JD Beresford

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John Davys Beresford (mostly JD Beresford ; born March 7, 1873 in Castor , Cambridgeshire ; died February 2, 1947 in Bath ) was a British writer who dealt primarily with fantastic and utopian subjects and was an early exponent of British science -Fiction applies.

Life

Beresford was the son of a clergyman. He attended the school in Oundle School , a traditional boarding school in Northamptonshire , and then studied architecture, but did not practice this profession, but became a writer, initially worked as a journalist and playwright and participated intensively in the literary life of Edwardian London.

His first book was the Bildungsroman The Early History of Jacob Stahl (1911), the first part of a trilogy with the sequels A Candidate for Truth (1912) and The Invisible Event (1915). His best-known book is his second novel, The Hampdenshire Wonder , which tells the story of a childish superman whom his superior intellect leads to flatly rejecting religion - Beresford also represented agnostic positions - and who is ultimately murdered by a fanatical cleric.

In addition to his novels, he wrote numerous short stories that were collected in five volumes, namely Nineteen Impressions (1918), Signs and Wonders (1921), The Imperturbable Duchess (1923), The Meeting Place (1929) and Blackthorn Winter (1936). In addition, he was active as a critic and essayist . He wrote one of the first papers on HG Wells , writing book reviews for the Manchester Guardian , the New Statesman , The Spectator , the Westminster Gazette and also for The Aryan Path , the magazine of the Theosophists .

The proximity to theosophy also marked a departure from agnosticism and in his later years Beresford was very interested in psychology, philosophy, spirituality and spiritual healing . Beresford was severely handicapped from childhood due to polio , which is reflected, for example, in the novel The Camberwell Miracle (1933), in which a crippled girl is cured by a miracle doctor.

Politically, Beresford thought progressively, which is also expressed in the pictures of the future he designed: In Revolution: A Story of the Near Future in England (1921) he describes an imminent socialist revolution in England and in What Dreams May Come (1941 ) a young man travels in his dreams to a utopian, pacified future, thrown back into his present, he embarks on a hopeless, messianic mission in which he tries to bring the ideal future into today.

He wrote his last books with Esmé Wynne-Tyson, his partner since 1939. Two of his children, Marc Brandel (1919–1994) and the children's author Elizabeth Beresford (1926–2010), were also known as authors of fantastic literature.

bibliography

  • The Early History of Jacob Stahl (novel, 1911)
  • The Hampdenshire Wonder (novel, 1911)
  • A Candidate for Truth (Novel, 1912)
  • Goslings: A World of Women (Roman, 1913)
  • The House in Demetrius Road (novel, 1914)
  • The Invisible Event (novel, 1915)
  • HG Wells: A Critical Study (Essay, 1915)
  • These Lynneskers (novel, 1916)
  • with Kenneth Richmond: William Elphinstone Ford (biography, 1917)
  • House Mates (novel, 1917)
  • Nineteen Impressions (short stories, 1918)
  • God's Counterpoint (novel, 1918)
  • The Jervaise Comedy (novel, 1919)
  • The Imperfect Mother (novel, 1920)
  • Signs and Wonders (short stories, 1921)
  • Revolution (novel, 1921)
  • The Prisoner of Hartling (novel, 1922)
  • The Imperturbable Duchess and Other Stories ( short stories, 1923)
  • The Monkey Puzzle (novel, 1925)
  • That Kind of Man, or Almost Pagan (novel, 1926)
  • The Instrument of Destiny (novel, 1928)
  • All or Nothing (novel, 1928)
  • Real People (novel, 1929)
  • The Meeting Place and Other Stories (short stories, 1929)
  • Love's Illusion (novel, 1930)
  • The Next Generation (novel, 1932)
  • The Old People (novel, 1932)
  • The Camberwell Miracle (novel, 1933)
  • Peckover (novel, 1934)
  • On a Huge Hill (novel, 1935)
  • Blackthorn Winter and other stories ( short stories, 1936)
  • The Decoy (novel, 1937)
  • Cleo (novel, 1937)
  • A Common Enemy (novel, 1941)
  • "What Dreams May Come ..." (novel, 1941)
  • with Esmé Wynne-Tyson: Men in the Same Boat (novel, 1943)
  • with Esmé Wynne-Tyson: The Riddle of the Tower (novel, 1944)
  • with Esmé Wynne-Tyson: The Gift (1947)
Short stories

In Nineteen Impressions (1918):

  • The Ashes of Last Night's Fire
  • A case of prevention
  • The Contemporaries
  • The Criminal
  • Cut-Throat Farm
  • An Effect of Reincarnation
  • The Empty Theater
  • The Escape
  • Force majeure
  • The great tradition
  • The Instrument of Destiny
  • The Late Occupier
    • German: The last owner. In: Hugh Lamb (Ed.): 16 horror stories. Heyne Anthology # 41, 1974, ISBN 3-453-45014-0 .
  • The Little Town
  • Lost in the Fog
    • German: Nebel. In: Joachim Körber (Ed.): The trade union of ghosts. Edition Phantasia, 2014.
  • Lost suburb
  • The Man in the Machine
  • The misanthrope
  • The power o 'money
  • Powers of the Air

In Signs & Wonders (1921):

  • The Appearance of Man: A Play Out of Time & Space
  • As the Crow Flies
  • The Barrage
  • The barrier
  • The cage
  • The Convert
  • A Difference of Temperament
  • Enlargement
  • The hidden beast
  • The introvert
  • The Miracle
  • A negligible experiment
    • German: An insignificant experiment. In: James Gunn (ed.): From Shelley to Clarke. Heyne (Library of Science Fiction Literature # 100), 2000, ISBN 3-453-17104-7 .
  • The Night of Creation
  • The Perfect Smile
  • Reference Wanted
  • Signs and Wonders
  • Young Strickland's Career

literature

Web links
personal data
SURNAME Beresford, JD
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Beresford, John Davys (full name); Beresford, John D.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British science fiction writer
DATE OF BIRTH March 7, 1873
PLACE OF BIRTH Castor , Cambridgeshire
DATE OF DEATH February 2, 1947
Place of death Bath