Olaf Stapledon (1886-1950), philosopher, novelist, educator, and social activist had an imagination unlike that of any other figure in modernist literature. Along with H.G. Wells he is remembered as one of the most original and influential pioneers of twentieth-century science fiction. This first broadly inclusive anthology of Stapledon’s work offers a generous sampling of his fictional gems, including sections of his best known novels, Last and First Men, Odd Men, and Star Maker, and the complete text of two novellas, now back in print for the first time in fifty years, The Flames and Old Man in New World, as well as a selection of other writings, some previously unpublished, including essays, poems, and letters. These writings reveal the prophetic vision and utopian convictions that run through Stapledon’s work, and provide the broad context readers need to grasp the scope of his vision and to appreciate his great epic works, which are classics of science fiction.

Olaf Stapledon (1886-1950), philosopher, novelist, educator, and social activist had an imagination unlike that of any other figure in modernist literature. Along with H.G. Wells he is remembered as one of the most original and influential pioneers of twentieth-century science fiction. This first broadly inclusive anthology of Stapledon’s work offers a generous sampling of his fictional gems, including sections of his best known novels, Last and First Men, Odd Men, and Star Maker, and the complete text of two novellas, now back in print for the first time in fifty years, The Flames and Old Man in New World, as well as a selection of other writings, some previously unpublished, including essays, poems, and letters. These writings reveal the prophetic vision and utopian convictions that run through Stapledon’s work, and provide the broad context readers need to grasp the scope of his vision and to appreciate his great epic works, which are classics of science fiction.

Science fiction-roman.

Olaf Stapledon's previous science-fiction novel, Last and First Men, envisioned 2 billion years of history, from the 1930s forward. In this companion piece, a superintelligent narrator from the remote future investigates 20th-century life, entering a subject's mind to observe his childhood, his service during World War I, and his life afterward.

William Olaf Stapledon is best remembered for the extraordinary works of speculative fiction he published between 1930 and 1950. As a novelist, he was known as the spokesman for the Age of Einstein and has influenced writers as diverse as Virginia Woolf, Arthur C. Clarke, and Doris Lessing. This biography is the first to draw on a vast body of unpublished and private documents—interviews, correspondence, archival material, and papers in private hands—to reveal fully the internal struggles that shaped Stapledon's life and reclaim for public attention a distinctive voice of the modern era. Late in his life in an unpublished "letter to the future" Stapledon unwittingly provided the rationale for his biography: "It is just possible that my very obscurity may fit me to speak more faithfully for my period than any of its great unique personalities. A pacifist in World War I, an advocate of European unity and world government, one of the first teachers in the Workers' Educational Association, and an early protestor against apartheid, Stapledon turned utopian beliefs into practical politics. With roots in the shipping worlds of Devon, Liverpool, and the Suez Canal, he was transformed from a self-described provincial on the margins of English literary and political life into a visionary idealist who attracted the attention of scientists, journalists, and novelists, and, given his left-wing political affiliations, even the F.B.I. Stapledon's novels—Last and First Men, Star Maker, Odd John, and Sirius—have gathered a passionate following, and they have seldom been out of print in the last twenty-five years. But the personal experiences and political commitments that shaped this creative work have, until now, barely been known. Robert Crossley's work reveals how, in public and in private, in his social activism as in his fiction, Olaf Stapledon embodied many of the modern era's anxieties and hopes that allow his works to continue to speak to and for the future.

Sirius is a dog with humanlike intelligence. He is raised by scientist Thomas Trelone in North Wales, near Trawsfynydd. Thomas embarks on a program of using steroids and other chemicals to rapidly develop cognitive power of dogs, resulting in super sheep dogs. Sirius, however, proves to possess a dog intelligence comparable to a normal human being, as he is able to communicate with English words, although it takes some time for the humans to understand his canine pronunciation. He is born at the same time as his creator's human daughter, Plaxy, and the two of them are raised together as brother and sister. When Plaxy leaves for school they drift apart and troubles for Sirius begin. With human intelligence and emotion he declines to lead a life of a regular dog and he tends to develop as a person, but keeps running into obstacles.

DigiCat Publishing presents to you this special edition of "Odd John" by Olaf Stapledon. DigiCat Publishing considers every written word to be a legacy of humankind. Every DigiCat book has been carefully reproduced for republishing in a new modern format. The books are available in print, as well as ebooks. DigiCat hopes you will treat this work with the acknowledgment and passion it deserves as a classic of world literature.