Percy Greg
Percy Greg was an English poet, novelist, and historian born in 1836, known for his politically themed works. He was the son of renowned essayist William Rathbone Greg and also wrote under the pseudonym Lionel G. Holdreth. His most notable contribution to literature is "Across the Zodiac: The Story of a Wrecked Record" (1880), recognized as an early science fiction work that depicts a journey to Mars facilitated by an antigravity device. In this narrative, Greg introduced advanced Martian technology and telepathy, allowing for a form of punishment based on thoughts, thus exploring themes of morality and control within an alien society. His portrayal of Martian civilization included a critique of social structures, as women are depicted as property, highlighting the era's prevailing attitudes. Greg's work is significant as it features the first depiction of powered interplanetary flight and interplanetary marriage, predating later science fiction milestones. He also authored "Guy Neville's Ghost" (1865) and "The Devil's Advocate" (1878), blending nonfiction with speculative elements. Percy Greg passed away in 1889, leaving a legacy that contributes to the foundations of science fiction.
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Percy Greg
Fiction and Nonfiction Writer
- Born: 1836
- Birthplace: Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk, England
- Died: December 24, 1889
- Place of death: Chelsea, London, England
Biography
Percy Greg was born in 1836. His father was a prolific essayist, William Rathbone Greg (1809-1881). Percy Greg was an English poet, novelist, and historian whose works often focused on politics. He also wrote as Lionel G. Holdreth.
Among his works was Across the Zodiac: The Story of a Wrecked Record (1880), an early depiction of a journey to Mars using some sort of antigravity device. H. G. Wells would use a similar means to get his voyagers to the moon in The First Men in the Moon (1901). Greg’s Martians had a civilization based on advanced technology and telepathy, the latter quality allowing punishment for “wrong thoughts.” All of this would qualify the work as science fiction, but that term would not be created until 1926. It also marks the first story of powered interplanetary flight. Jules Verne had his spaceship shot out of a cannon in From the Earth to the Moon, published in 1869, although it used rockets to maneuver, and the trip was to the moon, rather than another planet. Greg’s story also gives the first depiction of an interplanetary marriage, seventeen years before Kurd Lasswitz’s Auf zwei Planeten in 1897 (with a shortened version translated into English in 1971 as Two Planets).
Greg’s novel about Mars has the distinction of being the first to capitalize on astronomer Giovanni Schiaparelli’s claiming to observe an intricate network on channels on the planet in 1877, and U.S. astronomer Percival Lowell taking the supposition to the next step, that the channels were actually canals built by a Martian civilization, in Mars (1896). The idea that the denizens of Mars were more scientifically advanced than people on Earth had its best-known outing in Wells’s The War of the Worlds (1898), in which Earth’s military might proves no match for invading Martians.
Greg’s Martians were also technically advanced, having developed what we would later call movies, as well as elaborate telephone communications. But they had developed their science to that extent at the expense of their emotions, setting the trend for the many stories of emotionless aliens to follow. His Martians were also politically incorrect, sexually; women were bought and sold as chattel. The story’s hero finds there are some Martians who believe in family life, and he joins them in what proves to be an unsuccessful revolution to change things. He escapes from Mars in his spaceship and the novel comes to an abrupt end.
Greg also wrote Guy Neville’s Ghost in 1865, and The Devil’s Advocate (1878) which, while nonfiction, contains a number of what would become science-fiction or fantasy elements. He died in 1889.