Edward Payson Jackson publishes A Demigod

1886. Edward Payson Jackson's A Demigod, originally published anonymously, was one of the first early fictional accounts exploring eugenics themes (Stableford, 2006), as well as the possible positive impacts eugenics could have for mankind (and producing 'super' humans). Upon its publication, the novel was well received by critics. The New York Times claimed that the novel's lead protagonist was "a forcible hero", and the novel "worthy of many readers" (A Tough Hero, 1887, p.12). The book was "much-talked-about" at the time.

Edward Payson Jackson was a science and classics teacher at the Boston Latin School for a decade before publishing A Demigod (The Literary News, 1887). His parents were American missionaries, and Jackson himself was born in Erzeroum, Turkey. A Demigod was his first novel, although he also wrote poetry in college, and prepared a mathematical geography (The Literary News, 1887).

A Demigod tells the story of a group of American travellers in Greece, including an army man, his daughter Madeline, her aunt, a professor and tour guide, and Madeline's lover, Robert Griffin. While travelling, they are attacked by a group of robbers called the Klephts. The robbers demand heavy ransom, but live in great fear of a being they refer to as the anthropodaimon or "man devil". This being, "superb in his masculine beauty," (A Tough Hero, 1887, p.12) shows up and rescues the travellers. His name is Hector Vyr, and he is the demigod, equipped with an "arm of destruction [...] a spring gun of marvelous power, which lanches, as would have done Apollo's bow, the darts of death" (A Tough Hero, 1887, p.12).

Madeline falls in love with Hector Vyr, and the travellers go to Hector's home. Here, they learn that Hector is actually the product of eugenics. His great-great-great-grandfather was a rich and intelligent English doctor. This doctor believed that people could be bred to be superior, just like flowers were, and a "goodlie heretage of mental and phisical health" could be passed to one's descendants (A Tough Hero, 1887). The doctor moved to Greece to marry a Spartan, and Hector Vyr, whose mother was an English-woman was "the magnificent result" (A Tough Hero, 1887).

Hector, through this genetic heritage, is endowed with supernatural-like abilities. For example, he is captured by the Klephts at one point, but "such is his amazing power of life" that even though his nails were torn out and his skull cracked, he heals with no trace of injury (A Tough Hero, 1887). In addition, Hector has higher moral values than the average man - he forgives both the robbers, and his nemesis Robert Griffin for betraying him.

Reviews compared the protagonist of Jackson's novel to Hercules, Theseus, and Perseus, and as a "true man," a recall to older and more impressive heroes. Such heroism was attainable through eugenics. The New York Times reviewed the novel at the time, saying:

' "A Demigod," as Mr. Jackson would explain it, is the romance of evolution or of artificial selection. To follow out this idea to its finality the perfect human being would not only possess the highest morality, but a skull of adamantine hardness. We might conceive of a man whose arm had been lopped off, but to whom this would be but a triffle, for he would, lobsterlike, grow another claw or arm. It is because Mr. Jackson, with this capital idea, boldly elaborating it and schewing what is trivial, has written a strong, an original, and a masculine romance' (A Tough Hero, 1886, p.12).

-Colette Leung

Edward Payson Jackson publishes A Demigod

1886. Edward Payson Jackson's A Demigod, originally published anonymously, was one of the first early fictional accounts exploring eugenics themes (Stableford, 2006), as well as the possible positive impacts eugenics could have for mankind (and producing 'super' humans). Upon its publication, the novel was well received by critics. The New York Times claimed that the novel's lead protagonist was "a forcible hero", and the novel "worthy of many readers" (A Tough Hero, 1887, p.12). The book was "much-talked-about" at the time.

Edward Payson Jackson was a science and classics teacher at the Boston Latin School for a decade before publishing A Demigod (The Literary News, 1887). His parents were American missionaries, and Jackson himself was born in Erzeroum, Turkey. A Demigod was his first novel, although he also wrote poetry in college, and prepared a mathematical geography (The Literary News, 1887).

A Demigod tells the story of a group of American travellers in Greece, including an army man, his daughter Madeline, her aunt, a professor and tour guide, and Madeline's lover, Robert Griffin. While travelling, they are attacked by a group of robbers called the Klephts. The robbers demand heavy ransom, but live in great fear of a being they refer to as the anthropodaimon or "man devil". This being, "superb in his masculine beauty," (A Tough Hero, 1887, p.12) shows up and rescues the travellers. His name is Hector Vyr, and he is the demigod, equipped with an "arm of destruction [...] a spring gun of marvelous power, which lanches, as would have done Apollo's bow, the darts of death" (A Tough Hero, 1887, p.12).

Madeline falls in love with Hector Vyr, and the travellers go to Hector's home. Here, they learn that Hector is actually the product of eugenics. His great-great-great-grandfather was a rich and intelligent English doctor. This doctor believed that people could be bred to be superior, just like flowers were, and a "goodlie heretage of mental and phisical health" could be passed to one's descendants (A Tough Hero, 1887). The doctor moved to Greece to marry a Spartan, and Hector Vyr, whose mother was an English-woman was "the magnificent result" (A Tough Hero, 1887).

Hector, through this genetic heritage, is endowed with supernatural-like abilities. For example, he is captured by the Klephts at one point, but "such is his amazing power of life" that even though his nails were torn out and his skull cracked, he heals with no trace of injury (A Tough Hero, 1887). In addition, Hector has higher moral values than the average man - he forgives both the robbers, and his nemesis Robert Griffin for betraying him.

Reviews compared the protagonist of Jackson's novel to Hercules, Theseus, and Perseus, and as a "true man," a recall to older and more impressive heroes. Such heroism was attainable through eugenics. The New York Times reviewed the novel at the time, saying:

' "A Demigod," as Mr. Jackson would explain it, is the romance of evolution or of artificial selection. To follow out this idea to its finality the perfect human being would not only possess the highest morality, but a skull of adamantine hardness. We might conceive of a man whose arm had been lopped off, but to whom this would be but a triffle, for he would, lobsterlike, grow another claw or arm. It is because Mr. Jackson, with this capital idea, boldly elaborating it and schewing what is trivial, has written a strong, an original, and a masculine romance' (A Tough Hero, 1886, p.12).

-Colette Leung