（外文电子版资料）Olaf Stapledon - Bio.pdf

Olaf Stapledon: The Man Behind the Works by Sam Moskowitz WHEN AN AUTHOR WHO HAS ACHIEVED SOME DEGREE of greatness dies, and a summing-up is in order, the magnitude of his achievement is always enhanced if it can be shown that critics failed to acknowledge his virtues during the years he sought to attain a reputation. No one who has seen Olaf Stapledon’s meticulously organized scrapbooks, still extant in the home of his final years, built on Simon’s Field along Mill Hey Lane in Caldy, West Kirby, Wirral, England, could ever make that claim. The literally hundreds of notices, from virtually every newspaper-and book-reviewing medium in the English-speaking world, especially of the early titles Last and First Men, Odd John, and Star Maker, must be read to be believed. Many are of extraordinary length, often written by critics whose names are still recognizable and command respect. Stapledon’s works are imaginative, deeply philosophical, and involved with sociological and political problems; mind-staggering concepts flood their pages in torrential cascade. They challenge the understanding of the average reader constantly. Yet the critics and reviewers, perhaps incredibly, seem to have read them thoroughly, comprehended them fully, and been immensely impressed. Review after review pays homage to the author’s universe-expanding imagination, to the importance of his philosophical approach, to his social understanding, and to his skill at melding these things together into works that are outstanding examples of the science fiction art. Some reviewers call him a genius— and in no casual manner. Unfavorable notices are rare. If critical recognition is a valid mark of literary success, Stapledon may be said to have reached the apex ea