Edward Douglas Fawcett

UNDER CONSTRUCTION
UNDER CONSTRUCTION

E D Fawcett, 1903

Edward Douglas Fawcett (1866-1960) was an English writer who knew Helena Petrovna Blavatsky. He wrote fiction, poetry, and nonfiction about many topics, including metaphysics and flying. His life was filled with adventure, as he piloted airplanes, climbed mountains, drove racecars, and participated in chess tournaments.

Theosophical Society association

Fawcett assisted Bertram Keightley and Archibald Keightley as they worked to prepare The Secret Doctrine for publication.

William Quan Judge had some criticism of Fawcett's actions in India, writing to G. R. S. Mead in 1891: "Some steps must be taken to get Fawcett out of the Adyar place as he is in fact an enemy but after all perhaps he will put himself out."

When Fawcett's book Divine Imagining was published in 1921, it was dedicated "To his old friend Bertram Keightley, MA, First among British thinkers to accept the imaginal hypothesis, this essay, written at his prompting and profiting by his timely suggestions, is dedicated affectionately by the writer."

Later years

According to Boris de Zirkoff as of 1955, Fawcett lived at 98 Walton St., London, S.W.3. He died in 1960.

Writings

E. D. Fawcett was a prolific writer of fiction, poetry, nonfiction, and articles for periodicals.

Periodicals

The Union Index of Theosophical Periodicals lists 9 articles under the name E Douglas Fawcett and 37 articles under the name ED Fawcett. Most were published in Lucifer and The Theosophist. A non-Theosophical journal, Mind: A Quarterly Review of Psychology and Philosophy, published an article called "Some Observations Touching the Cosmic Imagining and "Reason" in 1927.

Fiction and poetry

• The Curse of Edelbrock, or, The Viking's Doom a Norse Legend of Viking Tradition and Adventure, in Two Cantos. London: National Pub. Co., 1880-1899.
• Hartmann, the Anarchist, or, The Doom of the Great City. London: E. Arnold, 1893. Reprinted by various publishers in 1975, 2010, 2011. Illustrated by Fred T. Jane. Available online at: Harvard University Library, Google Books, Google Books, and [1].
• Light of the Universe. Being an Account of the Light Beyond the grave of Douglas Leslie, Aviator. London: Sidgwick Jackson, 1957.
• The Secret of the Desert or How We Crossed Arabia in the "Antelope"'['. New York Edward Arnold, 1895.
• Swallowed by an Earthquake. London: E. Arnold, 1894.
• The Wrath of Ana. A Poem, Written During My School-Days, etc. London: Hamilton, Adams & Co., 1880.

Nonfiction

• The Case for Reincarnation. Adyar, India: Theosophical Publishing House, 1919.
• Divine Imagining: An Essay on the First Principles of Philosophy: Being a Continuation of the Experiment Which Took Shape in "The World as Imagination." London: MacMillan, 1921. Available at Hathitrust.
• From Heston to the High Alps: a Chat about Joy-Flying. London: MacMillan, 1936. Illustrated.
• Kuchu gunkan. Tokyo: Hakubunkan, 1896. Written with Kakutaro Yamagishi. Japanese. [Only one copy exists in the Library of the Japanese Diet.]
• Imaginism. 1923.
• The Individual and Reality an Essay Touching the First Principles of Metaphysics. New York: Longmans, Green and Co., 1909. 449 pages. Available online at Hathitrust, Internet Archive, and Internet Archive.
• Oberland Dialogues. [On the standing and prospects of the human soul.] London: Macmillan & Co., 1929. Alternate subtitle: Philosophical dialogues, set in the Bernese Oberland. Illustrations. In English.
• The Power Behind the Universe. Madras: Scottish Press, 1891.
• The Riddle of the Universe Being an Attempt to Determine the First Principles of Metaphysic, Considered as an Inquiry into the Conditions and Import of Consciousness. London: Edward Arnold, 1893.
• A Talk with Sumangala: Is Southern Buddhism Materialistic? Madras, India: Scottish Press.
• The World as Imagination. London: MacMillan, 1916. Two Series. Reprinted 1924, 2007. Available online at Internet Archive, Hathitrust, and Hathitrust.
• The Zermatt Dialogues: Constituting the Outlines of a Philosophy of Mysticism, etc. London: Macmillan & Co., 1931. 541 pages. Available online at Hathitrust – limited access.

Additional resources

• Anonymous. "Edward Douglas Fawcett". Chessgames.com.
• Anonymous. "Fawcett, E. Douglas". Encyclopedia of Science Fiction. August 25, 2015.
• Anonymous. "Edward Douglas Fawcett" at Ipernity website.
• Girvan, Ray. "Edward Douglas Fawcett". Blog post at JWBlog. August 11, 2012.
• Johnson, Raynor Carey and Edward Douglas Fawcett. Nurslings of Immortality [for the most part an exposition of Douglas Fawcett's philosophy of imaginism.]. London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1957.
• Jones, R. H. "E. Douglas Fawcett". Blog post at Keverel Chess website.
• Muirhead, John Henry, editor. Contemporary British philosophy personal statements (second series). London: Allen & Unwin, 1925 ; New York: Macmillan Company, 1925. Contains an essay by Fawcett.
• Poortman, Johannes Jacobus. E. Douglas Fawcett en Raynor C. Johnson ... Overdruk uit Theosofia, etc. Amsterdam, 1958. Nederlands Theosofisch Research Centrum. 16 pages.
• Sutton, Brook. "What the Hell Happened to the Man Who Mapped the Amazon?" Adventure Journal. August 25, 2016. Available at Adventure Journal website. Article about E. D. Fawcett's brother Percy. Accessed November 21, 2016.
• Temple, Robert. "E. Douglas Fawcett: the English Jules Verne," British Heritage 6.2 (February-March, 1985), 28-47. Published in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.
• WKnight496. "The World as Imagination: Edward Douglas Fawcett". Blog post at WKnight496. June 22, 2013. No longer available as of November 21, 2016.