Sweet Dreams - Michael Frayn (b. 1933) (William Collins Sons, 1973)
Humor. A typical, upwardly mobile middle-class man dies and goes to a typical, upwardly mobile middle-class heaven.
Rpt. London: Flamingo, 1986. U.S. ed. New York: Ballantine Books, 1975.
Keywords: English author; Male author

The Tenth Planet. A Novel - Edmund Cooper (1926-82) (Hodder & Stoughton, 1973)
Flawed utopia. The novel begins with Earth near death from pollution and war. Mars is to be the next center of human civilization, but it experiences the same problems as Earth. Far in the future the remnant of humanity exists in a society of 10,000 underground on the tenth planet where it is under a static, religious, but benevolent dictatorship that provides a good life for its inhabitants but severely restricts change. A man from the time of the dying Earth is cloned and becomes the focus of conflict and encourages conflict. At the end, he and some others leave to see if Earth can be revived.
U.S. ed. New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons. Rpt. New York: Berkley Medallion, 1974.
Keywords: English author; Male author

The Texts of Festival - Mick [Michael Anthony] Farren (1943-2013) (Hart-Davis, MacGibbon, 1973)
Dystopia in which the remaining civilized community is surrounded by barbarians. The civilized community's gods are past rock stars.
Keywords: English author; Male author

An Alien Heat - Michael [John] Moorcock (b. 1939) (MacGibbon & Kee, 1972)
World where each individual has control over matter which produces a eutopia of a balanced, loving society. Continued in The Hollow Lands. New York: Harper & Row, 1974; U.K. ed. London: Hart Davis MacGibbon, 1975, which is not a utopia. Other non-utopian titles in the series are The End of All Songs. London: Harper & Row, 1976; Legends from the End of Time. New York: Harper & Row, 1976; U.K. ed. London: W.H. Allen, 1977; and The Transformation of Miss Mavis Ming. London: W.H. Allen, 1977; U.S. ed. as A Messiah at the End of Time or the Transformation of Miss Mavis Ming. New York: DAW Books, 1977. A story was published as "Ancient Shadows: A Tale of the Dancers at the End of Time." New Worlds 9. Ed. Hilary Bailey (London: Corgi Books, 1975), 48-119.
Rpt. as part of the Michael Moorcock Collection. Ed. John Davey. With The Beginning at the head of the title. London: Gollancz, 2013.
Keywords: English author; Male author

Century of the Manikin - E[dwin] C[harles] Tubb (1919-2010) (DAW Books, 1972)
Future society that is non-violent, and has heavy drug use and free sexuality, but there is underground sadism.
U.K. ed. London: Millington, 1975.
Keywords: English author; Male author

Empire of Two Worlds - Barrington J. Bayley (Ace Books, 1972)
Dystopia of changeless authority as background. U.K. author.
U.K. ed. London: Robert Hale, 1974. Rpt. London: Allison & Busby, 1979.
Keywords: English author

The End of His Tether - [Martin] [Fehr] (1905-78) (Janay Publishing Co., 1972)
Post-catastrophe dystopia in which people, with major genetic damage, fall back into a very simple, poor life. Partially set in Australia, which has survived marginally better than Europe and is rebuilding faster.
Keywords: English author; German author

Fugue for a Darkening Island - Christopher [McKenzie] Priest (1943-2024) (Faber & Faber, 1972)
Dystopia of racial war.
U.S. ed. entitled Darkening Island. New York: Harper & Row, 1972.
Keywords: English author; Male author

Genius Unlimited - John T[homas] Phillifent (1916-76) (DAW Books, 1972)
Eutopia of geniuses where everyone who works independently has problems, and the people have to learn both to work together and be practical.
Keywords: English author; Male author

The Infernal Desire Machines of Doctor Hoffman - Angela [Olive Stalker] Carter (1940-92) (Rupert Hart-Davis, 1972)
Surrealistic dystopia in which a man destabilizes reality, thus producing many fantastic events. Much violence including violent sex. The novel describes one man's successful attempt to find the source of the problem and defeat it. In the course of his search, he comes across a number of small societies, all of them ultimately dystopian.
U.S. ed. as The War of Dreams. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1974.
Keywords: English author; Female author

Lear - Edward Bond (1934-2024) (Eyre Methuen, 1972)
A reimagining of Shakespeare’s Lear as a vicious, paranoid autocrat who tries to keep out imaginary enemies by building a wall. Sometimes called the most violent play ever staged.
Rpt. in his Plays: Two (London: Methuen Drama, 1989), 1-102. U.S. ed. New York: Hill and Wang, 1972.
Keywords: English author; Male author

The Mistress of Downing Street - Walter Harris (b. 1925) (Michael Joseph, 1972)
Dystopia in which a woman, who is 25 and voluptuous, becomes Prime Minister after her husband is murdered. She tries to revitalize an authoritarian corporate world that is controlled by an individual capitalist through his control of all the world's robots, which have replaced all workers..
Keywords: English author; Male author

"The Perplexities of John Forstice" - Bertrand [Arthur William] Russell (1872-1970) (The Collected Stories of Bertrand Russell, 1972)
Discussion of the nature of the good life modeled on 1877 Mallock. In his The Prospects of Industrial Civilization. New York/London: Century, 1923, written in collaboration with his then wife Dora Russell (1894-1986), he lays out a few of the basic principles that he contends are necessary for a good life. Fundamental to his vision is “The greatest possible amount of free development of individuals” (279), which requires “a compromise between justice and freedom” (279). And he goes on to say that “In a just world, no one will inherit money, no one will own more land than he can cultivate himself, no one will be supported in idleness if he is physically fit to work” and “no one will be allowed to starve” (280). Standing in the way  are “Greed, the lust for power, and the tyranny of custom” (287).
Keywords: English author; Male author; Welsh author

The Resurrection of Roger Diment - Douglas R[ankine] Mason (1918-2013) (Ballantine Books, 1972)
Dystopia in which from birth to death no one grew old or ugly and everyone lived a life of pleasure but did not die natural deaths.
Keywords: English author; Male author; Welsh author

Rule Britannia - Daphne Du Maurier (1907-89) (Victor Gollancz, 1972)
Dystopia of the U.S. "protecting" Britain. Britain and the U.S. merge, and the U.S. becomes all Disneyland.
U.S. ed. New York: Doubleday, 1972. Rpt. New York: Avon, 1974.
Keywords: English author

The Sheep Look Up - John [Kilian Houston] Brunner (1934-95) (Harper & Row, 1972)
A pollution dystopia that presents a world of the near future in which it is necessary to always wear a filter mask whenever one is outside, most food has been contaminated by chemicals used in fertilizers, etc., the water is unsafe for drinking without boiling, etc. Added to this is the leaking of poison gas buried in mountains in Colorado into the water supply and into the food factory and the effects on those who eat the food. Widespread disease, unemployment, and starvation. The corrupt U.S. government is attempting to control the world economy for the benefit of U.S. corporations, and those trying to change the government are under attack. No man between sixteen and sixty can get a visa to leave the country unless they have served in the military or have a medical exemption. The main opposition group lives in an intentional community in Colorado. At the end of the year covered by the book, revolts are occurring throughout the U.S. and many cities are on fire.
Rpt. Dallas, TX: BenBella Books, 2003, with a brief "Introduction" by David Brin (xiii-xiv) and an "Afterword" by James John Bell (369-88) on the books environmental message; and Lakewood, CO: Centipede Press, 2009. 300 copy ed. illus. Dan J. O’Driscoll and with an “Introduction” by Kim Stanley Robinson (7-11), “John Brunner A Short Autobiography” (409-35) by Brunner, “John Brunner Interviewed by Ian Covell” (437-55), and “Noise Level” (457-59) by Brunner reprinted from Science Fiction Review, no. 29 (January-February 1979): 15-16.
Keywords: English author; Male author

Volteface. Science Fiction - Mark [Peter Marcus} Adlard (b. 1932) (Sidgwick & Jackson, 1972)
Sequel to 1971 Adlard describing an authoritarian overpopulation dystopia in which the population is manipulated by a small group of executives. In this novel the executives decide to reintroduce work and intentionally appoint incompetent people to management positions because this will reproduce twentieth century business. See also 1975 Adlard.
Keywords: English author; Male author

"Weihnachtabend" - Keith [John Kingston] Roberts (1935-2000) (New Worlds, 1972)
Alternative history dystopia with Nazi Germany in control of Britain.
Rpt. in Best SF: 1972, Ed. Harry Harrison and Brian W[ilson] Aldiss (New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1973), 55-94
Keywords: English author; Male author

Who Needs Men? - Edmund Cooper (1926-82) (Hodder and Stoughton, 1972)
Dystopia of a future where men are no longer biologically required because of cloning and parthenogenesis. The few remaining men are being exterminated. Love and desire enters and complicates the situation.
U.S. ed. as Gender Genocide. New York: Ace Books, 1973.
Keywords: English author; Male author

The Year Dot - [John Newton] [Chance] (1911-83) (Hodder and Stoughton, 1972)
Machine, authoritarian dystopia. Civilization is destroyed when machines stop. Stonehenge is one of the remains.
Keywords: English author; Male author

Andra - [Elizabeth Rhoda Wintle] [Holden] (1943-2013) (William Collins, 1971)
Young adult dystopia set in an authoritarian underground city and a revolt by the young people.
Keywords: English author; Female author; Irish author

The Call of Utopia - Eric C[yril] Williams (1918-2010) (Robert Hale, 1971)
The novel begins in an authoritarian dystopia set in 2060 in which criminals are surgically altered to live in underwater prisons. One such prisoner, driven by his desire to find a eutopia in Brazil, escapes and finds his eutopia which stresses variety, few laws, and limited work.
Keywords: English author; Male author

"The Discontent Contingency" - [Rex Thomas] [Vinson] (1935-2000) (New Writings in S-F, 1971)
Benevolent dictatorship which uses a happiness generator to control the people. This results in there being no creativity.
Keywords: English author; Male author

Horizon Alpha - Douglas [Rankine] Mason (1918-2013) (Ballantine Books, 1971)
Dystopia of a future rigid city as it breaks down.
Keywords: English author; Male author; Welsh author

Interface. Science Fiction - Mark [Peter Marcus} Adlard (b. 1932) (Sidgwick & Jackson, 1971)
First of a series about Stahlnex (the only building material) Corp. which controls the world. A few genetically enhanced executives live in splendor and isolation while others live in an overpopulation dystopia. Creativity has mostly disappeared. The novel ends with a revolt against the corporation and its power. See also 1972 and 1975 Adlard.
Keywords: English author; Male author

Little Dog's Day. A Novel - Jack Trevor Story (1917-91) (Allison & Busby, 1971)
Future authoritarian bureaucratic dystopia and an anti-bureaucratic movement.
Keywords: English author; Male author

"The Mind Prison" - Michael G[reatrex] Coney (1932-2005) (New Writings in S-F, 1971)
Dystopia. People had lived in a building originally built as a fall-out shelter and expanded as population grew. Fear of the outside, encouraged by the male leaders, keeps people inside long after it is no longer necessary.
Keywords: Canadian author; English author; Male author

The Strong Man - H[enry] R[eymond] F[itzwalter] Keating (1926-2011) (Heinemann, 1971)
Dystopia. Political novel describing the struggle against a dictator who uses religion to manipulate people. The replacement is not much better.
Keywords: English author; Male author

Terminus - Leonard [John] Daventry (1915-87) (Robert Hale & Co., 1971)
Dystopia where radioactive fallout from the bomb tests of the forties and fifties had caused cancers in babies and young children that led to a drop in the birthrate. Most people carry guns. Another society, the Terminus of the title, is a world without and disparaging of ideals; it is society that results from an upheaval in the original dystopia.
Keywords: English author; Male author

Travels in Nihilon - Alan Sillitoe (1928-2010) (W. H. Allen, 1971)
Satire on anarchism (nihilism).
Keywords: English author; Male author

The Warlord of the Air; A Scientific Romance - Michael [John] Moorcock (b. 1939) (Dell, 1971)
Alternative future histories. Describes some eutopian and some dystopian societies but not in much detail. The same approach is continued in two sequels The Land Leviathan. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1974. U.K. ed. with subtitle A New Scientific Romance. <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">London</st1:place></st1:city>: Quartet, 1974. Rpt. in his The Nomad of Time (Garden City, NY: Nelson Doubleday, [1982]), 157-302. Rev. with the subtitle For Mongazi Feza, who demanded justice. In A Nomad of the Time Streams: A Scientific Romance (London: Millennium, 1993), 157-297. U.S. ed. as The Second Adventure The Land Leviathan (Clarkson, GA: White Wolf, 1995), 147-276; and The Steel Tsar. New York: DAW Books, 1981. U.K. ed. with the subtitle Third Volume in the Oswald Bastable Trilogy. London: Granada, 1981. Rpt. in The Nomad of Time (Garden City, NY: Nelson Doubleday, [1982]), 303-441. Rev. with the subtitle To the memory of Michael Cornelius Dempsey, who died, as he had lived, a captain of his own ship. In A Nomad of the Time Streams: A Scientific Romance (London: Millennium, 1993), 299-457. U.S. ed. as The Third Adventure The Steel Tsar (Clarkston, GA: White Wolf, 1995), 277-423.
U.K. ed. London: NEL, 1971. Rpt. in The Nomad of Time (Garden City, NY: Nelson Doubleday, [1982]), 1-155. Rev. with the subtitle For Colin Ward and the international anarchist conspiracy. In A Nomad of the Time Streams: A Scientific Romance (London: Millennium, 1993), 1-154. U.S. ed. as The First Adventure The Warlord of the Air (Clarkston, GA: White Wolf, 1995), 1-146.
Keywords: English author; Male author

The Bodyguard - Adrian Mitchell (1932-2008) (Jonathan Cape, 1970)
Dystopia of violence focusing on one ambitious man and what he does to succeed within the dystopia.
Rpt. London: Allison & Busby, 1988.
Keywords: English author; Male author

"The Doomsday Show. A Cabaret" - George Macbeth; J. S. Bingham (New English Dramatists, 1970)
Brief dystopian play set in an authoritarian society that evolved in caves among the few survivors of a nuclear war.
Keywords: English author; Male author

Earthjacket - Jon Hartridge (b. 1934) (Macdonald, 1970)
An authoritarian dystopia based on technology that has destroyed most of the natural environment. A successful attempt to undermine the imposed order results in the destruction of the society.
U.S. ed. New York: Walker, 1970.
Keywords: English author; Male author

The Electric Crocodile - D[avid] G[uy] Compton (1930-2023) (Ace Books, 1970)
Authoritarian dystopia with constant surveillance. Almost everyone is bugged, and people have to use jammers to have a private conversation.
U.S. ed. as The Steel Crocodile. New York: Ace Books, 1970.
Keywords: English author; Male author

The Guardians - [Sam] [Youd] (1922-2012) (Hamish Hamilton, 1970)
Dystopia. Overcrowded cities for the proletariat. Rural life for the aristocracy. Maintained by psychological conditioning and brain surgery.
Keywords: English author; Male author

"The Hunter at His Ease." - Brian [Wilson] Aldiss (1925-2017) (Science Against Man, 1970)
Dystopia of a future world constantly at war and "Progress" gradually destroying the environment.
Keywords: English author; Male author

Indoctrinaire - Christopher [McKenzie] Priest (1943-2024) (Faber and Faber, 1970)
Anarchist eutopia set in Brazil 200 years in the future. There is no government. All simple decisions are left to individuals, but they are expected to consult on more complex ones, and there is a social hierarchy based on merit that may be consulted.
U.S. ed. New York: Harper & Row, 1970. U.K. ed. rpt. London: New English Library, 1971. [Rev. ed.] London: Pan, 1979 with an "Afterword" by the author (191-92). Part originally published as "The Interrogator." New Writings in S-F 15. Ed. [Edward] John Carnell (London: Dennis Dobson, 1969), 45-76.
Keywords: English author; Male author

A Piece of Resistance - Clive [Frederick William] Egleton (1927-2006) (Hodder and Stoughton, 1970)
Authoritarian dystopia of a Communist Britain. First volume of a trilogy. The other volumes are Last Post of a Partisan. London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1971; and The Judas Mandate. London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1972. Rpt. as The Last Refuge. London: Severn House, 2006 with a foreword by the author. U.S. ed. as The Judas Mandate. New York: Coward, McCann & Geoghagan, 1972.
Rpt. as Never Surrender. Sutton, Surrey, Eng.: Severn House, 2004.
Keywords: English author; Male author

"R26/5/PSY and I" - Michael G[reatrex] Coney (1932-2005) (New Writings in S-F, 1970)
Overpopulation dystopia where few people have jobs and food is strictly rationed. Many people come to be completely apathetic and never leave their rooms. The story is about therapy to overcome this condition.
Keywords: Canadian author; English author; Male author

Seven Steps to the Sun - [Sir] Fred Hoyle (1915-2001); Geoffrey Hoyle (b. 1941) (Heinemann, 1970)
Dystopia of an authoritarian decentralized political system.
Rpt. ed. Barbara Hoyle. Harmondsworth, Eng: Penguin Books, 1981. U.S. ed. Greenwich, CT: Fawcett, 1970.
Keywords: English author; Male author

"The Show Must Go On" - David I[rvine] Masson (1915-2007) (The Disappearing Future, 1970)
Dystopia of overpopulation and violence.
Keywords: English author; Male author; Scottish author

Son of Kronk - Edmund Cooper (1926-82) (Hodder & Stoughton, 1970)
A dystopia of pollution and violence, but a new venereal disease develops that limits aggression.
Rpt. as Kronk. London: Coronet, 1972. U.S. ed. as Kronk. New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1971.
Keywords: English author; Male author

A State of Denmark or a Warning to the Incurious - [Robert William Arthur] [Cook] (1931-94) (Hutchinson, 1970)
Authoritarian dystopia set in an England that has deported all non-whites.
Rpt as by Derek Raymond [pseud.]. London: Serpent's Tale, 1994; and London: Serpent's Tale, 2007.
Keywords: English author; Male author

"The Truth Worth of Ruth Villiers" - Michael G[reatrex] Coney (1932-2005) (New Writings in S-F, 1970)
Satire on the welfare system. Individuals are each valued, and all services provided are based upon their credit worth.
Keywords: Canadian author; English author; Male author

World Well Lost - [John Kempton] [Aiken] (1913-90) (Robert Hale, 1970)
The planet known as Eden, a non-violent eutopia anarchist, vegetarian, is invaded by a violent people, who create a dystopia. A few people choose to reject non-violence and fight back.
U.S. ed. under the author's name. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1971.
Keywords: English author; US author

The Atrocity Exhibition - J[ames] G[raham] Ballard (1930-2009) (Jonathan Cape., 1969)
Wide-ranging dystopia with the violence of the contemporary world the primary focus.
Rpt. St. Albans, Eng.: Triad/Panther, 1979. The first U.S. ed. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1970, was suppressed and destroyed. The first existing U.S. ed. U.S. ed. as Love and Napalm: Export U.S.A. New York: Grove Press, 1972. Parts originally published between 1966 and 1969 as “The Assassination of John Fitzgerald Kennedy Considered as a Downhill Motor Race.” Ambit, no. 29 (1966): 3-4, rpt. in New Worlds SF 50.171 (March 1967): 119-21, rpt. in England Swings SF: Stories of speculative fiction. Ed. Judith Merril (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1968), 393-95; and in his The Complete Short Stories London: Flamingo, 2001), 720-21; “The Atrocity Exhibition.” New Worlds SF 50.166 (September 1966): 91-102; “The Assassination Weapon.” New Worlds SF 49.161 (April 1966): 4-12; “You: Coma: Marilyn Monroe.” Ambit, no. 27 (1966): 3-6, rpt. in New Worlds SF 50.163 (June 1966): 66-71; “You and Me and the Continuum.” Impulse 1.1 (March 1966): 53-60;  rpt. in England Swings SF: Stories of speculative fiction. Ed. Judith Merril (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1968), 95-102; “Plan for the Assassination of Jacqueline Kennedy.” Ambit, no. 31 (Spring 1967): 9-11; rpt. in England Swings SF: Stories of speculative fiction. Ed. Judith Merril (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1968), 397-401, with a note on the reaction to it on pp. 402-06; “Notes Towards a Mental Breakdown.” Originally published as “The Death Module.” New Worlds 51.173 (July 1967): 20-25; “Love and Napalm: Export USA.” Circuit, no. 6 (June 1968): 55-57; “The Generations of America.” New Worlds, no 183 (October 1968): 13-14; “The University of Death.” The Transatlantic Review, no. 29 (Summer 1968): 68-79; “Why I Want to Fuck Ronald Reagan.” International Times (1968), rpt. Brighton, Eng.: Unicorn Bookshop, 1968, and London: Plasnet 1988; and in his The Complete Short Stories London: Flamingo, 2001), 757-59; “The Great American Nude.” Ambit, no. 36 (Summer 1968): 39-43; “Crash!” ICA Eventsheet (February 1969); “The Summer Cannibals.” New Worlds, no. 186 (January 1969): 19-23; and “Tolerances of the Human Face.” Encounter 33.3 (September 1969). New rev. ed. with annotations by the author and four additional stories. San Francisco, CA: RE/SEARCH Publications, 1990. The new stories were previously published as “Princess Margaret’s Facelift.” New Worlds, no. 199 (March 1970): 8-; “Mae West's Reduction Mammoplasty.” Ambit, no. 44 (Summer 1970): 9-11; “Queen Elizabeth's Rhinoplasty.” Triquarterly, no. 351 (Winter 1976): 18-20 [Omitted from all U.K. editions]; and "The Secret History of World War 3." Ambit, no. 114 (Autumn 1988): 2-9. The book was first published in Danish translation as Grusomhedsudstillingen. Rhodes, 1969. Rpt. St. Albans, Eng.: Triad/Panther, 1979. The first U.S. ed. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1970, was suppressed and destroyed. The first existing U.S. ed. U.S. ed. as Love and Napalm: Export U.S.A. New York: Grove Press, 1972. Parts originally published between 1966 and 1969 as “The Assassination of John Fitzgerald Kennedy Considered as a Downhill Motor Race.” Ambit, no. 29 (1966): 3-4, rpt. in New Worlds SF 50.171 (March 1967): 119-21, rpt. in England Swings SF: Stories of speculative fiction. Ed. Judith Merril (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1968), 393-95; and in his The Complete Short Stories London: Flamingo, 2001), 720-21; “The Atrocity Exhibition.” New Worlds SF 50.166 (September 1966): 91-102; “The Assassination Weapon.” New Worlds SF 49.161 (April 1966): 4-12; “You: Coma: Marilyn Monroe.” Ambit, no. 27 (1966): 3-6, rpt. in New Worlds SF 50.163 (June 1966): 66-71; “You and Me and the Continuum.” Impulse 1.1 (March 1966): 53-;  rpt. in England Swings SF: Stories of speculative fiction. Ed. Judith Merril (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1968), 95-102; “Plan for the Assassination of Jacqueline Kennedy.” Ambit, no. 31 (Spring 1967): 9-11; rpt. in England Swings SF: Stories of speculative fiction. Ed. Judith Merril (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1968), 397-401, with a note on the reaction to it on pp. 402-06; “Notes Towards a Mental Breakdown.” Originally published as “The Death Module.” New Worlds 51.173 (July 1967): 20-25; “Love and Napalm: Export USA.” Circuit, no. 6 (June 1968): 55-57; “The Generations of America.” New Worlds, no 183 (October 1968): 13-14; “The University of Death.” The Transatlantic Review, no. 29 (Summer 1968): 68-79; “Why I Want to Fuck Ronald Reagan.” International Times (1968) [Not Found}, rpt. Brighton, Eng.: Unicorn Bookshop, 1968, and London: Plasnet 1988; and in his The Complete Short Stories London: Flamingo, 2001), 757-59; “The Great American Nude.” Ambit, no. 36 (Summer 1968): 39-43; “Crash!” ICA Eventsheet (February 1969); “The Summer Cannibals.” New Worlds, no. 186 (January 1969): 19-23; and “Tolerances of the Human Face.” Encounter 33.3 (September 1969). New rev. ed. with annotations by the author and four additional stories. San Francisco, CA: RE/SEARCH Publications, 1990. The new stories were previously published as “Princess Margaret’s Facelift.” New Worlds, no. 199 (March 1970): 8-; “Mae West's Reduction Mammoplasty.” Ambit, no. 44 (Summer 1970): 9-11; “Queen Elizabeth's Rhinoplasty.” Triquarterly, no. 351 (Winter 1976): 18-20 [Omitted from all U.K. editions]; and "The Secret History of World War 3." Ambit, no. 114 (Autumn 1988): 2-9. The book was first published in Danish translation as Grusomhedsudstillingen. Rhodes, 1969.
Keywords: English author; Male author

Babel - Alan Burns (1929-2013) (Calder & Boyars, 1969)
Experimental novel with hundreds of characters, including well-known people, and no discernible plot that depicts contemporary life as dystopia and returning time and again to the war in Vietnam.
An excerpt appeared in New Worlds, 191 (June 1969): 24-27.
Keywords: Australian author; English author; Male author

The Black Corridor - Michael [John] Moorcock (b. 1939) (Ace, 1969)
Overpopulation dystopia as the context for the story line.
Rpt. in his Sailing To Utopia (London: Millennium, 1993), 183-314. Rpt. in The Michael Moorcock Collection under the title Travelling to Utopia. Ed. John Davey (London: Gollancz, 2014), 355-505.
Keywords: English author; Male author

The Coming Self-Destruction of the United States of America - Alan Seymour (b. 1927) (Souvenir Press, 1969)
A dystopia describing an extremely violent race war in the United States that leads to its destruction.
U.S. ed. New York: Grove Press, 1971.
Keywords: Australian author; English author; Male author

The Four-Gated City - Doris [May] Lessing (1919-2013) (MacGibbon & Kee, 1969)
The "Appendix" (560-614) presents a future, post-catastrophe authoritarian dystopia. Telepathy.
U.S. ed. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1969.
Keywords: English author; Female author; Zimbabwean author

"Give-and-Take Utopia" - Alan Brien (1925-2008) (New Statesman, 1969)
A personal view of eutopia, which he calls a "half-way utopia" and a "more-or-less Merry England". It will be planned but not predictable, permissive but not lawless, safe but not dull, and patriotic but not racist. Among other things, there will be a limit on income, and everyone must work.
Keywords: English author; Male author

Heroes and Villains - Angela [Olive Stalker] Carter (1940-92) (William Heinemann, 1969)
Post-catastrophe (nuclear war) dystopian novel presenting a contrast between civilization (rational) and barbarians (irrational). Isolated fortified villages divided among the hereditary Professor, Soldiers, and Workers with various other groups outside the social structure.
Rpt. Harmondsworth, Eng.: Penguin, 1981; and London: Penguin Books, 2011, with an “Introduction” by Robert Coover (vii-ix).
Keywords: English author; Female author

The Jagged Orbit - John [Kilian Houston] Brunner (1934-95) (Ace Books, 1969)
Dystopia of violence in which it is necessary to be armed on the street.
Keywords: English author; Male author

Kark - [James] [Pattinson] (1915-2009) (Robert Hale, 1969)
Authoritarian dystopia set in 21st century London. The powerful Ministry of Internal Security and the police are more concerned with political opposition than crime and, as a result, criminals rule the streets.
Keywords: English author; Male author

The Last Continent - Edmund Cooper (1926-82) (Dell, 1969)
Advanced blacks from Mars return to Earth and find primitive whites in a tropical Antarctica. Interracial conflict and interracial love.
U.K. ed. London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1970. Rpt. London: Hodder Paperbacks, 1971.
Keywords: English author; Male author

Light a Last Candle - [Rex Thomas] [Vinson] (1935-2000) (Rapp & Whiting, 1969)
Dystopia of alien invaders who have created mutated humans. The few normal people are outlaws. The focus of the novel is on the struggle.
Rpt. London: Tandem, 1971
Keywords: English author; Male author

A New Voyage to the Country of the Houyhnhnms. Being the Fifth Part of the Travels into Several Remote Parts of the World by Lemuel Gulliver First a Surgeon and then a Captain of Several Ships. Wherein the Author returns and finds a New State of Liberal Horses and Revolting Yahoos - Matthew [John Caldwell] Hodgart ed. [written by] (1916-96) (Duckworth, 1969)
Satire on the Sixties using 1726 Swift.
U.S. ed. New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1970.
Keywords: English author; Male author; Scottish author

The Paradise Man: A Black and White Farce - John [Barry] Hale (b. 1926) (Rapp and Whiting, 1969)
Dystopia of racial turmoil. Constant conventional war by international agreement to keep economies going.
Keywords: English author; Male author

The Perspective Process - Cyril Donson (1919-86) (Robert Hale, 1969)
Eutopia with women in power in The Harmony of World States. Population controlled, long life, no disease, and safety.
Keywords: English author; Male author

A Residence Afresh - [Mrs.] [Arthur E.] [Towle] (1889-1969) (Robert Hale, 1969)
Domestic heaven.
Keywords: English author; Female author

"Therapy 2000" - Keith [John Kingston] Roberts (1935-2000) (New Writings in S-F, 1969)
Dystopia. Overpopulated but the focus is on constant TV and constant noise. One man chooses to be deaf.
Keywords: English author; Male author

The Ulcer Culture - [Henry] Kenneth Bulmer (1921-2005) (Macdonald Science Fiction, 1969)
Dystopia that is divided between the Uppers and the workers with the workers controlled through the distribution of Joy Juice (hallucinogenic drugs), but someone has been tampering with the drugs.
Rpt. as Stained Glass World. London: New English Library, 1976
Keywords: English author; Male author

The Weisman Experiment - [Douglas Rankine] [Mason] (1918-2013) (Dennis Dobson, 1969)
Authoritarian dystopia ruled by "The Meritocracy" trying to suppress an early experiment that suggested the importance of liberty and equality.
Keywords: English author; Male author; Welsh author

"The Year of the Sex Olympics" - [Thomas] Nigel Kneale (1922-2006) (The Year of the Sex Olympics and Other TV Plays, 1969)
Dystopian satire focusing on the power of television, which is used to encourage apathy and keep people from producing more children in the overpopulated world by broadcasting sexual athletics to suggest to people that since they cannot perform that well, they should give up sex.
Keywords: English author; Male author

Carder's Paradise - Malcolm Levene (1937-1973) (Rupert Hart-Davis, 1968)
The novel includes two dystopias. In one, a computer dominated world, there is no work because it might upset the economy. As a result, people have too much leisure and degenerate. The second, which is the focus of the novel, is an island prison, and the two main characters are a prisoner, Carder, who wants to take over the prison, and the mentally ill prison governor.
U.S. ed. New York: Walker, 1969.
Keywords: Australian author; English author; Male author

The Day of the Coastwatch - Philip McCutchan (1920-96) (Harrap, 1968)
Authoritarian dystopia of the New Socialist State. Leaving is illegal, thus the coastwatch.
Keywords: English author; Male author

"The Divided House" - [John Thomas] [Phillifent] (1916-76) (New Writings in S-F, 1968)
Dystopia. A world of dreamers versus doers. The doers are in power and logic controls. The dreamers are serfs.
Keywords: English author; Male author

The Doomsday Men - [Henry] Kenneth Bulmer (1921-2005) (Doubleday, 1968)
Dystopia in a future U.S. where fear of nuclear war has led to the collapse of most cities and people live spread across the landscape served by machines. One city remains as a center of pleasure, but seemingly mindless violence erupts.
Rpt. New York: Curtis Books/Modern Literary Editions, nd. U.K. ed. London: Robert Hale, 1968. Shorter version in If 15.11 (November 1965): 102-59
Keywords: English author; Male author

Fistful of Digits - Christopher [Glazebrook] Hodder-Williams (1926-95) (Hodder and Stoughton, 1968)
Computer-dominated authoritarian dystopia.
Keywords: English author; Male author

Five to Twelve - Edmund Cooper (1926-82) (Hodder & Stoughton, 1968)
Sex-role reversal dystopia brought about by the popularity of birth control. The novel focuses on a man who is constantly in conflict with the system.
U.S. ed. New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1968.
Keywords: English author; Male author

"The Helmet of Hades" - [Herbert] Jack Wodhams (1931-2017) (New Writings in S-F, 1968)
Dystopia on a planet where a drink that makes everyone blind is distilled from a plant. One man follows the old adage that in the land of the bind the one eyed man is king and blind everyone except a few acolytes and enslaves the blind. The protagonist is a man sent to the planet that had not been heard from recently and is blinded but rebels and violently overthrows the regime and frees the one man who had previously rebelled. The result is the opposite of what he expected.
Keywords: Australian author; English author; Male author

The Iron Man: A Story in Five Nights - Ted [Edward James] Hughes (1930-98) (Faber and Faber, 1968)
Book written for children in which a giant made of iron defeats a space monster, who then circles the Earth singing. The experience unifies the world and brings peace. See also 1993 Hughes.
Rpt. without the subtitle illus. by George Adamson. London: Faber and Faber, 1971; and illus. by Andrew Davidson. London: Faber and Faber, 1985. Rpt. as The Iron Giant: A Story in Five Nights. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1999. Another U.S. ed. as The Iron Giant: A Story in Five Nights. Illus. Dirk Zimmer (1943-2008). New York: Harper & Row, 1988.
Keywords: English author; Male author

The Keeper - Audrey [Louise] Laski (1931-2003) (Eyre & Spottiswoode, 1968)
Dystopia of a religious intentional community in which a group of Puritans were left on an isolated island whose descendants return to England in 1950 and establish a community in Wales.
U.S. ed. as The Keeper. A Novel. New York: W.W. Norton, 1968.
Keywords: English author; Welsh author

Pavane - Keith [John Kingston] Roberts (1935-2000) (Doubleday, 1968)
Alternative history. Papal domination of Europe has slowed progress and a dystopian medievalism has lasted into the 20th century.
Rpt. New York Ace Books, 1968; rpt. New York: Ace Books, 1984. Rpt. New York: Berkley Medallion, 1976. U.K. ed. London: Victor Gollancz, 1984. Abr. ed. London: Rupert Hart-Davis, 1968. Rpt. London: Panther, 1970. First published as a series of stories--“Pavane.” Impulse 1.1 (March 1966): 127-60; “Pavane: The Lady Anne.” Impulse 1.2 (April 1966): 4-47; rev. as “The Lady Margaret” in the rev. ed. and rpt. under that title in Sense of Wonder: A Century of Science Fiction. Ed. Leigh Ronald Grossman (Rockville, MD: Wildside Press, 2011), 637-43; with an editor’s note on 637; “Brother John.” Impulse 1.3 (May 1966): 47-81; “Pavane: Lords and Ladies.” Impulse 1.4 (June 1966): 70-101; “Pavane: Corfe Gate.” Impulse 1.5 (July 1966): 7-68; and “Pavane: The White Boat.” New Worlds Science Fiction, no. 169 ([December 1966]): 73-95.
Keywords: English author; Male author

Pendulum - [Sam] [Youd] (1922-2012) (Simon and Schuster, 1968)
An authoritarian religious dystopia develops out of a collapsing British economy and dysfunctional government.
Keywords: English author; Male author

Ring of Violence - Douglas R[ankine] Mason (1918-2013) (Robert Hale, 1968)
Dystopia of violence.
Keywords: English author; Male author; Welsh author

Shellbreak - John William Groves (1910-70) (Robert Hale, 1968)
Authoritarian dystopia set in 2505. An enclosed world cut off from the outside.
Keywords: English author; Male author

"Spartan Planet" - A[rthur] Bertram Chandler (1912-84) (Fantastic Science Fiction--Fantasy, 1968)
Militaristic dystopia on New Sparta that is all male. Children born in a Birth Machine. Same sex relations are the norm. See also 1984 Chandler.
Rpt. as False Fatherland. London: Horwitz Publications, 1968. U.S. ed. as Spartan Planet. New York: Dell, 1969.
Keywords: Australian author; English author; Male author

Stand on Zanzibar - John [Kilian Houston] Brunner (1934-95) (Doubleday, 1968)
A complex novel that takes place in a future overpopulation and corporate dystopia.
Rpt. New York: Orb, 2011 with a new “Foreword The Happening World” (vii-xiv) by Bruce Sterling; as the Collector's Edition. Norwalk, CT: The Easton Press, 1987 illus. Vincent DiFate and with an “Introduction” (unpaged) by David Brin; as 300 copy ed. illus. Jacob McMurray and with an “Introduction” by Kim Stanley Robinson” (9-13 misnumbered 7 in the Table of Contents) and “Viewpoint. Childless Couples and Delinquent Children” (549-56 misnumbered 543 in the Table of Contents) by Brunner rpt. from Science and Public Policy 12.3 (June 1985): 149-52. Lakewood, CO: Centipede Press, 2009; and as New York: Tor Essentials, 2021, with the foreword “The Happening World” by Bruce Sterling from the Orb 2011 ed. (v-xii). Extracts were published in New Worlds Science Fiction 51.177 (November 1967): 34-49.
Keywords: English author; Male author

"Total Environment" - Brian W[ilson] Aldiss (1925-2017) (Galaxy Science Fiction, 1968)
Overpopulation dystopia. An experiment called the Ultra High Density Research Establishment (UHRDE) or the Total Environment is set up by the UN and the Indian government to test whether or not extreme crowding produces telepathy. The conditions inside the experiment, which is completely cut off from the outside world except for the anonymous provision of food and electronic monitoring, become horrifying but also produce the desired results.
Rpt. in World’s Best Science Fiction 1969. Ed. Donald A. Wollheim and Terry Carr (New York: Ace Books, 1969), 287-331; and in The City 2000 A.D.: Urban Life Through Science Fiction. Ed. Ralph Clem, Martin Harry Greenberg, and Joseph Olander (Greenwich, CT: Fawcett Crest, 1976), 109-51.
Keywords: English author; Male author

Tunc. A Novel - Lawrence [George] Durrell (1912-1990) (Faber and Faber, 1968)
The background to the novel is a dystopia where one company is gaining control of the world. Tunc in Latin means “then,” “next,” or “next in succession”. Continued with somewhat less of the dystopia in Nunquam. A Novel. London: Faber and Faber. U.S. ed. New York: E.P. Dutton, 1970. Collected in The Revolt of Aphrodite. Tunc and Nunquam (London: Faber and Faber, 1974), separately paged. Nunquam means “never” in Latin.
U.S. ed. New York: E.P. Dutton, 1968. Rpt. New York: Pocket Books, 1969. Collected in The Revolt of Aphrodite. Tunc and Nunquam (London: Faber and Faber, 1974), separately paged.
Keywords: English author; Male author

A Very Private Life - Michael Frayn (b. 1933) (Collins, 1968)
Technology brings isolation of people from each other. The rich live inside and have connection with each other only through television, telephone systems. There are a few who have to do some work outside, which is badly polluted.
Keywords: English author; Male author

"A Criminal Act" - Harry [Max] Harrison (1925-2012) (Analog Science Fiction--Science Fact, 1967)
A future dystopia in which no couple is allowed to have more than two children.
Rpt. in The Oxford Book of Science Fiction Stories. Ed. Tom Shippey (Oxford, Eng.: Oxford University Press, 1992), 350-62.
Keywords: English author; Irish author; Male author; US author

Death Is a Dream - E[dwin] C[harles] Tubb (1919-2010) (Rupert Hart-Davis, 1967)
Dystopia. A future world with the knowledge of previous reincarnations. Extreme laissez-faire capitalism. Selfishness.
Keywords: English author; Male author

Garbage World - Charles Platt (b. 1945) (Berkley Books, 1967)
Pleasure worlds as dystopias with one asteroid used as a garbage dump for the pleasure worlds.
Keywords: English author; Male author; US author

"The Happy Breed" - John T[homas] Sladek (1937-2000) (Dangerous Visions: 33 Original Stories, 1967)
Dystopia of a world without pain. The Therapeutic Environment Machines initially provide therapy, thus putting all therapists out of work, but gradually they come to control all aspects of life. They provided complete medical care, thus putting all doctors out of work. The only jobs were “Happiness Jobs--make-work invented by the Machines.” The Machines then regress everybody back to childhood. U.S. author who lived in the U.K. for about twenty years from 1966.
Keywords: English author; Male author; US author

Ice - [Helen Emily] [Woods] (1901-68) (Peter Owen, 1967)
Authoritarian dystopia set in a new ice age. Surrealistic novel in which the unnamed narrator searches through the ice fields for a woman held captive by a man known as the Warden. The ice is also generally interpreted as a metaphor for the author’s addition to heroin. The English female author was born in France; her first six books were published as by Helen Ferguson, after which she used Anna Kavan for all her books and in her personal life and changed her name legally. She was also known as Helen Woods Edmond.
Rpt. London: Picador, 1970; London: Peter Owen, 1997; London: Peter Owen, 2006 with a foreword by Christopher Priest (unpaged); in My Madness: The Selected Writings of Anna Kavan. Ed. Brian W[ilson] Aldiss (London: Picador, 1990), 199-318; and as The Fiftieth Anniversary Edition. New York: Penguin Books, 2017, with a “Foreword” by Jonathan Lethem (vii-x) and an “Afterword” by Kate Zambreno (183-93).
Keywords: English author; Female author

Implosion - D[ennis] F[eltham] Jones (1918?-81) (Rupert Hart-Davis, 1967)
A fall in the birthrate produces dystopia.
Keywords: English author; Male author

Phoenix. A Novel - [John Middleton] [Murry] [Jr.] (1926-2002) (Ballantine Books, 1967)
Authoritarian dystopia followed by its collapse and the descent into a primitive society.
U.K. ed. London: Dennis Dobson, 1968. Rpt. New York: Ballantine Books, 1970.
Keywords: English author; Male author

Quicksand - John [Kilian Houston] Brunner (1934-95) (Doubleday, 1967)
Flawed utopia. Dictatorship of immortals. Sex as a drug. Neutered women act as sexual experts.
Keywords: English author; Male author

Riot '71 - [Peter] [Brent] (1931-84) (Hodder & Stoughton, 1967)
An economic depression leads to blaming colored immigrants and a fascist, racist dystopia called the Nordic Union.
U.S. ed. New York: Walker and Co., 1967.
Keywords: English author; Male author

“Station HR972” - H[enry] K[enneth] Bulmer (1921-2005) (Worlds of Tomorrow, 1967)
The dystopia brought about the car, with a 32-lane highway with minimum speeds of 125 to 150 miles an hour.
Rpt. in Nightmare Age. Ed. Frederik [George] Pohl, [Jr.] (New York: Ballantine Books, 1970), 91-103; and in Car Sinister. Ed. Robert Silverberg, Martin Harry Greenberg, and Joseph Olander (New York: Avon Books, 1979), 62-75.
Keywords: English author; Male author

“There is a Crooked Man” - [Herbert] Jack Wodhams (1931-2017) (Analog Science Fiction Science Fact, 1967)
Satire on crime in the future with criminals confounding the legal system with new crimes.
Rpt. in The Best Australian Science Fiction Writing: A Fifty Year Collection. Ed. Rob Gerrand (Melbourne, VIC, Australia: Black Inc., 2004), 115-65.
Keywords: Australian author; English author; Male author

The White Mountains - [Sam] [Youd] (1922-2012) (Macmillan, 1967)
First volume of a young adult trilogy, followed by The City of Gold and Lead. New York: Macmillan and The Pool of Fire. New York: Macmillan, 1968. The trilogy is concerned with the dystopia created by alien invaders and the successful fight against them, and the dystopia of mental and physical control occurs throughout the trilogy.
Keywords: English author; Male author

“Whosaw Whatsa” - [Herbert] Jack Wodhams (1931-2017) (Analog Science Fiction Science Fact, 1967)
Satire on sex changes.
Keywords: Australian author; English author; Male author

Colossus - D[ennis] F[eltham] Jones (1918?-81) (Rupert Hart-Davis, 1966)
Computer dystopia set in the United States of North America in which large computer called Colossus is given complete control over the USNA's nuclear weapons and the U.S.S.R. does the same with their great computer called Guardian and their nuclear weapons. The two computers are linked with predictable results. See also 1974 and 1977 Jones.
U.S. ed. New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1967.
Keywords: English author; Male author

"Danger: Religion!" - Brian W[ilson] Aldiss (1925-2017) (The Saliva Tree and Other Strange Growths, 1966)
Parallel history presenting a religious dystopia.
Rpt. (London: Sphere, 1968), 89-131; and in Mervyn Peake, J[ames] G[raham] Ballard and Brian W[ilson] Aldiss. Inner Landscape (London: Allison & Busby, 1969), 101-51. Earlier version as “Matrix.” Science Fantasy 19.55 ([October] 1962): 2-39.
Keywords: English author; Male author

Farewell, Earth's Bliss - D[avid] G[uy] Compton (1930-2023) (Hodder & Stoughton, 1966)
Authoritarian dystopia with Mars as a penal colony.
Rpt. London: Tandem, 1971.
Keywords: English author; Male author

The Flame - Jim Hunter (b. 1939) (Faber and Faber, 1966)
Right wing dystopia brought about by a charismatic religious leader and his Christian New Vigour Movement.
Keywords: English author; Male author

From Carthage Then I Came - Douglas R[ankine] Mason (1918-2013) (Doubleday, 1966)
Authoritarian dystopia brought about by a new ice age with everyone living in domes. At the end a new colony is about to be founded as technology provides a way to defeat the ice in defined areas.
UK ed. London: Robert Hale, 1968. Also entitled Eight Against Utopia. New York: Paperbook Library, 1967.
Keywords: English author; Male author; Welsh author

Inner Circle - Jerzy Peterkiewicz (1916-2007) (Macmillan, 1966)
A weird ritualized, overpopulation dystopia set in the far future.
Keywords: English author; Male author; Polish author

The Last Refuge - John Petty (1919-73) (Ronald Whiting & Wheaton, 1966)
Authoritarian dystopia. The countryside has been paved over, and private homes have been replaced with huge apartment blocks.
Keywords: English author; Male author

The Mad Metropolis - Philip E[mpson] High (1914-2006) (Ace Books, 1966)
Computer eutopia that is actually a dystopia.
UK ed. as Double Illusion. London: Dennis Dobson, 1970.
Keywords: English author; Male author

"No Other Gods But Me" - John [Kilian Houston] Brunner (1934-95) (No Other Gods But Me, 1966)
Religious dystopia in which adepts keep people at the level of earl agriculture with no technology.
Rpt. in his Entry to Elsewhen (New York: DAW Books, 1972), 91-172; rpt. with a different cover in October 1972. Substantially revised from a shorter, different version published as “A Time to Rend.” Science Fantasy 7.20 (December 1956): 2-49.
Keywords: English author; Male author

The Return of Arthur - Martyn Skinner (1906-93) (Chapman and Hall, 1966)
Epic poem most of which is concerned with the dystopia of the modern age, particularly that of Communism. The work ends though with the reestablishment of the best of the past and a eutopia.
Parts originally published as Merlin or the Return of Arthur. A Satiric Epic. Part One. London: Frederick Muller, 1951; The Return of Arthur. A Poem of the Future. London: Chapman & Hall, 1955; and The Return of Arthur. A Poem of the Future. Part Two. London: Chapman & Hall, 1959. The utopia is only found in the 1966 version.
Keywords: English author; Male author

The Richest Corpse in Show Business - Dan Morgan (1925-2011) (Compact Books, 1966)
Future dystopia of organized human hunts. Some humor.
Keywords: English author; Male author

Utopia Minus X - [Stanley Bennett] [Hough] (1917-1998) (Ace Books, 1966)
Flawed utopia which is believed to be the Perfect World in which no change is needed faced with a space explorer returning from space after two hundred years.
UK ed. as The Paw of God. London: Anthony Gibbs Library 33 Ltd., 1967. Rpt. London: Tandem, 1967.
Keywords: English author; Male author

"Atrophy" - Ernest Hill (1915-2003) (New Writings in S-F, 1965)
Dystopia. Machines allow humans to atrophy then the machines break down.
U.S. ed. of the book as New Writings in SF-6. Ed. [Edward] John Carnell (1912-72) (New York: Bantam Books, 1971), 117-36.
Keywords: English author; Male author

Earthworks - Brian W[ilson] Aldiss (1925-2017) (Faber & Faber, 1965)
The setting is a future England has been devasted by an ecological disaster fueled by overpopulation that left the countryside poisoned and the cities disease-ridden.
U.S. ed. Garden City, NY: Doubleday & Co., 1966. 154 pp.
Keywords: English author; Male author

"Fable IV" - Fred Uhlman (1901-85) (The Aylesford Review, 1965)
Dystopia. Bored young people of the future try out various possibilities for entertainment and remain bored. Everyone has a holiday of six months and is looking for excitement. No monogamy. Modern art criticized. Religion emasculated. Commit suicide.
Keywords: English author; German author; Male author

A Man of Double Deed - Leonard [John] Daventry (1915-87) (Victor Gollancz, 1965)
Dystopia set in 2090 with an "Atomic Disaster" having occurred in 1990. Division between an orientation to pleasure and the existence of youth gangs killing at random. Telepathy. Polygamy is standard with the main character thought of as odd because he limited himself to two women.
U.S. ed. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1965.
Keywords: English author; Male author

"Nobody Axed You" - John [Kilian Houston] Brunner (1934-95) (New Worlds Science Fiction, 1965)
Overpopulation dystopia in which violence is normal and the top-rated TV programs show people being killed.
Rpt. in his Time-Jump (New York: Dell, 1973), 130-60.
Keywords: English author; Male author

The Red Dust - Bee [Beatrice Lillian] Baldwin (b. 1920) (Robert Hale/Whitcombe & Tombs, 1965)
A pandemic is brought about by spores, the red dust, from Antarctica and most of the world's population dies. In New Zealand a survivor briefly establishes an authoritarian dystopia, but is finally overthrown by some survivors who are immune to the disease. The Immunes are changed by the spores both physically and morally and the possibility of a future eutopia is held out.
Also published London: Robert Hale, 1965.
Keywords: Aotearoa New Zealand author; English author

Smallcreep's Day - Peter Currell Brown (b. 1936) (Victor Gollancz, 1965)
Satire on the dystopia that is factory system seen through the eyes of one man who spends a day wandering around a huge factory.
Keywords: English author; Male author

The Squares of the City - John [Kilian Houston] Brunner (1934-95) (Ballantine Books, 1965)
Authoritarian dystopia set in a newly built, intended to be ideal, city in a South American dictatorship. The novel is modeled on a game of chess and deals with a power struggle between the dictator and his main opponent.
Keywords: English author; Male author

Visa for Avalon - [Annie Winifred] [Ellerman] (1894-1983) (Harcourt, Brace & World, 1965)
The novel takes place just as England is being taken over by an authoritarian movement that is already producing a dystopia. People escape to Avalon, but it is reached in the last sentence of the book and not described.
Rpt. Ashfield, MA: Paris Press, 2004.
Keywords: English author; Female author

"Wasted on the Young" - John [Kilian Houston] Brunner (1934-95) (Galaxy Magazine, 1965)
Future society with wealth for all in return for work. The young may borrow against future earnings. Story is about a young man who tries to beat the system and fails.
Rpt. in his From This Day Forward (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1972), 63-77.
Keywords: English author; Male author

The Aristos; A Self-Portrait in Ideas - John [Robert] Fowles (1926-2005) (Little Brown, 1964)
Mostly commentary on contemporary life, but a eutopia is suggested in the last two sections, "A New Education" (183-223) and "The Aristos" (234-39). The revised edition is a significantly different book but includes the same themes, with "A New Education" (141-83), and "The Aristos in the Individual" (212-14).
UK ed. London: Jonathan Cape, 1965. Rev. ed. without the subtitle. London: Jonathan Cape, 1968. Rpt. London: Pan Books, 1968. U.S. ed. Boston, MA: Little, Brown, 1970. [4th] rev. ed. without the subtitle. London: Jonathan Cape, 1980.
Keywords: English author; Male author

The Big Switch - [Violet] Muriel Box (1905-91) (Macdonald, 1964)
Gender-role reversal in which women have created a eutopia after an accidental atomic war.
Keywords: English author; Female author

The Burning World - J[ames] G[raham] Ballard (1930-2009) (Berkley Medallion/Berkley Publishing Co, 1964)
Climate-change dystopia.
Better known in an expanded version as The Drought. London: Cape, 1965. Rpt. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1968.
Keywords: English author; Male author

"The Escape" - Marsh Haris (1936-93) (Overture in G Minor and Other Stories, Photographs and Drawings, 1964)
Earth is destroyed and five people set off to a new planet, which turns out to be a eutopia inhabited entirely by homosexual men. The women from Earth die within hours.
Keywords: English author; Male author; US author

The Evening Fool - [Arthur L.] [Greenaway] (1927-88) (Hutchinson, 1964)
Communal eutopia established on an island in the Pacific and its problems. The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction says “almost certainly the working name of UK lawyer, actor, scriptwriter and author Arthur Greenaway” with the birth year as 1927 (Wikipedia gives 1929). For various pieces of information that support both the name and the birth date, see https://bearalley.blogspot.com/2010/06/peter-van-greenaway.html.
Keywords: English author; Male author

"The Fall of Frenchy Steiner" - Hilary [Denham] Bailey (1936-2017) (New Worlds Science Fiction, 1964)
Authoritarian dystopia in which Germany has won World War II and England is being run down (no water, gas, electricity, etc.) under German rule.
Rpt. in SF 12. Ed. Judith Merrill (New York: Dell, 1968), 94-126; in The Penguin Book of Modern Fantasy By Women. Ed. A. Susan Williams and Richard Glyn Jones (New York: Penguin Books, 1996), 132-64; and in Hitler Victorious: Eleven Stories of the German Victory in World War II. Ed. Gregory [Albert] Benford and Martin H[arry] Greenberg (New York: Garland, 1986), 53-81. U.K. ed. (London: Grafton, 1988), 83-123.
Keywords: English author; Female author

"Man on Bridge" - Brian W[ilson] Aldiss (1925-2017) (New Writings in S-F, 1964)
Dystopia in which the unintelligent rule the intelligent, who are kept in camps where they do all the menial work.
Repub. in his Who Can Replace a Man? (New York: New American Library, 1965), 82-98. UK ed. as Best Science Fiction Stories of Brian W. Aldiss (London: Faber & Faber, 1965), 96-115; rev. ed. (London: Faber & Faber, 1971), 56-75.
Keywords: English author; Male author

Mandrake - Susan [Mary] Cooper (b. 1935) (Hodder & Stoughton, 1964)
Authoritarian dystopia in which people are required to live in the district in which they are born; movement around the country is restricted; the main cities are re-walled; and immigration is eliminated. The country is under the control of the Ministry of Planning.
Keywords: English author; Female author; US author

Only Lovers Left Alive - Dave [David Capadose] Wallis (1917-90) (Dutton, 1964)
Dystopia of teenage gangs and a high suicide rate. Finally, a new clan system develops as a good society.
Keywords: English author; Male author

The Other Man: A Novel Based on His Play for Television - Giles Cooper (1918-66) (Panther, 1964)
Alternative history dystopia of a National Socialist Britain.
Keywords: English author; Irish author; Male author

Out - Christine [Frances Evelyn] Brooke-Rose (1923-2012) (Michael Joseph, 1964)
Dystopia in which light skinned people are suppressed.
Keywords: English author; Female author; French author

The Stars Came Down - [Joseph Laurence] [Morrissey] (1905-81) (World Distributors, 1964)
Flawed utopia. A man returns to Earth five thousand years after he left and finds the people far advanced beyond his expectations. No governments. Extremely long-lived (600 is middle age); no children to keep control over population growth. No wild animals; all are tame. Cities abandoned; all Earth is inhabitable and people live in small groups or alone.
Keywords: English author; Male author

A State of Mind - [Elaine Kidner] [Dakers] (1905-1978) (Frederick Muller, 1964)
Authoritarian dystopia ruled by the Brotherhood after an atomic war. Forced nationalization of people to create “one big family, whose head is the State.” People, though, are not equal. The State provides all and controls everything, but “recognizes that some require more than others. . .” (11). No gods and no religious people allowed with Christians banished the Hebrides. Both voluntary and non-voluntary euthanasia, with permission required for voluntary. Suicide without permission is opposed. Criminals euthanized. “Compulsory birth-control and State-elimination prevented overpopulation” (12).
Keywords: English author; Female author

The Year of the Angry Rabbit - Russell [Reading] Braddon (1921-95) (Heinemann, 1964)
Satire in which Australian scientists discover a biological weapon that the Prime Minister uses to force world peace and Australian economic and political dominance of the world.
U.S. ed. New York: W.W. Norton, 1965. Partially serialized in Australian Women's Weekly 32.21 - 23 (October 21 - November 4, 1964): 19, 55, 59-60, 62, 64, 66, 68, 92-99; 33, 38, 46, 48-49, 51, 53-58, 66, 69-72, 74; 38, 47, 51, 55, 63, 65-66, 68-71, 77.
Keywords: Australian author; English author; Male author

"The Dark Mind" - [Derek Ivor] Colin Kapp (1928-2007) (New Worlds Science Fiction, 1963)
Authoritarian dystopia of corporate control and corrupt government as the background.
Repub. London: Transworld, 1965. U.S. ed. as Transfinite Man. New York: Berkley, 1964.
Keywords: English author; Male author

The Dreaming Earth - John [Kilian Houston] Brunner (1934-95) (Pyramid, 1963)
Overpopulation dystopia and the problems that arise from a drug induced euphoria that leads people to completely drop out. But the dropouts are actually dropping in to new, empty worlds presented as simple eutopias.
U.K. ed. as The Dreaming Earth. Science Fiction. London: Sidgwick & Jackson, 1972. Originally serialized as “Put Down the Earth.” New Worlds Science Fiction, nos. 107 -109 (June - August 1961): 4-47, 81-122, 77-127.
Keywords: English author; Male author

The Happy Planet - Joan B. Clarke (b. 1921) (Jonathan Cape, 1963)
Children's post-catastrophe novel. Earth, the Happy Planet, had supposedly been destroyed by a meteor with some of Earth's population established on the planet Tuan, which had no plants or animals and was heavily regimented. An expedition discovers an inhabitable world, and after various conflicts people begin to rebuild.
Keywords: English author; Female author

“Jack Fell Down” - John [Kilian Houston] Brunner (1934-95) (Science Fiction Adventures (UK), 1963)
While the novella focuses on interplanetary politics, Earth is presented as a technological eutopia that had been brought about largely by the drop in population resulting from colonization.
Rpt. in Crime Prevention in the 30th Century. Ed. Hans Stefan Santesson (New York: Walker and Co., 1969), 1-38.
Keywords: English author; Male author

The Living Gem - Paul [Samuel] Charkin (1907-86) (Brown, Watson, 1963)
Authoritarian dystopia with a Health Police. There is a small free love sect.
Keywords: English author; Male author

Sands of Time - [Frank James] [Pinchin] (1925-90) (Brown, Watson, 1963)
Revolt against rule by computer.
Keywords: English author; Male author

"The Subliminal Man" - J[ames] G[raham] Ballard (1930-2009) (New Worlds Science Fiction, 1963)
Dystopia in which subliminal advertising makes the population continually consume.
Rpt. in In his The Disaster Area (London: Jonathan Cape, 1967), 58-80; in Eco-Fiction. Ed. John Stadler (New York: Washington Square Press/Pocket Books, 1971), 158-77; in Earth In Transit: Science Fiction and Contemporary Problems. Ed. Sheila Schwartz (New York: Dell, 1976), 213-30; in Tomorrow, Inc. SF Stories About Big Business. Ed. Martin Harry Greenberg and Joseph D. Olander (New York: Taplinger, 1976), 117-34; in The Best Short Stories of J.G. Ballard (New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1978), 171-88; and in his The Complete Short Stories (London: Flamingo, 2001), 412-35.
Keywords: English author; Male author

When the Whites Went - Robert [Moyes Carruthers] Bateman (1922-73) (Dennis Dobson, 1963)
Dystopia followed by the suggestion of a better future. Almost all whites disappear, and, after many problems, blacks discover cooperation.
Rpt. London: Digit, 1964. U.S. ed. New York: Walker & Co., 1963.
Keywords: English author

"The Cage of Sand" - J[ames] G[raham] Ballard (1930-2009) (New Worlds Science Fiction (London), 1962)
Post-catastrophe dystopia where Florida is now. Mostly sand dunes, and people trying to live there are captured by wardens.
Rpt. in The Ruins of Earth: An Anthology of Stories of the Immediate Future. Ed. Thomas M[ichael] Disch (New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1971), 137-59; and in his The Complete Short Stories (London: Flamingo, 2001), 355-72.
Keywords: English author; Male author

Clockwork Orange - [John Anthony Burgess] [Wilson] (1917-1993) (Heinemann, 1962)
Dystopia of violence, drugs, and youth gangs who speak Nadsat, an argot based on Russian. One theme that appears throughout Burgess’s works is opposition to state action, here reflected in the state’s attempts to reform the protagonist. The chapter missing from the U.S. edition and left out of the film depicts the redemption of the protagonist.
U.S. ed. with significant differences. New York: W. W. Norton, 1963; rev. New York: W.W. Norton, 1987, with “Introduction: A Clockwork Orange Resucked” (v-xi) and with an added last chapter that was in the original U.K. edition but not in the U.S. edition or in Stanley Kubrick’s film. Critical ed. based on the Heinemann ed. as A Clockwork Orange: Authoritative Text Backgrounds and Contexts Criticism. Ed. Mark Rawlinson (New York: W.W. Norton, 2011), 1-121, with “Notes on the Text” (122) and “A Glossary of Nadsat Terms” (123-27). 50th anniversary edition with a “restored text.” Ed. Andrew Biswell. New York: W.W. Norton, 2012, with an “Introduction by the editor (vii-xxiii), “Notes” (205-12), “Annotated Pages from Anthony Burgess’s 1961 Typescript (213-20, “The Clockwork Condition” 221-238), and “EPILOGUE: ‘A Malenky Govoreet about the Molodoy’ Anthony Burgess, 1987” (239-46). Rpt. illus. Ben Jones. London: The Folio Society, 2014, with an “Introduction by Irvine Welsh (xi-xix) and “A Note on the Restored Edition” (xxi-xxii), “Notes” (201-10), and “Nadsat Glossary” (211-14) by Andrew Biswell.
Keywords: English author; Male author

The Copper Cow - Tom Chetwynd (1938-2012) (Anthony Blond, 1962)
An odd authoritarian dystopia with much fear and violence.
Keywords: English author; Male author

The Drowned World - J[ames] G[raham] Ballard (1930-2009) (Berkley Medallion, 1962)
A Ballardian version of a climate change/global warming dystopia set in 2145 in a tropical, abandoned, and flooded London.
U.S. ed. rpt. in The Drowned World and The Wind from Nowhere. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1965. U.K. ed. rpt. London: J. M. Dent & Sons, 1983; and, with minor changes. London: The Folio Society, 2013, with an Introduction by Will Self (xi-xviii) and Illus. By James Boswell. Expanded from “The Drowned World.” Science Fiction Adventures 4.24 (January 1962).
Keywords: English author; Male author

The Great Explosion - Eric Frank Russell (1905-78) (Dennis Dobson, 1962)
Earth sends groups of people into space to practice their own beliefs, and three societies of the far future are described. The first is the result of a planet peopled by transported criminals. They develop into a series of isolated strongholds adept at war and opposed to labor and includes a group of nomadic Romany or Gypsies. The second, Hygeia, was settled by Naturists, is inhabited by healthy people, and is a eutopia. The third, Gands, was founded on Gandhian principles and is  an anarchist eutopia. Important slogans are F-I.W. (Freedom-I Won’t) and Myob (Mind your own business).
U.S. ed. New York: Distributed by Dodd, Mead, 1962. Rpt. New York: Avon, 1975. Part originally published as " . . . And Then There Were None." Astounding Science Fiction 47.4 (June 1951): 7-65; story rpt. in Alternative Communities: Magazine of the Alternative Communities Movement, no. 14 - 17 (1983 - 84): 2-13; 2-15; 2- 14; 2-10; in Major Ingredients: The Selected Short Stories of Eric Frank Russell. Ed. Rick Katze (Framingham, MA: The NESFA Press, 2000), 24-75; in Give Me Liberty. Ed. Martin Harry Greenberg and Mark Tier (New York: Baen, 2003), 291-381; and in Freedom! Ed. Martin Harry Greenberg and Mark Tier (New York: Baen, 2006), 233-305.
Keywords: English author; Male author

"The Insane Ones" - J[ames] G[raham] Ballard (1930-2009) (Amazing Stories, 1962)
Dystopia in which all psychological intervention is illegal, being insane is a protected category, suicide is legal, and it is a crime to interfere with a suicide attempt.
Rpt. in Great Science Fiction, no. 7 ([1967]): 95-105; and in his The Complete Short Stories (London: Flamingo, 2001), 289-97.
Keywords: English author; Male author

Island - Aldous [Leonard] Huxley (1894-1963) (Harper & Row, 1962)
Free love, psychedelic drugs, science, and religion bring eutopia.
Rpt. London: Flamingo, 1994.
Keywords: English author; Male author; US author

Times Without Number - John [Kilian Houston] Brunner (1934-95) (Ace Books, 1962)
Dystopian alternative history in which England did not defeat the Spanish Armada in 1588, and England became the center on the Spanish empire after Spain was re-conquered by Muslims.
Originally published as “The Word Not Written.” Science Fiction Adventures 4.26 [vol. 5 on cover] (May 1962): 62-100; “Spoil of Yesterday.” Science Fiction Adventures 4.25 [vol. 5 on cover] ([March] 1962): 2-40; and “The Fullness of Time.” Science Fiction Adventures 4.27 [vol. 5 on cover] ([July] 1962): 2-41. Rev. and exp. ed. of the book New York: Ace Books, 1969; rpt. New York: Ballantine Books, 1983. UK ed. London: Elmfield Press, 1974. The original stories, never before reprinted, can be found in The Society of Time: The Original Trilogy and Other Stories. Ed. Mike [Michael Raymond Donald] Ashley (London: British Library, 2020), 13-165, with “Spoil of Yesterday” on 13-63, “The Word Not Written” on 65-114, and “The Fullness of Time” on 115-165.
Keywords: English author; Male author

The Wanting Seed - [John Anthony Burgess] [Wilson] (1917-1993) (Heinemann, 1962)
Overpopulation dystopia in which homosexuality is encouraged to keep down population growth. Various methods were being used to keep population down including a fake war (called Extermination Sessions) and State condoned infanticide.
U.S. ed. New York: W.W. Norton, 1963. Rpt. New York: Ballantine Books, 1964. U.K. ed. rpt. London: Hamlyn Paperbacks, 1983 with "A Foreword" by the author comparing A Clockwork Orange and The Wanting Seed; and in his Future Imperfect: The Wanting Seed. 1985 (London: Vintage, 1994), 1-282, which reprints the 1983 foreword (ix-xii) and includes his "1985 and The Wanting Seed--An Introduction" (v-viii).
Keywords: English author; Male author

The Wind of Liberty - Henry Kenneth Bulmer (1921-2005) (Digit Books, 1962)
Authoritarian dystopia in which corporations rule. Rebels.
Keywords: English author; Male author

"The Analysts" - John [Kilian Houston] Brunner (1934-95) (Science Fantasy, 1961)
Most of the story concerns a “visualizer” trying to understand the purpose of a proposed building with internal staircases and corridors that end in blank walls. It turns out that if someone continues, they emerge in a future that is trying to atone for the way humans responded to discovering many peaceful, advanced civilizations, which was to attack rather than try to understand.
Rpt. in The Society of Time: The Original Trilogy and Other Stories. Ed. Mike [Michael Raymond Donald] Ashley (London: British Library, 2020), 239-87.
Keywords: English author; Male author

"Billenium" - J[ames] G[raham] Ballard (1930-2009) (New Worlds Science Fiction, 1961)
Overpopulation dystopia presenting extreme overcrowding.
Rpt. in his Billenium (New York: Berkley, 1962), 7-21; in Cities of Wonder. Ed. Damon [Francis] Knight (New York: Macfadden-Bartell, 1967), 92-107; and in his Chronopolis and Other Stories (New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1971), 137-51; and as “Billennium” in his The Terminal Beach (London: Victor Gollancz, 1964), 175-91; in Future Tense. Ed. Richard Curtis (New York: Dell, 1968), 50-65; in Voyages: Scenarios for a Ship Called Earth. Ed. Rob Sauer (New York: Zero Population Growth/Ballantine Books, 1971), 3-23; in The City 2000 A.D.: Urban Life Through Science Fiction. Ed. Ralph Clem, Martin Harry Greenberg, and Joseph Olander (Greenwich, CT: Fawcett Crest, 1976), 94-109; in Earth In Transit: Science Fiction and Contemporary Problems. Ed. Sheila Schwartz (New York: Dell, 1976), 136-51; in The Best Short Stories of J.G. Ballard (New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1978), 125-40; in The Oxford Book of Science Fiction Stories. Ed. Tom Shippey (Oxford, Eng.: Oxford University Press, 1992), 286-301; in his The Complete Short Stories. (London: Flamingo, 2001), 267-78; and in Brave New Worlds. Ed. John Joseph Adams (San Francisco, CA: Night Shade Books, 2011), 113-25; 2nd ed. ed. John Joseph Adams (San Francisco, CA: Night Shade Books, 2012), 113-25.
Keywords: English author; Male author

Come Out to Play - Alex[ander] Comfort (1920-2000) (Eyre & Spottiswoode, 1961)
Satire on the effect of science on the world. Scientists recognize that the repression of sexuality or the sexual passions is one of the central roadblocks to human betterment and discover how to release the superego. The suggestion is clear that if such repression is overcome a much better life will be possible. While the author is best known for his books on sexual technique like The Joy of Sex (1972), his career ranged through fiction, poetry, anarchist theory, the biology of aging, and geriatric psychology. For an extremely detailed biography, see Eric Laursen, Polymath: The Life and Professions of Dr. Alex Comfort Author of the Joy of Sex. Chico, CA/Edinburgh, Scot.: AK Press, 2023. 740 pp. See also 1943, 1980 and 1989 Comfort.
Rpt. New York: Crown, 1975 with unpaged notes from the publisher and the author.
Keywords: English author; Male author

Escape to Berkshire. A Novel - H[ugh] C[ecil] Asterley (1902-1973) (Pall Mall Press, 1961)
The novel is set in a post-nuclear war England and the earlies beginnings of re-building.
Keywords: English author; Male author

"The Mark Gable Foundation" - Leo Szilard (1898-1964) (The Voice of the Dolphin and Other Stories, 1961)
Dystopia in which freezing oneself in order to be able to experience the future becomes a fad and threatens to destroy civilization.
Exp. ed. (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1992), 117-30. With an Introduction by Barton J. Bernstein (3-43, 175-82) and an "Afterword" by Helen Weiss (171-72). This story was written in 1948, and a copy of that version exists among Szilard's papers at the University of California, San Diego, but there is no evidence of earlier publication.
Keywords: English author; German author; Hungarian author; Male author; US author

The Old Men at the Zoo - Angus [Frank Johnstone] Wilson (1913-91) (Viking, 1961)
Dystopia set in 1971-73. Much of the novel is concerned with bureaucratic infighting at London Zoo, but the background includes the threat of war, even nuclear war, between England and France and Germany. The Greenbelt around London had been abolished in 1964.
Keywords: English author; Male author

Primal Urge - Brian [Wilson] Aldiss (1925-2017) (Ballantine Books, 1961)
Humorous dystopia of the effects of a device that allows everyone to know the sexual desires of people vis-a-vis each other.
UK ed. London: Sphere, 1967. Also entitled "Minor Operation." New Worlds Science Fiction 40 - 41.119 - 21 (June - August 1962): 4-54; 67-116, 118-21; 73-127.
Keywords: English author; Male author

"Put Down This Earth" - John [Kilian Houston] Brunner (1934-95) (New Worlds Science Fiction, 1961)
Overpopulated, authoritarian dystopia. People escape through a drug that ultimately takes them to a new world.
Keywords: English author; Male author

The Unsleep - Diana [Pleasance Tikva Case] Gillon (b. 1915); Meir [Selig] Gillon (b. 1907-89) (Barrie & Rockliff, 1961)
Dystopia caused by no longer needing to sleep and the desperate need to fill time.
Keywords: English author; Female author; Male author

Verwoerd--The End; A look-back from the Future - [Ernest George] [Alligan] (1898-1978) (T.V. Broadman, 1961)
Apartheid as eutopia presented as the history of South Africa from 1960 to 1985.
Keywords: English author; Male author; South African author

"The Voice of the Dolphins" - Leo Szilard (1898-1964) (The Voice of the Dolphins and Other Stores, 1961)
A story with eutopian elements in which scientists discover how to communicate with dolphins, who are immensely more intelligent than humans. An institute is founded that uses the dolphin's ideas, which eliminates hunger, reduce population growth, and ultimately ends the possibility of nuclear war.
Exp. ed. (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1992), 47-100. With an Introduction by Barton J. Bernstein (3-43, 175-82) and an "Afterword" by Helen Weiss (171-72).
Keywords: English author; German author; Hungarian author; Male author; US author

"Chronopolis" - J[ames] G[raham] Ballard (1930-2009) (New Worlds Science Fiction, 1960)
Dystopia in which people had been too concerned with time, and there were clocks everywhere. It was made illegal to have a watch or a clock because timed people could be made to work faster, but with all clocks gone nothing works very well, and the city is almost abandoned. The story focuses on a boy growing up who is fascinated with clocks.
Rpt. in his Billenium (New York: Berkley, 1962), 117-39; in his The Four-Dimensional Nightmare (London: Victor Gollancz, 1963), 184-208; in his Chronopolis and Other Stories (New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1971), 152-74; in The Best Short Stories of J.G. Ballard (New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1978), 43-66; in his The Voices of Time (London: J.M. Dent, 1984), 173-97; and in his The Complete Short Stories. (London: Flamingo, 2001), 150-68.
Keywords: English author; Male author

Facial Justice - L[eslie] P[oles] Hartley (1895-1972). (Hamish Hamilton, 1960)
Post-catastrophe dystopia. Extreme egalitarianism and people are encouraged to have plastic surgery if they are too attractive.
Rpt. Oxford, Eng.: Oxford University Press, 1987. U.S. ed. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1961.
Keywords: English author; Male author

He Owned the World - [David] [McIlwain] (1921-81) (Avalon Books, 1960)
Authoritarian dystopia of immortals on Mars who revive a long dead astronaut who inherits Earth and is a tool in Mars's war with Earth.
UK ed. entitled The Man Who Owned the World. London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1961.
Keywords: English author; Male author

A Smell of Burning: A Comedy of Menace - David Campton (1924-2006) (Samuel French, 1960)
Dystopia. With a revolt taking place offstage, a couple at breakfast listen to a very off stage radio broadcast until the radio goes off the air, talk at cross purposes, and sit quietly as a town official murders a neighbor and then the wife.
Rpt. in his A Smell of Burning and Then . . . Two Plays (New York: Dramatists Play Service, 1969), 3-20.
Keywords: English author; Male author

Then . . . - David Campton (1924-2006) (David Campton, 1960)
Post-apocalyptic humor. Two people who have survived the destruction of most people by, as they believe, putting paper bags over their heads, meet.
Rp.t in his A Smell of Burning and Then . . . Two Plays (New York: Dramatists Play Service, 1969), 21-38.
Keywords: English author; Male author

"X for Exploitation" - Brian W[ilson] Aldiss (1925-2017) (New Worlds Science Fiction, 1960)
Earth is a colony. According to a note by Aldiss, the book is designed to show the dystopian nature of imperialism.
Repub. as Bow Down to Nul. New York: Ace Books, 1960. UK ed. as The Interpreter. London: Brown, Watson, 1961.
Keywords: English author; Male author

The Mad MacMullochs - [Edgar Austin] [Mittelhölzer] (1909-65) (Peter Owen, 1959)
The novel is set on Barbados, and while much of it concerns a love story, three of the women involved live on a plantation with white, colored, and black members living equally under a set of chosen rules.
Rpt. under the author’s name London: Peter Owen, 1961.
Keywords: English author; Guyanese author; Male author

The Offshore Island: A Play in Three Acts - Marghanita Laski (1915-88) (Cresset Press, 1959)
Post catastrophe dystopia following nuclear war. It focuses on a family who survived the war and shows them ten years later.
Rpt. London: May Fair, 1961
Keywords: English author; Female author

Ossian's Ride - [Sir] Fred Hoyle (1915-2001) (Heinemann, 1959)
Eutopia. A golden land of youth that had exploited technology fully, particularly nuclear technology. Set in Ireland.
Rpt. London: Four Square, 1961; U.S. ed. New York: Berkley, 1968.
Keywords: English author; Male author

Providence Island: An Archaeological Tale - [Jessie] Jacquetta Hawkes (1910-90) (Chatto & Windus, 1959)
Eutopian elements in a primitive society which has developed psychic powers.
U.S. ed. New York: Random House, 1959.
Keywords: English author; Female author

After the Rain - John [Griffin] Bowen (1924-2019) (Faber and Faber, 1958)
Post-apocalyptic dystopia (flooding). A play, with significant differences from the novel, was adapted by the author was based on the novel. After the Rain: A Play in Three Acts. London: Faber and Faber, 1967. U.S. ed. New York: Random House, 1967 with production photographs. There is a note in the U.K. ed. ([9]) detailing tree objections that the Lord Chamberlain, Lord Cobbold, then censor, objected to that had to be changed in performance. First performed at the Hampstead Theatre Club on September 1, 1966 directed by Vivian Matalon. As originally performed, the play was innovative in that the audience was seated so as to be part of the play. When transferred to the Duchess Theatre and then to New York, the seating was as usual. The Library of Congress holds the Playbill 4.10 (October 1967) for the production at the John Golden Theatre in New York City, which starred Alec McCowen (1925-2017), who had also played the role in London.
Keywords: English author; Male author

“The Debt of Lassor” - N[orma] K[athleen] Hemming (1928-60) (Nebula Science Fiction, 1958)
Dystopia of a future Earth where the people have accepted being completely oppressed. The story is about the colonizers struggling to get the people to recover their humanity.
Rpt. in The Best Australian Science Fiction Writing: A Fifty Year Collection. Ed. Rob Gerrand (Melbourne, VIC, Australia: Black Inc., 2004), 23-37; and in Dwellers in Silence: Stories and Plays by Norma Hemming. Ed. Toby Burrows (Nedlands, WA, Australia: Hilliard Press, 2010), 64-84.
Keywords: Australian author; English author; Female author

Forty Years On - Doreen [Dora Eileen Agnew] Wallace (1897-1989) (Collins, 1958)
After an atomic war a surviving British village creates a decent life which is, on some dimensions, better than the previous one.
Keywords: English author; Female author

“The Matriarchy of Renok” - N[orma] K[athleen] Hemming (1928-60) (Dwellers in Silence: Stories and Plays by Norma Hemming, 1958)
A matriarchy that keeps men in their “proper” role as slaves is visited by a man from Earth. which leads the all-powerful Galactic Empire. The man is crass in the extreme and assumes that the women will fall for him. They don’t.
Keywords: Australian author; English author; Female author

Non-Stop - Brian W[ilson] Aldiss (1925-2017) (Faber & Faber, 1958)
A multi-generation spacecraft that has developed an authoritarian religion and government as well as biological changes returns to earth, where the people decide to keep it in permanent orbit.
U.S. ed. New York: Carroll & Graf, 1989. Repub. as Starship. New York: Criterion Books, 1959. There are textual differences between the editions.
Keywords: English author; Male author

The Rise of the Meritocracy 1870-2033: An Essay on Education and Equality - Michael [Dunlop] Young (1915-2002) (Thames and Hudson, 1958)
The book has been read as both a eutopia and a dystopia with the author characterizing it as the latter. Development of a class system based on I.Q.
Rpt. Harmondsworth, Eng.: Penguin, 1961. U.S. ed. as The Rise of the Meritocracy 1870-2033: The New Elite of Our Social Revolution. New York: Random House, 1959.
Keywords: English author; Male author

The Secret of ZI - [Henry] Kenneth Bulmer (1921-2005) (Ace Books, 1958)
Authoritarian dystopia of aliens dominating earth with a revolt by the humans.
Rev. ed. as The Patient Dark. London: Robert Hale, 1969.
Keywords: English author; Male author

The Tide Went Out - [David] [McIlwain] (1921-81) (Hodder & Stoughton, 1958)
Post-apocalyptic dystopia in which atomic testing opens fissures in the earth and the oceans drain into them, causing worldwide drought, and the collapse of civilization.
Rpt. as Thirst! London: Sphere Books, 1977; and as The Tide Went Out. London: The British Library 2019. U.S. ed. New York: Ballantine Books, 1959.
Keywords: English author; Male author

"Tomorrow's Gift" - Edmund Cooper (1926-82) (Star Science Fiction Stories, 1958)
Dystopia of a four-class society based on I.Q. and H.Q. (Happiness Quotient). The classes are administrators, technicians, prefrontals (having failed in one of the top classes), and illiterates.
Rpt. in his Tomorrow's Gift (New York: Ballantine Books, 1958), 7-15. U.K. ed. (London: Brown, Watson/Digit Books, [1958]), 5-13.
Keywords: English author; Male author

The Uncertain Midnight - Edmund Cooper (1926-82) (Hutchinson, 1958)
Flawed utopia of a machine eutopia that is actually a dystopia.
Keywords: English author; Male author

World Without Men - [David] [McIlwain] (1921-81) (Ace Books, with the name on the spine as Eric Maine, 1958)
Dystopia of a society without men and the effect on it of the creation of one. The all female society is presented negatively, and it is at least initially made worse by the creation of the man. In the revised version, the women gradually adjust to the experience of heterosexual love and sex.
U.K. ed. London: Digit, 1963. Rev. as Alph. New York: Ballantine Books, 1972. Rpt. Garden City, NY: Nelson Doubleday, 1972.
Keywords: English author; Male author

"All the Worlds Tears" - Brian W[ilson] Aldiss (1925-2017) (Nebula Science Fiction, 1957)
Authoritarian dystopia after a catastrophe. All whites are gone. Hatred and toughness are honored, and there is no love.
Rpt. in his The Canopy of Time (London: Faber and Faber, 1959), 25-38.
Keywords: English author; Male author

On the Beach - Nevil Shute [Norway] (1899-1960) (William Heinemann, 1957)
Dystopia. Most of the world has been destroyed in a nuclear war, and Australians are waiting for the radiation to reach them.
Rpt. London: Pan, 1966. Australian ed. Melbourne, VIC: Heinemann, 1957. There was a 1959 film directed by Stanley Kramer (1913-2001) and a 2000 TV remake directed by Russell Mulachy (b. 1953).
Keywords: Australian author; English author; Male author

"Build-Up" - J[ames] G[raham] Ballard (1930-2009) (New Worlds Science Fiction, 1957)
Overpopulation dystopia. The entire world is one city, and no one knows that the world is round.
Rpt. in his Chronopolis and Other Stories (New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1971), 175-93. Rpt. as “The Concentration City.” In his The Disaster Area (London: Jonathan Cape, 1967), 33-57; in The Best Short Stories of J.G. Ballard (New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1978), 1-20; and in his The Complete Short Stories. (London: Flamingo, 2001), 23-38.
Keywords: English author; Male author

The Future Took Us - [David Storr] [Unwin] (1918-2010) (The Bodley Head, 1957)
Children's dystopia. Destroyed future world dominated by religion with an underground city ruled by mathematicians trying to take over.
Rpt. London: Puffin, 1962.
Keywords: English author; Male author

Heaven Knows Where. A Novel - D[ennis] J[oseph] Enright (1920-2002) (Secker & Warburg, 1957)
Humorous eutopia set on a South Seas island where the people are "born anarchists".
Keywords: English author; Male author

Hothouse. A Science Fiction Novel - Brian W[ilson] Aldiss (1925-2017) (Faber and Faber, 1957)
Dystopia in which humans have devolved into small, but still intelligent, creatures living in a world dominated by plants.
Rpt. Boston, MA: Gregg Press, 1976, with an “Introduction” by Joseph Milicia (v-xvii). Abridged ed. as The Long Afternoon of Earth. New York: Signet/New American Library, 1962, which had originally been serialized in slightly different form in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction as “Hothouse.” 20.2 (117) (February 1961): 5-35; “Nomansland.” 20.4 (119) (April 1961): 99-129; “Undergrowth.” 21.1 (122) (July 1961): 84-130; “Timberline.” 21.3 (144) (September 1961): 99-129; and “Evergreen.” 21.6 (127) (December 1961): 82-128
Keywords: English author; Male author

A Land Fit for 'Eros - John [Alfred Neville] Atkins (1916-2009); J[ohn] B[arclay] Pick (1921-2015) (Arco, 1957)
Primarily humor. Satire on a British movement to root out "subversives" similar to that of Senator Joseph R. McCarthy (1908-57) in the U.S. that was known as McCarthyism.
Keywords: English author; Male author; Scottish author

Mary's Country - Harold [Charles Hugh] Mead (1910-1997) (Michael Joseph, 1957)
Authoritarian dystopia called the Tote State. Some children bred for the Guardian class of future leaders are raised in the central nursery and then in a junior dormitory with no affection, no privacy, and no free time. There is a Cold War between the Tote State and the Democratic Union.
Keywords: English author; Male author

One Half of the World - James Barlow (1921-73) (Cassell, 1957)
The novel is set in a postwar authoritarian dystopia where Britain, having lost the war, is occupied. The novel follows a British member of Internal Security as he comes to question his loyalty of the occupiers.
Keywords: English author; Irish author; Male author

"The Shubshub Race" - Brian W[ilson] Aldiss (1925-2017) (Space, Time and Nathaniel (Presciences), 1957)
Satire that includes a planet called Upotia, the Health planet, which has a constant pleasant climate, but this is a minor part of the story.
Keywords: English author; Male author

Strange Evil - Jane Gaskell (b. 1941) (Hutchinson, 1957)
A eutopia that leads a fairly simple life and represents good is under attack by evil forces.
U.S. ed. New York: E.P. Dutton, 1958.
Keywords: English author; Female author

"There's No Business" - [Henry] Kenneth Bulmer (1921-2005) (Nebula (Glasgow, Scot.), 1957)
Dystopia in which all film and TV is banned.
Keywords: English author; Male author

"This Second Earth" - [John Stephen] [Glasby] (1928-2011) (John Spencer & Co. Cobra Books, 1957)
Dystopia after an atomic war that obliterated most of the world's cities. A "Homo Superior" is produced by the radioactivity and must be fought by the surviving humans while they try to create the basis for a new civilization. The normal humans win, and the novel ends on a hopeful note.
Keywords: English author; Male author

You'll See: Report from the Future - [Egon] [Lehrburger] (1904-90) (Rider, 1957)
Technological eutopia set in 1982 described as a projection, and the author includes an “Appendix: Some Facts” that lists developments that exist or are being developed that he uses in the text (170-76). There is phone shopping and pneumatic tube delivery with a few shops with old-fashioned personal service. Food is delivered by tube right into the refrigerator. Three types of food are available, “old-fashioned,” “short-diet” or tablet food, and “new-food,” which is primarily produced from plankton and algae. Weather control with rain announced in advance. Central London is pedestrianized with walkways lined with trees, flowers, and grass and most transport underground and helicopters landing on rooftops. Outside London roads had been built above railroads. London is ethnically and racially mixed with over half the population originating overseas. Everybody works, and there are no class distinctions. India has industrialized using nuclear power.
Keywords: English author; German author; Male author

"Consider Her Ways" - [John Wyndham Parkes Lucas Beynon] [Harris] (1903-69) (Sometime, Never, 1956)
Future dystopia in which mothers are kept for breeding. They are grotesquely fat and stupid.
Rpt. (New York: Ballantine Books, 1967), 61-125; in his Consider Her Ways and Others (London: Michael Joseph, 1961), 7-87; and in his The Infinite Moment (New York: Ballantine Books, 1961), 7-65.
Keywords: English author; Male author

The Death of Grass - [Sam] [Youd] (1922-2012) (Michael Joseph, 1956)
Post-catastrophe dystopia. Violence, breakdown of communities, and the struggle to survive.
Rpt. as The Death of Grass. A Novel. Penguin, 2009 with an “Introduction” by Robert Macfarlane (v-xii). U.S. edition as No Blade of Grass. A Novel. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1957. Rpt. without the subtitle. New York: Avon, 1967. A film was made under the U.S. title and directed by Cornel Wilde (Cornelius Louis Wilde 1912-89) (1970) with a screenplay by Sean Forestal and Wilde writing as Jefferson Pascal. PSt
Keywords: English author; Male author

Escape to Venus - S[tanley] Makepeace Lott (1920-1991) (Rich and Cowan, 1956)
Post-nuclear war dystopia of an authoritarian flawed utopia on Venus.
Keywords: English author; Male author

Further Outlook - W[illiam] Grey Walter (1910-77) (Gerald Duckworth, 1956)
Egalitarian eutopia brought about through the development of cheap and abundant energy and a perfect form of contraception. Eugenics. This produces a society based as much on leisure as work.
Rpt. London: Science Fiction Book Club, 1957. US ed. as The Curve of the Snowflake. New York: W.W. Norton, 1956.
Keywords: English author; Male author; US author