Calderon, George
Entry updated 23 June 2025. Tagged: Author.
(1868-1915) UK playwright, linguistic scholar, illustrator, translator and author, son of the Pre-Raphaelite painter Philip Hermogenes Calderon (1833-1898); perhaps best known for his advocacy of the plays of Anton Chekhov, several of which he produced in his own translations, some of these later published. He died on active service in World War One, aged 46. The Adventures of Downy V Green, Rhodes Scholar at Oxford (1902) is a Fantasy of Manners [see The Encyclopedia of Fantasy under links below]. The "Missing Link" protagonist of his Scientific Romance, Dwala: A Romance(1904), is "as like a human [being] as any ape can get" (see Apes as Human; Evolution) and after his discovery in Borneo rises effortlessly through the ranks of London society, where, now known as Prince Dwala, he meets various characteristic and recognizable figures, including Sherlock Holmes, most of them treated Satirically; he is soon elected to Parliament and eventually, in the very Near Future, after a government collapse causes widespread famine, becomes Prime Minister. His subsequent attempts to create a Utopia are thwarted by the exposure of his origins, and his death from tuberculosis. Calderon's tale is less thematically complex than Frank Challice Constable's The Curse of Intellect (1895) (whom see for details), but shares some of its conservative ironies. He was also noted for his opposition to the Women's Suffrage movement. [JC]
George Leslie Calderon
born St Marylebone, Middlesex [ie London]: 2 December 1868
died The Dardanelles, Turkey: missing in action 4 June 1915
works (selected)
- The Adventures of Downy V Green, Rhodes Scholar at Oxford (London: Smith, Elder and Co, 1902) [illus/hb/George Calderon]
- Dwala: A Romance (London: Smith, Elder and Co, 1904) [hb/]
- The Brave Little Tailor; or, Seven at One Blow: An Entertainment (London: Grant Richards, 1923) with William Caine [long subtitle (not reproduced here) indicates that Caine based the novel on a stage pantomime by both authors: hb/R James Williams]
about the author
- Patrick Miles. George Calderon: Edwardian Genius (Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: Sam and Sam, 2018) [nonfiction: hb/]
links
- Internet Speculative Fiction Database
- Project Gutenberg
- The Encyclopedia of Fantasy: Fantasy of Manners
- Picture Gallery
previous versions of this entry