George Griffith
Encyclopedia
George Griffith full name George Chetwyn Griffith-Jones, was a prolific British
science fiction
writer
and noted explorer who wrote during the late Victorian
and Edwardian age. Many of his visionary tales appeared in magazines such as Pearson's Magazine
and Pearson's Weekly 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 revolutionary and socialist views. A journalist, rather than scientist, by background, what his stories lack in scientific rigour and literary grace they make up for in sheer exuberance of execution.
. 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
), Griffith, then on the staff of Pearson's Magazine, submitted a synopsis for a story entitled The Angel of the Revolution
. It remains his best and most famous work. It was the first synthesis of the 'marvel' tale epitomised by Jules Verne
, featuring futuristic flying machines, compressed air guns and spectacular aereal combat, the 'future war' tales of George Chesney and his imitators and the political utopianism of William Morris
's News from Nowhere
. He wrote a sequel, serialised as The Syren of the Skies in the magazine and published as a novel under the title of its main character, Olga Romanoff
.
Although somewhat overshadowed by H. G. Wells
, Griffith's epic fantasies of romantic anarchists in a future world of war dominated by airship battlefleets and grandiose engineering provided a template for steampunk
novels a century before the term was coined. The influence of books such as The Angel of the Revolution and the character of Olga Romanoff on British fantasy writer Michael Moorcock
is striking. The concept of revolutionaries imposing "a 'pax aeronautica' over the earth", at the center of Angel of the Revolution, was taken up by Wells many years later, in The Shape of Things to Come
. Wells himself once wrote that Griffith's Outlaws of the Air was an "aeronautical masterpiece."
Though a less accomplished writer than Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Rudyard Kipling
or H.G. Wells, his novels were extremely popular in their day, seeing many printings, and foreshadowed World War I
and the Russian Revolutions and the concepts of the air to surface missile and VTOL
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
. Sam Moskowitz
described him as "undeniably the most popular science fiction writer in England between 1893 and 1895."
His science fiction depicted grand and unlikely voyages through our solar system
in the spirit of Wells or Jules Verne
, though his explorers donned space suits remarkably prescient in their design. Honeymoon in Space saw his newly married adventurers exploring planets in different stages of geological and Darwinian evolution on an educational odyssey which drew heavily on earlier cosmic voyages by Camille Flammarion
, W. S. Lach-Szyrma
, and Edgar Fawcett
. 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 ten second countdown for a space launch, but also the first story to suggest that a cometary collision with the earth could be stopped by human intervention.
As an explorer of the real world he shattered the existing record for voyaging around the world, completing his journey in just 65 days, and helped discover the source of the Amazon river
. This was documented in Pearson's Weekly newspaper before being published as a book Around the World in 65 Days in 2009. He died of cirrhosis of the liver, at the age of 48, in 1906.
, who was the inventor of the Rolls-Royce Avon
jet engine.
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 has quite a lot of practice.
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.
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
science fiction
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
writer
Writer
A writer is a person who produces literature, such as novels, short stories, plays, screenplays, poetry, or other literary art. Skilled writers are able to use language to portray ideas and images....
and noted explorer who wrote during the late Victorian
Victorian era
The Victorian era of British history was the period of Queen Victoria's reign from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. It was a long period of peace, prosperity, refined sensibilities and national self-confidence...
and Edwardian age. Many of his visionary tales appeared in magazines such as Pearson's Magazine
Pearson's Magazine
Pearson's Magazine was an influential publication which first appeared in Britain in 1896. It specialised in speculative literature, political discussion, often of a socialist bent, and the arts. Its contributors included Upton Sinclair, George Bernard Shaw, Maxim Gorky and H. G...
and Pearson's Weekly before being published as novels. Griffith was extremely popular in the United Kingdom, though he failed to find similar acclaim in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, in part due to his revolutionary and socialist views. A journalist, rather than 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 school master in his mid-twenties. 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 BradlaughCharles Bradlaugh
Charles Bradlaugh was a political activist and one of the most famous English atheists of the 19th century. He founded the National Secular Society in 1866.-Early life:...
. After the success of Admiral Philip H. Colomb's The Great War of 1892
The Great War of 1892
The Great War of 1892 was a story of the genre termed "Invasion Literature" written by Admiral Philip H. Colomb in which he sought to alert Britain to what he saw as the weakness of the Royal Navy. It was published in the Black and White magazine, a weekly publication which focussed on the...
(itself a version of the more famous The Battle of Dorking
The Battle of Dorking
The Battle of Dorking: Reminiscences of a Volunteer is a 1871 novel by George Tomkyns Chesney, starting the genre of invasion literature and an important precursor of science fiction...
), Griffith, then on the staff of Pearson's Magazine, submitted a synopsis for a story entitled The Angel of the Revolution
The Angel of the Revolution
The Angel of the Revolution: A Tale of the Coming Terror is a science fiction novel by English writer George Griffith. It was his first published novel and remains his most famous work...
. It remains his best and most famous work. It was the first synthesis of the 'marvel' tale epitomised by Jules Verne
Jules Verne
Jules Gabriel Verne was a French author who pioneered the science fiction genre. He is best known for his novels Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea , A Journey to the Center of the Earth , and Around the World in Eighty Days...
, featuring futuristic flying machines, compressed air guns and spectacular aereal combat, the 'future war' tales of George Chesney and his imitators and the political utopianism of William Morris
William Morris
William Morris 24 March 18343 October 1896 was an English textile designer, artist, writer, and socialist associated with the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood and the English Arts and Crafts Movement...
's News from Nowhere
News from Nowhere
News from Nowhere is a classic work combining utopian socialism and soft science fiction written by the artist, designer and socialist pioneer William Morris...
. He wrote a sequel, serialised as The Syren of the Skies in the magazine and published as a novel under the title of its main character, Olga Romanoff
Olga Romanoff
Olga Romanoff is a science fiction novel by the English writer George Griffith, first published as 'The Syren of the Skies' in Pearson's Magazine....
.
Although somewhat overshadowed by H. G. Wells
H. G. Wells
Herbert George Wells was an English author, now best known for his work in the science fiction genre. He was also a prolific writer in many other genres, including contemporary novels, history, politics and social commentary, even writing text books and rules for war games...
, Griffith's epic fantasies of romantic anarchists in a future world of war dominated by airship battlefleets and grandiose engineering provided a template for steampunk
Steampunk
Steampunk is a sub-genre of science fiction, fantasy, alternate history, and speculative fiction that came into prominence during the 1980s and early 1990s. Steampunk involves a setting where steam power is still widely used—usually Victorian era Britain or "Wild West"-era United...
novels a century before the term was coined. The influence of books such as The Angel of the Revolution and the character of Olga Romanoff on British fantasy writer Michael Moorcock
Michael Moorcock
Michael John Moorcock is an English writer, primarily of science fiction and fantasy, who has also published a number of literary novels....
is striking. The concept of revolutionaries imposing "a 'pax aeronautica' over the earth", at the center of 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
The Shape of Things to Come is a work of science fiction by H. G. Wells, published in 1933, which speculates on future events from 1933 until the year 2106. The book is dominated by Wells's belief in a world state as the solution to mankind's problems....
. Wells himself once wrote that Griffith's Outlaws of the Air was an "aeronautical masterpiece."
Though a less accomplished writer than Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Rudyard Kipling
Rudyard Kipling
Joseph Rudyard Kipling was an English poet, short-story writer, and novelist chiefly remembered for his celebration of British imperialism, tales and poems of British soldiers in India, and his tales for children. Kipling received the 1907 Nobel Prize for Literature...
or H.G. Wells, his novels were extremely popular in their day, seeing many printings, and foreshadowed World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
and the Russian Revolutions and the concepts of the air to surface missile and VTOL
VTOL
A vertical take-off and landing aircraft is one that can hover, take off and land vertically. This classification includes fixed-wing aircraft as well as helicopters and other aircraft with powered rotors, such as cyclogyros/cyclocopters and tiltrotors...
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
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...
. Sam Moskowitz
Sam Moskowitz
Sam Moskowitz was an early fan and organizer of interest in science fiction and, later, a writer, critic, and historian of the field.-Biography:...
described him as "undeniably the most popular science fiction writer in England between 1893 and 1895."
His science fiction depicted grand and unlikely voyages through our solar system
Solar System
The Solar System consists of the Sun and the astronomical objects gravitationally bound in orbit around it, all of which formed from the collapse of a giant molecular cloud approximately 4.6 billion years ago. The vast majority of the system's mass is in the Sun...
in the spirit of Wells or Jules Verne
Jules Verne
Jules Gabriel Verne was a French author who pioneered the science fiction genre. He is best known for his novels Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea , A Journey to the Center of the Earth , and Around the World in Eighty Days...
, though his explorers donned space suits remarkably prescient in their design. Honeymoon in Space saw his newly married adventurers exploring planets in different stages of geological and Darwinian evolution on an educational odyssey which drew heavily on earlier cosmic voyages by Camille Flammarion
Camille Flammarion
Nicolas Camille Flammarion 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 fiction novels, and several works about Spiritism and related topics. He also published the magazine...
, W. S. Lach-Szyrma
W. S. Lach-Szyrma
Rev. Wladislaw Somerville Lach-Szyrma M.A., F.R.H.S., was born at Devonport. His father, Krystyn Lach Szyrma, a Polish Professor, moved from Warsaw c. 1830 to escape persecution , and married into the naval Somerville family in Plymouth...
, and Edgar Fawcett
Edgar Fawcett
Edgar Fawcett was an American novelist and poet.-Biography:Fawcett was born in New York on May 26, 1847, and spent much of his life there. Educated at Columbia College, he obtained the A.B. there in 1867 and his M.A. three years later...
. Its illustrations by Stanley L. Wood
Stanley L. Wood
Stanley Llewellyn Wood was a Victorian English illustrator, noted for his prolific output of scenes featuring horses in action and widely used in boys' adventure stories....
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
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
. His short story The Great Crellin Comet, published in 1897, was the first story to not only include a ten second countdown for a space launch, but also the first story to suggest that a cometary collision with the earth could be stopped by human intervention.
As an explorer of the real world he shattered the existing record for voyaging around the world, completing his journey in just 65 days, and helped discover the source of the Amazon river
Amazon River
The Amazon of South America is the second longest river in the world and by far the largest by waterflow with an average discharge greater than the next seven largest rivers combined...
. This was documented in Pearson's Weekly newspaper before being published as a book Around the World in 65 Days in 2009. He died of cirrhosis of the liver, at the age of 48, in 1906.
Legacy
His son was Alan Arnold GriffithAlan Arnold Griffith
Alan Arnold Griffith was an English engineer, who, among many other contributions, is best known for his work on stress and fracture in metals that is now known as metal fatigue, as well as being one of the first to develop a strong theoretical basis for the jet engine.-Early work:A. A...
, who was the inventor of the Rolls-Royce Avon
Rolls-Royce Avon
|-See also:-Bibliography:* Gunston, Bill. World Encyclopaedia of Aero Engines. Cambridge, England. Patrick Stephens Limited, 1989. ISBN 1-85260-163-9-External links:**** a 1955 Flight article on the development of the Avon...
jet engine.
Partial list of works
- The Romance of Golden Star (1891); the title is sometimes given erroneously as The Romance of the Golden Star, but Golden Star is actually the name of an Inca character, not an object
- Briton or Boer? A Tale of the Fight for Africa (1892)
- The Angel of the Revolution: A Tale of the Coming TerrorThe Angel of the RevolutionThe Angel of the Revolution: A Tale of the Coming Terror is a science fiction novel by English writer George Griffith. It was his first published novel and remains his most famous work...
(1893) - Olga RomanoffOlga RomanoffOlga Romanoff is a science fiction novel by the English writer George Griffith, first published as 'The Syren of the Skies' in Pearson's Magazine....
or, The Syren of the Skies (1894) - The Outlaws of the Air (1895)
- Valdar the Oft-Born: A Saga of Seven Ages (1895)
- The Gold Finder (1898)
- The Virgin of the Sun: A Tale of the Conquest of Peru (1898)
- The Great Pirate Syndicate (1899)
- Denver's Double: A Story of Inverted Identity (1901)
- A Honeymoon in Space (1901) (fixup of series first published in Pearson's MagazinePearson's MagazinePearson's Magazine was an influential publication which first appeared in Britain in 1896. It specialised in speculative literature, political discussion, often of a socialist bent, and the arts. Its contributors included Upton Sinclair, George Bernard Shaw, Maxim Gorky and H. G...
as Stories of Other Worlds) - The White Witch of Mayfair (1902)
- The Lake of Gold: A Narrative of the Anglo-American Conquest of Europe (1903)
- A Woman Against the World (1903)
- The World Masters (1903)
- A Criminal Croesus (1904)
- The Stolen Submarine: A Tale of the Japanese War (1904)
- The Great Weather Syndicate (1906)
- The Mummy and Miss Nitocris: A Phantasy of the Fourth Dimension (1906)
- The World Peril of 1910 (1907)
- The Destined Maid (1908)
- The Sacred Skull (1908)
- The Diamond Dog (1913)
George Griffith in print
In 2006 Apogee BooksApogee Books
Apogee Books is an imprint of Canadian publishing house Collector's Guide Publishing. The Apogee imprint began with "Apollo 8 The NASA Mission Reports" in November 1998 at the request of astronaut Buzz Aldrin, second man on the moon. The first publication by Apogee was printed to celebrate the 30th...
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 has quite a lot of practice.
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.
Anthologies
- Before Armageddon: An Anthology of Victorian and Edwardian Imaginative Fiction Published Before 1914 Before ArmageddonBefore Armageddon: An Anthology of Victorian and Edwardian Imaginative Fiction Published Before 1914 is a collection of stories, including invasion literature, and one article, all edited by Michael Moorcock. Originally published in hardback by W.H...
(1976)