author
Olaf Stapledon
Best known for vast, mind-stretching visions of humanity’s future, this English writer helped shape modern science fiction with books that think on a planetary and cosmic scale. His work combines big ideas, moral questions, and a sense of wonder that still feels strikingly modern.
1 Audiobook
Last and first men : A story of the near and far future
by Olaf Stapledon
About the author
Born in 1886, Olaf Stapledon was an English novelist and philosopher whose imaginative fiction had a lasting influence on science fiction. He studied at Oxford, later taught and worked in shipping, and also became connected with the University of Liverpool through teaching and lecturing.
Stapledon is especially remembered for Last and First Men (1930) and Star Maker (1937), novels famous for their enormous time scales and bold speculation about the future of humanity and the universe. Writers including Arthur C. Clarke admired his work, and he is often described as one of the key early figures in visionary science fiction.
His life also reflected serious moral and political commitments. A pacifist, he served with a Friends' ambulance unit during World War I, and his fiction often explores ethics, society, war, and the responsibilities that come with intelligence and power.