Henry Olerich

Henry Olerich (1851–1927) was a utopian author from Nebraska. In his best known novel, A Cityless and Countryless World (1893), a Martian lands on earth to teach humans how to create paradise. The method was to build houses that could hold 1,000 people, who would collectively farm and work.

Henry Olerich
BornFebruary 1851
Hazel Green, WI
DiedMay 10, 1927 (aged 76)
Butte, Nebraska
OccupationAuthor
GenreUtopian fiction

Olerich continued his utopian projections in two subsequent books, Modern Paradise (1915) and The Story of the World a Thousand Years Hence (1923).[1]

Olerich was also a lawyer, farmer, teacher, and machinist; he once earned a patent for an improved tractor.[2] He wrote a range of other works as well, including one titled "Viola Olerich, the Famous Baby Scholar: An Experiment in Education," about his adopted daughter who was for a short time a celebrated child prodigy.[3]

Olerich died by suicide, prompted in part by declining health.[4] Yet he left an abundant supply of autobiographical writings[5] that "reveal a persistent desire for the public recognition that always eluded him....The overall impression...is one of desperation on Olerich's part."[6]

The full text of the book A Cityless and Countryless World has been scanned and can be found online here.

First edition cover of A Cityless and Countryless World (1893)

References
  1. Lyman Tower Sargent, "Themes in Utopian Fiction in English Before Wells," Science Fiction Studies, Vol. 3 No. 3 (November 1976), pp. 275-82; see p. 281.
  2. Howard P. Segal, Technological Utopianism in American Culture, Syracuse, NY, Syracuse University Press, 2005; pp. 49, 188.
  3. Published in The Palimpsest, Vol. 56 (May–June 1975).
  4. "Fearing Blindness, Aged Philosopher Follows Own Precept". Wausau Daily Herald. May 12, 1927 – via newspapers.com.
  5. Segal, pp. 188-9.
  6. Segal, p. 49.


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