Edwin A. Abbott was born in 1838, and was an English schoolmaster and theologian. He was educated at St. John’s in Cambridge, earning honors for his work in classics, mathematics, and theology. He took orders in 1862, eventually becoming headmaster of the City of London School in 1865 at the age of twenty-six. Abbott finally retired in 1889 after working as a master at several schools in order to focus on his literary and theological pursuits. He died in 1926, at the age of eighty-eight. 

Abbott is famous in literary circles for writing the mathematical “romance” Flatland, published in 1884. However, Abbott also produced a large number of other writings for which he is well-known, including a biography of Francis Bacon, and a book entitled Shakespearean Grammar that was influential in English education for a number of years. His theological writings, dealing primarily with Christianity, were also popular, the most significant of which is argued to be The Kernel and the Husk.

Harris-Fain, Darren. “Edwin A. Abbott (1838-1926)”. British Fantasy and Science-Fiction Writers Before World War I. Ed. Darren Harris-Fain. Dictionary of Literary Biography Vol. 178.Detroit: Gale Research, 1997. 3-6. Dictionary of Literary Biography Complete Online. Gale. VOL – University of Vermont Libraries . .

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