Green, Roger Lancelyn

Entry updated 9 September 2024. Tagged: Author, Critic, Editor.

(1918-1987) UK scholar, critic, translator (from classical Greek) and author, with a special interest in Fantasy, much of his fiction comprising retellings of traditional material for young readers. Tellers of Tales (1948) [for expansions of this title see Checklist below] is an invaluable early companion to this literature. He was a member of the Inklings group, and among his many works those most relevant to sf studies concern his university tutor, fellow Inklings member C S Lewis: C.S. Lewis (1963) and C.S. Lewis: A Biography (1974) with Walter Hooper (1931-2020), for which he was awarded the Mythopoeic Scholarship Award in 1975. Into Other Worlds: Space-Flight in Fiction, from Lucian to Lewis (1957) is one of the earlier books on sf, but is primarily pitched at a rather trivial anecdotal level. Andrew Lang (1946) throws light on an author whose relationship to sf has been almost forgotten (see Andrew Lang); a later study, Andrew Lang (1962 chap), is a brief recension of the earlier book.

Green's novels include From the World's End (1948), an allegorical and old-fashioned fantasy about visionary dreams in an old house, which expose a Time Abyss; The Adventures of Robin Hood (1968) incorporates some fantastic elements [for robin Hood see The Encyclopedia of Fantasy under links below]; The Land Beyond the North (1958) carries Jason and the Argonauts ultimately to a sacrifice at Stonehenge. [PN/JC]

see also: Proto SF.

Roger Gilbert Lancelyn Green

born Norwich, Norfolk: 2 November 1918

died Poulton Lancelyn, Cheshire: 8 October 1987

works (highly selected)

From the World's End: A Fantasy (Leicester, Leicestershire: Edmund Ward, 1948) [hb/uncredited]
The Adventures of Robin Hood (Harmondsworth, Middlesex: Penguin Books, 1956) [pb/Arthur Hall]
The Land Beyond the North (London: The Bodley Head, 1958) [hb/]

nonfiction

Tellers of Tales (Leicester, Leicestershire: Edmund Ward, 1946) [nonfiction: hb/]
- Tellers of Tales: British Authors of Children's Books from 1800 to 1964 (London: Edmund Ward, 1965) [nonfiction: exp vt of the above: hb/]
  - Tellers of Tales: Children's Books and their Authors from 1800 to 1968: With a Chronological Table of Famous Children's Books to the Present Day, and Lists of Titles by Each Author (London: Kaye and Ward, 1969) [nonfiction: exp vt of the above: hb/]
Andrew Lang: A Critical Biography: With a Short-Title Bibliography of the Works of Andrew Lang (Leicester, Leicestershire: Edmund Ward, 1946) [nonfiction: hb/]
The Story of Lewis Carroll (London: Methuen and Co, 1949) [nonfiction: hb/]
Fifty Years of Peter Pan (London: Peter Davies, 1954) [nonfiction: J M Barrie: hb/]
Into Other Worlds: Space-Flight in Fiction, from Lucian to Lewis (London: Abelard-Schuman, 1957) [nonfiction: hb/]
Lewis Carroll (London: The Bodley Head, 1960) [nonfiction: chap: Lewis Carroll: hb/]
J.M. Barrie (London: The Bodley Head, 1960) [nonfiction: chap: J M Barrie: hb/]
Andrew Lang (London: The Bodley Head, 1962) [nonfiction: chap: hb/]
C.S. Lewis (London: The Bodley Head, 1963) [nonfiction: chap: hb/]
C.S. Lewis: A Biography (London: Collins, 1974) with Walter Hooper [nonfiction: hb/]
A Bibliography of A Conan Doyle (Oxford, Oxfordshire: Clarendon Press, 1983) with John Michael Gibson [nonfiction: bibliography: introduction by Graham Greene: Arthur Conan Doyle: hb/nonpictorial]
- A Bibliography of A Conan Doyle (Boston, Massachusetts: Hudson House, 2002) with John Michael Gibson [nonfiction: bibliography: rev of the above: hb/nonpictorial]

works as editor (highly selected)

Lewis Carroll. The Diaries of Lewis Carroll (London: Cassell and Company, 1953) [nonfiction: coll: published in two volumes: hb/]
Modern Fairy Stories (London: J M Dent and Sons, 1955) [anth: in the publisher's Children's Illustrated Classics series: illus/hb/E H Shepard]
Thirteen Uncanny Tales (London: J M Dent and Sons, 1970) [anth: in the publisher's Children's Illustrated Classics series: illus/hb/Ray Ogden]
Strange Adventures in Time (London: J M Dent and Sons, 1974) [anth: in the publisher's Children's Illustrated Classics series: illus/hb/George Adamson]
The Hamish Hamilton Book of Magicians (London: Hamish Hamilton, 1973) [anth: hb/]
- A Cavalcade of Magicians (New York: Henry Z Walck, 1973) [anth: vt of the above: pb/]
- A Book of Magicians (Harmondsworth, Middlesex: Puffin Books, 1977) [anth: vt of the above: pb/]
The Hamish Hamilton Book of Other Worlds (London: Hamish Hamilton, 1976) [anth: hb/]

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