Serge-Simon Held (credited as S.S. Held) was a French

science fiction Science fiction (often shortened to sci-fi or abbreviated SF) is a genre of speculative fiction that deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts. These concepts may include information technology and robotics, biological manipulations, space ...

author known for the 1931 environmentalist novel ''La Mort du Fer'' (published in English as ''The Death of Iron''). Very little is known about Held.Waage 2012, pp. 11–12. He may have been from

Alsace Alsace (, ; ) is a cultural region and a territorial collectivity in the Grand Est administrative region of northeastern France, on the west bank of the upper Rhine, next to Germany and Switzerland. In January 2021, it had a population of 1,9 ...

or of Alsacian descent, with many people from the region fleeing to Paris in 1870 due to the Alsacian cession to Germany following the

Franco-Prussian war The Franco-Prussian War or Franco-German War, often referred to in France as the War of 1870, was a conflict between the Second French Empire and the North German Confederation led by the Kingdom of Prussia. Lasting from 19 July 1870 to 28 Janua ...

. The professor of English Frederick Waage was unable to find a record of Held, but noted that ''Held'' is frequently used as an ornamental surname among

Jews Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...

.Waage 2012, p. 13. ''La Mort du Fer'' was published by

Fayard Fayard (complete name: ''Librairie Arthème Fayard'') is a French Paris-based publishing house established in 1857. Fayard is controlled by Hachette Livre. In 1999, Éditions Pauvert became part of Fayard. Claude Durand was director of Fayar ...

, and printed by of

Abbeville Abbeville (; ; ) is a commune in the Somme department and in Hauts-de-France region in northern France. It is the of one of the arrondissements of Somme. Located on the river Somme, it was the capital of Ponthieu. Geography Location A ...

, in 1931. The novel was serialized in the American science fiction

pulp magazine Pulp magazines (also referred to as "the pulps") were inexpensive fiction magazines that were published from 1896 until around 1955. The term "pulp" derives from the Pulp (paper), wood pulp paper on which the magazines were printed, due to their ...

Wonder Stories ''Wonder Stories'' was an early American science fiction magazine which was published under several titles from 1929 to 1955. It was founded by Hugo Gernsback in 1929 after he had lost control of his first science fiction magazine, ''Amazing Sto ...

'' from September to December 1932. The translation was made by

Fletcher Pratt Murray Fletcher Pratt (25 April 1897 – 10 June 1956) was an American people, American List of science fiction authors, writer of history, science fiction, and fantasy. He is best known for his works on naval history and the American Civil War an ...

, himself a noted science fiction author, and was later published in full in the 1952 edition of '' Wonder Story Annual''.Waage 2012, p. 12. The novel is set in northern France, and concerns a mysterious "disease" which attacks

iron Iron is a chemical element; it has symbol Fe () and atomic number 26. It is a metal that belongs to the first transition series and group 8 of the periodic table. It is, by mass, the most common element on Earth, forming much of Earth's o ...

.Waage 2012, p. 14. This eventually ushers in an "after-metal" world, in which plant life flourishes.Waage 2012, p. 28. The French critic wrote critically of ''La Mort du Fer'' in February 1932 in ''

Le Temps ' (, ) is a Swiss French-language daily newspaper published in Berliner format in Geneva by Le Temps SA. The paper was launched in 1998, formed out of the merger of two other newspapers, and (the former being a merger of two other papers), ...

''. He claimed that "the book is very poorly put together: a very awkward alternation between private intrigues and 'historical' narratives, the poorly-paced sequence of the story, sometimes detailed, sometimes rushed, and especially an irritating composition which constantly retools the subject, rendering it ultimately schematic, expressed arbitrarily and cursorily".Waage 2012, pp. 13–14. The later critic , however, praised the novel's realism, characterising it as "remarkable", though "perfectly forgotten, even unknown". The book was read by Ross Lockridge Jr., and was an inspiration for his unpublished

epic poem In poetry, an epic is a lengthy narrative poem typically about the extraordinary deeds of extraordinary characters who, in dealings with gods or other superhuman forces, gave shape to the mortal universe for their descendants. With regard to ...

''The Dream of the Death of Iron'' and for the environmentalist themes of his novel '' Raintree County''.Waage 2012, pp. 11–12. ''La Mort du Fer'' has a "disquieting similarity in theme" to the English novelist

David H. Keller David Henry Keller (December 23, 1880 – July 13, 1966) was an American writer who worked for pulp magazines in the mid-twentieth century, in the science fiction, fantasy, and horror genres. He was also a psychiatrist and physician to shell-sh ...

's ''The Metal Doom'', and the former may have served as an uncredited inspiration for the latter. Waage frames ''La Mort du Fer'' as "generational successor" to '' Germinal'', by

Émile Zola Émile Édouard Charles Antoine Zola (, ; ; 2 April 184029 September 1902) was a French novelist, journalist, playwright, the best-known practitioner of the literary school of Naturalism (literature), naturalism, and an important contributor to ...

.Waage 2012, p. 11.

References

Bibliography

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Held, S. S. French science fiction writers 20th-century French non-fiction writers French male novelists Year of birth missing Year of death missing 20th-century French male writers