Edward Douglas Fawcett

Edward Douglas Fawcett (11 April 1866 – 14 April 1960) was an English mountaineer, philosopher and novelist.

Life

Edward Douglas Fawcett was born in Hove, Sussex on 11 April 1866.[1] He was the elder son of Edward Fawcett, an equerry to the Prince of Wales (King Edward VII)[2] and the older brother of explorer Percy Fawcett. He was educated at Newton Abbot College in Devon and was a Queen's Scholar at Westminster School from 1880.[2]

Fawcett converted to Buddhism, having taken the pansil (the lay follower vow to the Five Precepts) while with Henry Steel Olcott in Ceylon (modern Sri Lanka) in January 1890.[3][4][5] He was an associate of Russian occultist Helena Blavatsky, leading theoretician of the esoteric religious movement Theosophy. He assisted her in her writing and in compiling quotations from scientific works for The Secret Doctrine[6] and particularly the parts of second volume on the topic of evolutionary hypotheses.[7] Fawcett joined the editorial staff of The Theosophist, the monthly journal of the Theosophical Society[8] and wrote correspondence for the magazine Lucifer.[4]

As a science fiction author, Fawcett published his first fantasy novel Hartmann the Anarchist in 1893.[9] He published two adventure novels in the 1890s. His 1894 novel Swallowed by an Earthquake drew favourable comparisons in London to the works of Jules Verne.[10][11]

He also authored multiple books on philosophy, including The Riddle of the Universe in 1893 on the metaphysical concept of Monadology.[12] In the preface to his 1909 essay, The Individual and Reality, Fawcett concedes to having abandoned Monadology in favour of the metaphysical philosophies of Idealism[13]

Fawcett married his cousin in M. B. V. Jackson in 1896.[1] and they lived principally in Switzerland for many years.[14]

Fawcett devoted his life to mountaineering and philosophy.[2] During this time, his philosophy centered around the idea that imagination was the fundamental reality of the universe.[15] Fawcett and his wife became the first people to ascend the Mer de Glace by automobile in 1909.[16]

Fawcett returned to England and in 1947, he married his second wife, Vera Dick-Cunyngham, widow of George Dick-Cunyngham. Fawcett died in London on 14 April 1960.[15]

Literary Works

(1891) The Power Behind the Universe[17]

(1893) Hartmann the Anarchist or the Doom of the Great City[18] a science fiction adventure where the title character Hartmann engages in airship warfare and depicts an aerial bombardment of the city of London. Illustrations were by Fred T. Jane.

(1893) The Riddle of the Universe: Being an Attempt to Determine the First Principles of Metaphysic[19]

(1894) Swallowed by an Earthquake[20] a subterranean fiction adventure about the discovery of an underground world of dinosaurs and cannibals.

(1895) The Secret Life of the Desert an adventure novel following the exploits of archaeologist Arthur Mannors in Arabia.

(1909) The Individual and Reality: An Essay Touching the First Principles of Metaphysics[13]

(1916) The World as Imagination[21]

(1921) Divine Imagining: An Essay on the First Principles of Philosophy.[22]

(1936) From Heston to the High Alps: A Chat About Joy-Flying [23]

References
  1. Contemporary British Philosophy: Personal Statements. Psychology Press. 1924. p. 84. ISBN 978-0-415-29555-0.
  2. "Mr. Douglas Fawcett." Times, 18 April 1960, p. 10
  3. Grann, David (2010). The Lost City of Z. London: Simon & Schuster. p. 41.
  4. Fawcett, E. Douglass (15 March 1890). "Theosophical Activities – From Our Far East Station". Lucifer. VI (31): 66–68. Retrieved 6 July 2018.
  5. de Harlez, C. (July 1890). "The Buddhist Propaganda in Christian Countries". The Dublin Review. Third Series. London: Burns & Oates Limited. XXIV (1): 56. Retrieved 10 July 2018.
  6. Wachtmeiste, Constance (1893). Reminiscences of H. P. Blavatsky and 'The Secret Doctrine'. London: Theosophical Publishing Society. p. 94. Retrieved 5 July 2018.
  7. Wachtmeiste, Constance (1893). Reminiscences of H. P. Blavatsky and 'The Secret Doctrine'. London: Theosophical Publishing Society. p. 99. Retrieved 5 July 2018.
  8. "Theosophical Activities". Lucifer. VI (32): 161. 15 April 1890. Retrieved 6 July 2018.
  9. Menville, Douglas (June 1971). "Classics of Science Fiction and Fantasy". Forgotten Fantasy (5): 7–10. Retrieved 5 July 2018.
  10. "A Weekly Review of Literature, Science, and Art". The Academy. XLVI: 491. 12 January 1895. Retrieved 5 July 2018.
  11. "The Bookseller" (CCCCXLVI). London. 9 January 1895. p. 53. Retrieved 5 July 2018.
  12. Carus, Paul (April 1895). "The Key to the Riddle of the Universe. A Disquisition on Mr. Edward Douglas Fawcett's Philosophy". The Monist. 5 (3): 408–411. JSTOR 27897251.
  13. Fawcett, Edward Douglass (1909). The Individual and Reality: An Essay Touching the First Principles of Metaphysics. Longmans, Green, and Co. Retrieved 5 July 2018.
  14. Rudolf Metz (3 June 2014). A Hundred Years of British Philosophy. Routledge. p. 433. ISBN 978-1-317-85322-0.
  15. Who Was Who
  16. "Montanvert Climbed by Auto for First Time." New York Herald [European Edition], 8 August 1909, p. 6.
  17. Fawcett, Edward Douglass (1891). The Power Behind the Universe. Scottish Press. Retrieved 5 July 2018.
  18. Fawcett, Edward Douglas (1893). Hartmann the Anarchist or the Doom of the Great City. London: Edward Arnold. hartmann the anarchist.
  19. Fawcett, Edward Douglass (1893). The Riddle of the Universe: Being an Attempt to Determine the First Principles of Metaphysic. London: Edward Arnold. Retrieved 5 July 2018.
  20. Fawcett, Edward Douglas (1894). Swallowed by an Earthquake. Edward Around.
  21. Fawcett, Edward Douglas (1916). The World as Imagination. London: MacMillan and Co, Ltd. edward fawcett.
  22. Fawcett, Edward Douglass (1921). Divine Imagining: An Essay on the First Principles of Philosophy.
  23. "From Heston to the High Alps: A Chat About Joy-Flying". Stella & Rose's Books: Specialists in Rare & Collectable Books. Retrieved 5 July 2018.
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