Robert Cromie

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A Plunge into Space , 1890

Robert Cromie (born on 17th July 1855 in Clough , Ireland , died in April 1907 in Belfast ) was a British science fiction - writer and journalist .

biography

He was home raised before being sent to the Royal Belfast Academical Institution with an older brother . He was the third son of Dr. Cromie JP of Clough, the local Birth and Death Registrar and Elder for the Clough Presbyterian Church . Cromie's older sister, Annie Howe Cromie (1849-1939), to whom he was particularly close, was the wife of Sir John Jordan (the British ambassador to China between 1906 and 1920). Through Cromie's mother, a Miss Henry of Ballyhosset near Downpatrick, he was descended from Gilbert Howe (circa 1626 - circa 1712) of Ballytrim near Killyleagh, the servant and confidante of James, 1st Earl of Clanbrassil, and thus was related by blood to many of the leading families in East Down.

Instead of pursuing an academic path, Cromie followed his brother Andrew Gilbert Howe Cromie (died 1937) and worked in various parts of Ireland, including Donegal , Trim and Derry , for Ulster Bank, most recently at its headquarters on Waring Street, Belfast. While working in Trim, Cromie developed a close friendship with Charles Reichel, Bishop of Meath , which is said to have influenced the development of Cromie's style.

His first book, For England's Sake , was published in 1889. The science fiction novel A Plunge into Space appeared in 1890. The novel appeared 10 years before HG Wells ' The First People on the Moon , but has a number of similarities, as Cromie pointed out in letters to Academy magazine . Cromie's 1895 novel The Crack of Doom was his most successful work and contains the first description of a nuclear explosion.

Cromie was also an avid golfer. He was a member of the Ormeau Golf Club and its captain in 1898.

Cromie remained unmarried. He died in April 1907 on his premises at 95 South Parade Belfast.

bibliography

Novels
  • For England's Sake (1888)
  • A Plunge Into Space (1890)
  • The Crack of Doom (1895)
  • The Next Crusade (1896)
  • The Lost Liner (1899)
  • Kitty's Victoria Cross (1901)
  • A New Messiah (1902)
  • The Shadow of the Cross (1902)
  • The Romance of Poisons (1903)
  • El Dorado (1904)
  • Told in the Twilight (1907)
Collections
  • The King's Oak and Other Stories (1897)
Non-fiction
  • Through Southern Norway (1898)

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b "Mr. Robert Cromie," The Whitehall Review , July 13, 1895.
  2. ^ Cromie, Robert "Rights in Gravitation." Academy , December 14, 1901 p. 597
  3. ^ Cromie, Robert "Rights in Gravitation." Academy , Jan. 4, 1902 p. 659
  4. ↑ Hourican, Bridget "Reading between the lines: why sci-fi sometimes gets it right," Technology Ireland , January 2007
  5. ↑ Kennedy, Diarmuid "Belfast Boom," Verbal Magazine , November 2010
  6. ^ "Mr. Robert Cromie: a successful local author," Belfast Evening Telegraph , April 8, 1907
personal data
SURNAME Cromie, Robert
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British science fiction writer
DATE OF BIRTH July 17, 1855
PLACE OF BIRTH Clough
DATE OF DEATH April 1907
Place of death Belfast