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Lumley, Benjamin

Entry updated 12 September 2022. Tagged: Author.

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(1811-1875) Canadian-born lawyer, entrepreneurial opera manager and author, who wrote at least once as Hermes; in UK from well before 1832, by which point he had permanently changed his surname from Levy. His career in opera, from 1842 to about 1863, was marked by some scandal (not unusual for the context) and his introduction of nearly thirty operas to Britain, including several by Giuseppe Verdi. His career as a novelist began late, with Sirenia; or, Recollections of a Past Existence (1863) anonymous, a fantasy depicting the lives and loves of sirens. He is of more sf interest for Another World; or, Fragments from the Star City of Montalluyah (1873), comprising the memoirs of Tootmanyoso, the ruler of Mars, describes his world, now that it has recovered from a state of incessant War, as a Utopia powered by electricity (see Power Sources), its inhabitants shaped by Eugenics-based breeding and education into sane adults. Some complacency can be detected. [JC]

Benjamin Lumley

born Canada: 1811 [1812 has also been given]

died London: 17 March 1975

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