Austin Bierbower

author

Austin Bierbower

1844–1913

Best remembered for an unusual 1894 novel about human origins, this American writer moved easily between philosophy, ethics, religion, and early speculative fiction. His work has a curious, wide-ranging feel that can still surprise modern readers.

1 Audiobook

From Monkey to Man, or, Society in the Tertiary Age A Story of the Missing Link, Showing the First Steps in Industry, Commerce, Government, Religion and the Arts; With an Account of the Great Expedition From Cocoanut Hill and the Wars in Alligator Swamp

From Monkey to Man, or, Society in the Tertiary Age A Story of the Missing Link, Showing the First Steps in Industry, Commerce, Government, Religion and the Arts; With an Account of the Great Expedition From Cocoanut Hill and the Wars in Alligator Swamp

by Austin Bierbower

About the author

Austin Bierbower (circa 1844–1913) was an American author and academic born on Shelley's Island, Pennsylvania, who died in Chicago on April 12, 1913. His books range across philosophy, ethics, religion, self-improvement, and fiction, showing a writer interested in big questions about how people think, live, and organize society.

Among his better-known works are Principles of a System of Philosophy (1870), The Socialism of Christ (1890), The Morals of Christ (1892), and Ethics for Schools (1888). He also wrote Life and Sermons of Dr. H. W. Thomas, and his bibliography suggests a career shaped by both moral instruction and religious debate.

Today, Bierbower is especially remembered for From Monkey to Man; or, Society in the Tertiary Age (1894), a prehistoric tale noted by The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction as an early speculative work about evolution and the origins of civilization. That mix of serious ideas and imaginative storytelling gives his writing a distinctive place on the edge of nineteenth-century science fiction.