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William GerhardieWilliam Alexander Gerhardie (1895-1977) was a British (Anglo-Russian) novelist and playwright. Gerhardie (or Gerhardi: he added the 'e' in later years as an affectation) was one of the most critically acclaimed English novelists of the 1920s (Evelyn Waugh told him 'I have talent, but you have genius'). H.G Wells was a ferocious champion of his work. His first novel Futility, was written while he was at Cambridge and drew on his experiences in Russia fighting (or attempting to fight) the Bolsheviks, along with his childhood experiences visiting pre-revolutionary Russia. Some say that it was the first work in English to fully explore the theme of 'waiting' later made famous by Samuel Beckett in Waiting for Godot, but it is probably more apt to recognize a common comic nihilism between those two figures. His next novel, The Polyglots is probably his masterpiece (although some argue for Doom). Again it deals with Russia (Gerhardie was strongly influenced by the tragi-comic style of Russian writers such as Chekhov who he wrote a study of while in College). After World War II Gerhardie's star waned, and he became unfashionable, although he continued to write both novels and plays. After a period of poverty-stricken oblivion, he lived to see St. Martin's Press issue a definitive collected works in the early seventies. More recently, both Prion and New Directions Press have been reissuing his works, which is a good thing, as his sense of comic timing, his characters, and his general style are of the very highest rank. Selected Works - God's Fifth Column: A Biography of the Age 1890-1940. Overlook Press. ISBN 0879514213
- Memoirs of a polyglot: The autobiography of William Gerhardie. MacDonald Press. ISBN 0356031470
- Futility. Penguin. ISBN 0140003916
- Doom. Prion Books. ISBN 1853754463
- The Polyglots. Prion Books. ISBN 0192828525
- Resurrection. MacDonald Press. ISBN 0356043010
Critical Studies D.Davies. (1991) William Gerhardie: A Biography. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0192828525 Gerhardie, William Gerhardie, William Gerhardie, William Gerhardie, William
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