinces. Another book-length manuscript purported to be a general history of the country.
After Wright’s death his widow typed and edited the manuscript for publication, and following her own death in 1937 their daughter Sylvia further edited and cut the text; the novel Islandia
, shorn of Wright’s appendices, was finally published in 1942, along with a promotional pamphlet by Basil Davenport, An introduction to Islandia; its history, customs, laws, language, and geography, based on the original supplementary material.
Islandia became a cult classic and ultimately spawned three sequels by Mark Saxton
.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
legal scholar and author
Author
An author is broadly defined as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created. Narrowly defined, an author is the originator of any written work.-Legal significance:...
, best remembered for his major work of Utopia
Utopia
Utopia is an ideal community or society possessing a perfect socio-politico-legal system. The word was imported from Greek by Sir Thomas More for his 1516 book Utopia, describing a fictional island in the Atlantic Ocean. The term has been used to describe both intentional communities that attempt...
n fiction, Islandia
Islandia (book)
Islandia is a classic novel of utopian fiction by Austin Tappan Wright, a U. C. Berkeley Law School Professor. Written as a hobby over a long period of time, it was posthumously edited down by a third by his wife and daughter, and first published in hardcover by Farrar and Rinehart in 1942, eleven...
. He was the son of classical scholar John Henry Wright
John Henry Wright
John Henry Wright was an American classical scholar, born at Urumiah, Persia. He was the son of missionary and oriental scholar Austin Hazen Wright, the brother of classical archaeologist Lucy Wright Mitchell, the husband of author Mary Tappan Wright and the father of legal scholar and utopian...
and novelist Mary Tappan Wright
Mary Tappan Wright
Mary Tappan Wright was an American novelist and short story writer best known for her acute characterizations and depictions of academic life...
, the brother of geographer John Kirtland Wright
John Kirtland Wright
John Kirtland Wright was an American geographer, notable for his cartography, geosophy, and study of the history of geographical thought. He was the son of classical scholar John Henry Wright and novelist Mary Tappan Wright, and the brother of legal scholar and utopian novelist Austin Tappan...
, and the grandfather of editor Tappan Wright King
Tappan Wright King
Tappan Wright King is an American editor and author in the field of fantasy fiction, best known for editing The Twilight Zone Magazine and its...
.
Life and family
Wright was born in HanoverHanover, New Hampshire
Hanover is a town along the Connecticut River in Grafton County, New Hampshire, United States. The population was 11,260 at the 2010 census. CNN and Money magazine rated Hanover the sixth best place to live in America in 2011, and the second best in 2007....
, New Hampshire
New Hampshire
New Hampshire is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. The state was named after the southern English county of Hampshire. It is bordered by Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Atlantic Ocean to the east, and the Canadian...
. He married, November 14, 1912, Margaret Garrad Stone. They had four children, William Austin, Sylvia, Phyllis, and Benjamin Tappan. The family lived successively in Berkeley
Berkeley, California
Berkeley is a city on the east shore of the San Francisco Bay in Northern California, United States. Its neighbors to the south are the cities of Oakland and Emeryville. To the north is the city of Albany and the unincorporated community of Kensington...
, California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
and Philadelphia
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Philadelphia is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the county seat of Philadelphia County, with which it is coterminous. The city is located in the Northeastern United States along the Delaware and Schuylkill rivers. It is the fifth-most-populous city in the United States,...
, Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania
The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a U.S. state that is located in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The state borders Delaware and Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, New York and Ontario, Canada, to the north, and New Jersey to...
. Wright died as a result of an automobile accident near Santa Fe
Santa Fe, New Mexico
Santa Fe is the capital of the U.S. state of New Mexico. It is the fourth-largest city in the state and is the seat of . Santa Fe had a population of 67,947 in the 2010 census...
, New Mexico
New Mexico
New Mexico is a state located in the southwest and western regions of the United States. New Mexico is also usually considered one of the Mountain States. With a population density of 16 per square mile, New Mexico is the sixth-most sparsely inhabited U.S...
on September 18, 1931. He was survived by his wife, children and brother.
Education
Wright entered Harvard CollegeHarvard College
Harvard College, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, is one of two schools within Harvard University granting undergraduate degrees...
in 1901, graduating with an A.B. degree in 1905. He enrolled in the Harvard Law School
Harvard Law School
Harvard Law School is one of the professional graduate schools of Harvard University. Located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, it is the oldest continually-operating law school in the United States and is home to the largest academic law library in the world. The school is routinely ranked by the U.S...
in 1906, interrupting his course of study there to attend Oxford University for a year in 1906–1907 before returning and graduating cum laude with an LL.B. degree in 1908. He was on the editorial staff of the Harvard Law Review
Harvard Law Review
The Harvard Law Review is a journal of legal scholarship published by an independent student group at Harvard Law School.-Overview:According to the 2008 Journal Citation Reports, the Review is the most cited law review and has the second-highest impact factor in the category "law" after the...
during his last year at Harvard.
Professional career
From 1908–1916 Wright worked for the law firm of BrandeisLouis Brandeis
Louis Dembitz Brandeis ; November 13, 1856 – October 5, 1941) was an Associate Justice on the Supreme Court of the United States from 1916 to 1939.He was born in Louisville, Kentucky, to Jewish immigrant parents who raised him in a secular mode...
, Dunbar and Nutter in Boston, after which he taught at the School of Jurisprudence at the University of California, Berkeley
University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley , is a teaching and research university established in 1868 and located in Berkeley, California, USA...
from 1916–1924. His teaching work was interrupted by a period in which he worked as assistant counsel to the U.S. Shipping Board and U.S. Shipping Board Emergency Fleet Corporation in San Francisco in World War I. He also practiced law with the San Francisco law firm of Thatcher and Wright after the war, from 1919–1924. From 1924 until his death in 1931 Wright taught at the University of Pennsylvania
University of Pennsylvania
The University of Pennsylvania is a private, Ivy League university located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Penn is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States,Penn is the fourth-oldest using the founding dates claimed by each institution...
. He also taught at Stanford University
Stanford University
The Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private research university on an campus located near Palo Alto, California. It is situated in the northwestern Santa Clara Valley on the San Francisco Peninsula, approximately northwest of San...
in 1922, the University of Michigan
University of Michigan
The University of Michigan is a public research university located in Ann Arbor, Michigan in the United States. It is the state's oldest university and the flagship campus of the University of Michigan...
in 1924, and the University of Southern California
University of Southern California
The University of Southern California is a private, not-for-profit, nonsectarian, research university located in Los Angeles, California, United States. USC was founded in 1880, making it California's oldest private research university...
in 1931 as a visiting or acting professor. The subjects he taught included Agency, Common Law Procedure, Partnership, Corporations, Damages, Persons, Admiralty, Mortgages, Municipal Corporation, Military Law, and Torts, his own main interests being in Corporation Law and Admiralty. He published extensively in various legal journals, particularly the California Law Review
California Law Review
The California Law Review is the flagship law journal of UC Berkeley School of Law . Founded in 1912, the Review was the first student law journal published west of Illinois....
and the University of Pennsylvania Law Review
University of Pennsylvania Law Review
The University of Pennsylvania Law Review is a law review focusing on legal issues, published by an organization of second and third year J.D. students at the University of Pennsylvania Law School. It is the oldest law journal in the United States, having been published continuously since 1852...
.
Literary career
Although Wright’s professional colleagues were aware he had literary interests outside his field and some anticipated he might eventually branch out into other areas of literature, these possibilities appeared precluded by his early death. During his lifetime he published just one work of fiction, the short story "1915?" in the Atlantic Monthly for April, 1915.Few people outside Wright’s own family knew he had long been working on an extensive Utopian fantasy about an imaginary country he called Islandia, with an elaborately worked-out history, culture and geography, comparable in scope to J. R. R. Tolkien
J. R. R. Tolkien
John Ronald Reuel Tolkien, CBE was an English writer, poet, philologist, and university professor, best known as the author of the classic high fantasy works The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and The Silmarillion.Tolkien was Rawlinson and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon at Pembroke College,...
’s life-long writings of Middle-earth
Middle-earth
Middle-earth is the fictional setting of the majority of author J. R. R. Tolkien's fantasy writings. The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings take place entirely in Middle-earth, as does much of The Silmarillion and Unfinished Tales....
. In his papers he left a 2300-page manuscript of a novel exploring the country, with appendices including a glossary of the Islandian language, population tables, a historic peerage, and a gazetteer and history of each of its provinces. Another book-length manuscript purported to be a general history of the country.
After Wright’s death his widow typed and edited the manuscript for publication, and following her own death in 1937 their daughter Sylvia further edited and cut the text; the novel Islandia
Islandia (book)
Islandia is a classic novel of utopian fiction by Austin Tappan Wright, a U. C. Berkeley Law School Professor. Written as a hobby over a long period of time, it was posthumously edited down by a third by his wife and daughter, and first published in hardcover by Farrar and Rinehart in 1942, eleven...
, shorn of Wright’s appendices, was finally published in 1942, along with a promotional pamphlet by Basil Davenport, An introduction to Islandia; its history, customs, laws, language, and geography, based on the original supplementary material.
Islandia became a cult classic and ultimately spawned three sequels by Mark Saxton
Mark Saxton
Mark Saxton was an American author and editor. He is chiefly remembered for helping edit for publication Austin Tappan Wright’s Utopian novel Islandia, and for his own three sequels to Wright’s work.-Life:...
.
Papers
Wright’s papers, including carbon typescripts of the uncut version of Islandia and the unpublished Islandia: History and Description, Dreams and Other Verses, college writings, and letters to family members, are in the Houghton Library at Harvard University. Some of his wife’s correspondence is in the Fay family papers at Radcliffe College.Fiction
- "1915?" (1915) (Google e-text) (another e-text)
- IslandiaIslandia (book)Islandia is a classic novel of utopian fiction by Austin Tappan Wright, a U. C. Berkeley Law School Professor. Written as a hobby over a long period of time, it was posthumously edited down by a third by his wife and daughter, and first published in hardcover by Farrar and Rinehart in 1942, eleven...
(1942) - Islandia: History and Description (unpublished)
- An introduction to Islandia; its history, customs, laws, language, and geography (1942) (with Basil Davenport)
- "The Story of Alwina" (2003)
Poetry
- "The Voyagers" (1906) (Google e-text) (another e-text)
- Dreams and Other Verses (unpublished)
Legal articles
- "Undisclosed Principal in California" (1917)
- "Government Ownership and the Maritime Lien" (1919)
- "California Partnership Law and the Uniform Partnership Act" (1921)
- "Supervening Impossibility of Performing Conditions in Admiralty" (1923)
- "Uniformity of Maritime Law in the United States" (1925)
- "Opposition of the Law to Business Usages" (1926)
- "Private Carriers and the Harter Act" (1926)
- "The New Ohio General Corporation Act" (1927)
Book reviews
- "Government Liability in Tort by Edwin M. Borchard" (1925)
- "Profit’s Dividends and the Law by Prosper Reiter, Jr." (1927)
- "Law of Territorial Water and Maritime Jurisdiction by Phillip C. Jessup" (1928)