Gerrare, Wirt
Entry updated 12 September 2022. Tagged: Author.
Pseudonym of UK weapons expert, journalist and author William Oliver Greener (1862-1935) for most of his work, both fiction and nonfiction, though at least one thriller appeared under his real name. His first novel of genre interest, Rufin's Legacy: A Theosophical Romance (1892), features a Russian female spy who uses her astral body nefariously; Phantasms: Original Stories Illustrating Posthumous Personality and Character (coll 1895) assembles fantasies featuring the exploits of Horace Vesey, who is an Occult Detective [see The Encyclopedia of Fantasy under links below]. The Warstock: A Tale of To-Morrow (1898) is a genuine Scientific Romance in which the Isocrats, a group of brilliant inventors (see Invention), establish in Morocco an advanced City-state called Cristalia, seemingly armoured against Invasion. But a rival city-state funded by Germany, using fifth-columnists, takes over, though without reckoning on the eponymous Weapon, a device which randomly triggers ammunition dumps worldwide. The scientists then reoccupy the city and prepare to rule the world from their technological meritocracy. [JC]
William Oliver Greener
born Aston, Warwickshire: 1862
died Kingsbridge, Devon: 10 August 1935
works
- Rufin's Legacy: A Theosophical Romance (London: Hutchinson and Co, 1892) [hb/]
- Phantasms: Original Stories Illustrating Posthumous Personality and Character (London: The Roxburghe Press, 1895) [coll: hb/]
- The Warstock: A Tale of To-Morrow (London: W W Greener, 1898) [hb/]
links
- Internet Speculative Fiction Database
- The Encyclopedia of Fantasy: Occult Detectives
- Picture Gallery
previous versions of this entry