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Thompson, William Irwin

(1938-2020) US poet, cultural critic and author, founder of the Lindisfarne Association in 1972, which he led until it became inactive in 2012. Within its ecumenical spiritual mission could be detected some evidence (James Lovelock being a member) of a commitment to the concept of Gaia, which Thompson advocates in The nonfiction Imaginary Landscape: Making Worlds of Myth and Science (1989). Of sf interest is Islands Out of Time: A Memoir of the Last Days of Atlantis (1985), in which the world of Atlantis is seen, at least in part, as a template for contemporary civilization. It may be intended to be premonitory that, here as always, Atlantis sinks. [JC]

William Irwin Thompson

born Chicago, Illinois: 16 July 1938

died 8 November 2020

works

• Islands Out of Time: A Memoir of the Last Days of Atlantis (New York: The Dial Press, 1985) [hb/Kathleen Katz]

nonfiction

• Imaginary Landscape: Making Worlds of Myth and Science (New York: St Martin's Press, 1989) [nonfiction: hb/]

links

• Internet Speculative Fiction Database

Entry from The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction edited by John Clute, David Langford, Peter Nicholls and Graham Sleight.
Accessed 10:05 am on 23 April 2024.
<https://sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/thompson_william_irwin>