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North, William

(1825-1854) UK author whose precocious first novel, Anti-Coningsby; Or, The New Generation Grown Old (1844 2vols), is a Satire shaped as a Sequel by Other Hands to Benjamin Disraeli's Coningsby; Or, the New Generation (1844), in which new Inventions are used to sink the French fleet, and a very Near Future new government takes office. Other novels of interest include The City of the Jugglers; Or, Free-Trade in Souls: A Romance of the Golden Age (1850), which incorporates elements of occult fantasy; and The Slave of the Lamp (1855), a tale with Lost World elements which contains a negative portrait of Fitz-James O'Brien under the name of Fitzgammon O'Bouncer. A short story of note is "The Living Corpse" (January 1853 Putnam's Monthly), in which a man seeks the ultimate high and creates a super gas which gives him extreme, unparalleled enjoyment but kills his lover and turns him into the titular living corpse. Having left England to continue his career in America, North committed Suicide in New York by drinking prussic acid. [JC/MA]

William North

born London: 25 September 1825

died New York: 14 November 1854

works

Anti-Coningsby; Or, The New Generation Grown Old (London: T C Newby, 1844) [published in two volumes: hb/]
The City of the Jugglers; Or, Free-Trade in Souls: A Romance of the Golden Age (London: H J Gibbs, 1850) [hb/]
The Slave of the Lamp (New York: H Long and Brother, 1855) [hb/]
- The Man of the World (Philadelphia: T B Peterson, 1866) [vt of the above: binding unknown/]

about the author

George Locke. A Spectrum of Fantasy: Volume II: Acquisitions to a Collection of Fantastic Literature, 1980-1993 (London: Ferret Fantasy, 1994) [nonfiction: p85-86: hb/nonpictorial]

links

Entry from The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction (2011-current) edited by John Clute and David Langford.
Accessed 08:27 am on 15 April 2026.
<https://sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/north_william>