Foster, George C
Entry updated 14 August 2023. Tagged: Author.
(1893-1975) UK author whose first novel of genre interest, The Lost Garden (1930), is a fantasy in which Immortal survivors of Atlantis experience world history up to the present, finding little of significance to remark upon. In Full Fathom Five (1930) episodes set in Lemuria (see Theosophy) and elsewhere are linked by Reincarnation to scenes set in the present, where additionally a human from the deep past (see Prehistoric SF) arrives in 1929 via Time Travel; Awakening (1932), a Sleeper Awakes tale, subjects the contemporary (and the future) world to the perspective of a soldier aroused from suspended animation; Cats in the Coffee (1938) as by Seaforth presents through Reincarnation a retrospective vision of prehistory; We Band of Brothers (1939), also as by Seaforth, is perhaps the first Hitler Wins tale to be told as an Alternate History, beginning with the outset of World War Two in 1938 and climaxing with the retirement of a successful Hitler and the beginning of something like the United Nations. In The Change (1963; vt 2001 A.D. 1973), nuclear experiments inadvertently rejuvenate humanity. In almost all his work, conventional plots are twisted to make room for perspectives on the nature of human history; in this sense, Foster illuminates a central strategy of the UK Scientific Romance. [JC/PN]
George Cecil Foster
born London: 26 December 1893
died London: 7 December 1975
works
- The Lost Garden (London: Chapman and Hall, 1930) [hb/]
- Full Fathom Five (London: Herbert Jenkins, 1930) [hb/]
- Awakening (London: Chapman and Hall, 1932) [hb/]
- Cats in the Coffee (London: Herbert Jenkins, 1938) as by Seaforth [hb/]
- We Band of Brothers (London: Herbert Jenkins, 1939) as by Seaforth [hb/]
- The Change (London: Digit Books, 1963) [pb/R A Osborne]
- 2001 A.D. (Sydney, New South Wales: Bill Ewington Books, 1973) [vt of the above: pb/]
links
previous versions of this entry