LARGE, E(rnest) C(harles)

(? -1976)

   UK plant pathologist and occasional fiction writer. Sugar in the Air (1937) is a notable and original sf novel bitterly describing the conflicts which arise between scientific and commercial interests during the development of an industrial process of artificial photosynthesis. Its sequel, Asleep in the Afternoon (1939), is a SATIRE whose frame narrative about the tribulations of an author is interwoven with a frivolous sf story about a device for inducing sleep. In the more adventurous sarcastic fantasy Dawn in Andromeda (1956) God translocates a representative sample of humanity by way of experiment; the political evolution of the community and the spontaneous regeneration of RELIGION confound the UTOPIAN schemes of the original group but cannot suppress mechanical progress.

   BS

   See also: DISCOVERY AND INVENTION; SCIENTISTS; SOCIOLOGY.