Future Histories Beginnings

(The 10,000th post.)

Future histories-wise, Poul Anderson (1926-2001) was preceded by Robert Heinlein (1907-1988) who was preceded by HG Wells (1866-1946) and Olaf Stapledon (1886-1950).

The dates of sf authors' lives matter because, when any particular work is written, part of its author's life is still in the future and therefore might overlap with the period covered by his future history. For example, the opening story of Heinlein's Future History, published in 1939, is set in 1951 and, in his Time Chart, we read:

Strike of '66
The "FALSE DAWN," 1960-70
First rocket to the Moon, 1978
PERIOD OF IMPERIAL EXPLOITATION, 1970-2020
THE FIRST HUMAN CIVILIZATION, 2075 and after

Thus, we see that Heinlein was alive for the first rocket to the Moon and lived well into the period of imperial exploitation but died nearly a century before the first human civilization.

Although Stapledon is a literary and philosophical successor of Wells, I was surprised to read that Stapledon's future history, Last And First Men, was published in 1930 whereas Wells' future history, The Shape Of Things To Come, was published in 1933. Nevertheless, I continue to think of Wells' future history as a conceptual predecessor of Stapledon's -

Wells: a historical period and turning point, 1933-2106;

Stapledon: the entire future of mankind from the European War and its aftermath to the Last Men on Neptune two billion years hence, placed in a longer historical and cosmic context by two later works.

Any future history has an earlier and a later period. Whereas the earlier period might come to seem dated or quaint or at best to retain period charm, the later period should continue to inspire both imaginatively and speculatively.

Anderson's first future history, the Psychotechnic History, begins a short way into the future in the aftermath of World War III which is not very different from the aftermath of World War II. Later, we learn that World Wars II and III were so close together that some of the same people fought in both.