George Griffith
| George Griffith | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1857 |
| Died | 1906 |
| Occupation | Writer and explorer |
| Language | English |
| Nationality | British |
| Genre | Science fiction |
| Notable works | The Romance of Golden Star (1891); Briton or Boer? A Tale of the Fight for Africa (1892); The Angel of the Revolution: A Tale of the Coming Terror (1893) |
| Children | Alan Arnold Griffith |
George Griffith (1857–1906), full name George Chetwynd 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.
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 Bradlaugh. 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 as a clerk addressing envelopes and mailing labels, submitted a synopsis for a story entitled The Angel of the Revolution. It remains his best and most famous work. It was among the first of the so-called marvel tales, epitomised by Jules Verne. Marvel tales featured such things as heavier than air flying machines, compressed air guns, submarines, profoundly convenient political developments, wooden heroes with no readily apparent sexual tastes, and spectacular aerial combat along with other forms of combat, such as battle under the sea. Later novels, such as 'The Gold Finder' developed the heroes' romantic interests. His short stories were very similar to the future war tales of George Chesney and his imitators along with the political utopianism of William Morris's News from Nowhere. He wrote a sequel, serialised as The Syren of the Skies in Pearson's Magazine. It was later published as a novel titled with the name of its main character, Olga Romanoff.
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