An Anglo-American Alliance

Lore & Background

Little is known about Gregory Casparian (birth year uncertain, died 1942). A Turkish-Armenian, he served as an officer in the Turkish army before emigrating to the United States in 1877. Settling in New York, he worked as an artist, painter, and photoengraver. An Anglo-American Alliance is his only published work.

Reader's Guide

An Anglo-American Alliance is significant as a curiosity and an eccentric novel with an early description of surgical sex changes, as noted by reviewer Everett F. Bleiler in 1990. A 2011 article in io9 highlighted its novelty in presenting a lesbian romantic relationship directly rather than through the subtext of a 'Boston marriage,' as was occasionally done in Victorian fiction. The work also features science fiction's first transgender hero. Its status as the first lesbian science fiction novel, though attributed by a single reviewer, marks it as a pioneering work in speculative fiction for its direct treatment of same-sex romance and gender transformation.

Did You Know?

• The novel was written and illustrated by Gregory Casparian.
• It is set in the future of 1960.
• The plot includes a surgical sex change from female to male.
• A reviewer for io9 called it 'the first lesbian science fiction novel'.

The Author's Unlikely Story

Gregory Casparian remains one of the most enigmatic figures in early speculative fiction. Born in 1856 of Turkish-Armenian heritage, he spent part of his youth serving as an officer in the Turkish army before emigrating to the United States in 1877. He settled in New York, where he built a career as an artist, painter, and photoengraver—a working life that would occupy him for decades. Despite his considerable artistic skill, Casparian produced exactly one published literary work: An Anglo-American Alliance, a novel he both wrote and illustrated, released in 1906 by Mayflower Presses. Beyond these basic biographical details, remarkably little is known about the man behind the book. His life spanned from 1856 to 1942, yet the gap between his military service and his quiet existence as a New York engraver leaves vast stretches of his personal history unrecorded. The fact that this single, extraordinarily bold novel constitutes his entire published legacy makes his story all the more remarkable.

A World of Federation and Romance

The novel projects its narrative forward to the year 1960, constructing a future that mirrors the geopolitical landscape of 1906 with the United States and Britain still standing as the dominant colonial empires. Casparian's stated aim, laid out in the preface, was to argue for the desirability of a unified world government, with an Anglo-American federation serving as the essential first step toward that goal. The technological picture is modest: prenatal sex discernment, suspended animation, and a cure for laziness are among the advances on display. Telescopic observations of intelligent life on other planets appear in interludes that stand apart from the main storyline. At the heart of the book, however, is a love story between two upper-class young women—Aurora Cunningham, a Briton, and Margaret MacDonald, an American—who meet at a ladies' seminary in Cornwall and begin a secret romantic relationship. After graduation, Margaret undergoes surgical transformation to become a man named Spencer Hamilton. In this new identity, the celebrated musician courts Aurora, and the two marry and live happily together.

Breaking Ground in Speculative Fiction

When the novel first appeared in 1906, its radical elements were largely overlooked. It was not until 1990 that bibliographer Everett F. Bleiler flagged it as a curiosity, noting its eccentric quality and what he identified as an early depiction of surgical sex change. A far more pointed reassessment came in 2011, when the online publication io9 declared the work the first lesbian science fiction novel. The article emphasized that Casparian presented a same-sex romantic relationship directly and openly, rather than hiding it behind the subtext of a Boston marriage, a device that had occasionally appeared in Victorian-era fiction. The io9 piece also highlighted that the novel features what it called science fiction's first transgender hero, with Margaret's surgical transformation into Spencer Hamilton serving as the narrative's central act of liberation. These observations have since cemented the book's place as a landmark text, one that anticipated by decades the kinds of queer and trans storytelling that would later become common in speculative fiction.

Political Ambition and Lasting Availability

Casparian embedded a clear political thesis within the novel's speculative framework. In the preface, he explicitly states that his purpose is to demonstrate the desirability of a world government, positioning the formation of an Anglo-American federation as the foundational step toward that broader unity. The 1960 setting, with its two great colonial powers, gives this argument a concrete stage. The novel also contains elements that reflect the social attitudes of its era, including a reference to a laziness cure that specifically benefits the negroes of the Southern States—a detail that complicates any straightforward celebration of the work's progressive elements. Despite its controversial passages, the book has maintained a steady presence in the public domain. It is accessible through multiple platforms, including Open Library, the Internet Speculative Fiction Database, Project Gutenberg, and a LibriVox audiobook, ensuring that new generations of readers can encounter Casparian's singular blend of romance, science fiction, and political idealism.