Star Maker – Olaf Stapledon
Star Maker by Olaf Stapledon / ISBN 9780241442975 / 342-page paperback from Penguin Classics
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‘A prodigious novel … Stapledon’s literary imagination was boundless’ Jorge Luis Borges
A lasting influence on successive generations of science fiction writers and on the physicist Freeman Dyson, this poetic, philosophical tale of one man’s unexpected voyage through the universe is imbued with a sense of mystery and vast cosmic loneliness.
‘The most wonderful novel I have ever read … Star Maker remains light years ahead’ Brian Aldiss
‘Probably the most powerful work of imagination ever written’ Arthur C. Clarke
‘A unique genius’ Doris Lessing
‘One of the most creative thinkers of our time’ Greg Bear
Olaf Stapleon (1886-1950) was born in Cheshire and educated at the University of Oxford. In his early career he worked as a teacher in Manchester and in shipping offices in Liverpool and Egypt. A pacifist and conscientious objector, he drove ambulances in the First World War and won a medal for bravery. He was later awarded a doctorate in philosophy and turned to fiction writing in the hope of making his ideas more widely available. His two masterpieces, Last and First Men (1930) and Star Maker (1937), contributed many ideas to science fiction and profoundly influenced numerous subsequent writers.
