What's the oldest modern example of the "wizard school" subgenre?

From	wollman@bimajority.org (Garrett Wollman)
Newsgroups	rec.arts.sf.written
Subject	What's the oldest modern example of the "wizard school" subgenre?
Date	2016-09-15 02:36 +0000
Organization	none
Message-ID	<nrd1f8$25dk$1@grapevine.csail.mit.edu> (permalink)

Show all headers | View raw

The last two Commonweal books are basically one extended "wizard
school" story, in two volumes.  And since I've been reading them
recently, I've gotten to wondering: where and how did this subgenre
get its start?  It didn't start with Rowling, of course, but the
earliest examples I can recall reading personally still date from the
late 1980s, and that seems much too late.  I'm less familiar with the
literature from before then (I was reading early Asimov and late
Heinlein in those days) -- how far back does it go?

In the subject header I said "modern" so let's take 1875 as the early
time limit for what might be "modern" in a fantasy context.  And let's
also specifically exclude the "wizard apprentice" version where the
teaching is one-on-one as opposed to a class setting with multiple
students learning the same things at the same time.

I gather that this is a known trope in the manga/anime world, so let's
also keep this to specifically written works, without pictures,
published in English (translations ok).

-GAWollman

-- 
Garrett A. Wollman    | What intellectual phenomenon can be older, or more oft
wollman@bimajority.org| repeated, than the story of a large research program
Opinions not shared by| that impaled itself upon a false central assumption
my employers.         | accepted by all practitioners? - S.J. Gould, 1993

Back to rec.arts.sf.written | Previous | Next — Next in thread | Find similar | Unroll thread

Thread

What's the oldest modern example of the "wizard school" subgenre? wollman@bimajority.org (Garrett Wollman) - 2016-09-15 02:36 +0000
  Re: What's the oldest modern example of the "wizard school" subgenre? Cryptoengineer <treifamily@gmail.com> - 2016-09-14 21:59 -0500
    Re: What's the oldest modern example of the "wizard school" subgenre? Gene Wirchenko <genew@telus.net> - 2016-09-17 18:06 -0700
  Re: What's the oldest modern example of the "wizard school" subgenre? David Johnston <Davidjohnston29@yahoo.com> - 2016-09-14 21:07 -0600
  Re: What's the oldest modern example of the "wizard school" subgenre? Butch Malahide <fred.galvin@gmail.com> - 2016-09-14 20:34 -0700
    Re: What's the oldest modern example of the "wizard school" subgenre? Don Kuenz <g@crcomp.net> - 2016-09-15 04:04 +0000
  Re: What's the oldest modern example of the "wizard school" subgenre? djheydt@kithrup.com (Dorothy J Heydt) - 2016-09-15 04:21 +0000
    Re: What's the oldest modern example of the "wizard school" subgenre? TB <tsbrueni@dcn.davis.ca.us> - 2016-09-14 21:37 -0700
  Re: What's the oldest modern example of the "wizard school" subgenre? Greg Goss <gossg@gossg.org> - 2016-09-15 03:34 -0600
    Re: What's the oldest modern example of the "wizard school" subgenre? Peter Trei <petertrei@gmail.com> - 2016-09-15 06:21 -0700
      Re: What's the oldest modern example of the "wizard school" subgenre? Quadibloc <jsavard@ecn.ab.ca> - 2016-09-15 08:34 -0700
    Re: What's the oldest modern example of the "wizard school" subgenre? Kevrob <kevrob@my-deja.com> - 2016-09-15 08:39 -0700
      Re: What's the oldest modern example of the "wizard school" subgenre? Robert Carnegie <rja.carnegie@excite.com> - 2016-09-15 14:18 -0700
        Re: What's the oldest modern example of the "wizard school" subgenre? Kevrob <kevrob@my-deja.com> - 2016-09-15 15:18 -0700
          Re: What's the oldest modern example of the "wizard school" subgenre? goldfarb@ocf.berkeley.edu (David Goldfarb) - 2016-09-16 21:03 +0000
            Re: What's the oldest modern example of the "wizard school" subgenre? Kevrob <kevrob@my-deja.com> - 2016-09-16 15:21 -0700
              Re: What's the oldest modern example of the "wizard school" subgenre? goldfarb@ocf.berkeley.edu (David Goldfarb) - 2016-09-17 06:35 +0000
                Re: What's the oldest modern example of the "wizard school" subgenre? Robert Carnegie <rja.carnegie@excite.com> - 2016-09-17 08:34 -0700
  Re: What's the oldest modern example of the "wizard school" subgenre? Joe Bernstein <joe@sfbooks.com> - 2016-09-15 11:06 -0700
  Re: What's the oldest modern example of the "wizard school" subgenre? "nuny@bid.nes" <Alien8752@gmail.com> - 2016-09-15 16:46 -0700
  Re: What's the oldest modern example of the "wizard school" subgenre? Dan Tilque <dtilque@frontier.com> - 2016-09-16 01:39 -0700
    Re: What's the oldest modern example of the "wizard school" subgenre? Don Kuenz <g@crcomp.net> - 2016-09-16 14:16 +0000
    Re: What's the oldest modern example of the "wizard school" subgenre? David Johnston <Davidjohnston29@yahoo.com> - 2016-09-16 09:17 -0600
      Re: What's the oldest modern example of the "wizard school" subgenre? "Sea Wasp (Ryk E. Spoor)" <seawasp@sgeinc.invalid.com> - 2016-09-16 11:56 -0400
    Re: What's the oldest modern example of the "wizard school" subgenre? "Michael F. Stemper" <michael.stemper@gmail.com> - 2016-09-16 17:40 -0500
      Re: What's the oldest modern example of the "wizard school" subgenre? Robert Bannister <robban@clubtelco.com> - 2016-09-17 08:46 +0800
        Re: What's the oldest modern example of the "wizard school" subgenre? djheydt@kithrup.com (Dorothy J Heydt) - 2016-09-17 02:07 +0000
      Re: What's the oldest modern example of the "wizard school" subgenre? Richard Todd <rmtodd@servalan.servalan.com> - 2016-09-17 13:26 -0500
        Re: What's the oldest modern example of the "wizard school" subgenre? "Michael F. Stemper" <michael.stemper@gmail.com> - 2016-09-17 14:57 -0500
  Re: What's the oldest modern example of the "wizard school" subgenre? lenona321@yahoo.com - 2016-09-16 11:31 -0700
    Re: What's the oldest modern example of the "wizard school" subgenre? "Sea Wasp (Ryk E. Spoor)" <seawasp@sgeinc.invalid.com> - 2016-09-16 15:51 -0400
    Re: What's the oldest modern example of the "wizard school" subgenre? Joe Bernstein <joe@sfbooks.com> - 2016-09-16 17:51 -0700
      Re: What's the oldest modern example of the "wizard school" subgenre? "Brian M. Scott" <b.scott@csuohio.edu> - 2016-09-17 00:12 -0400
    Re: What's the oldest modern example of the "wizard school" subgenre? Robert Carnegie <rja.carnegie@excite.com> - 2016-09-17 08:49 -0700

csiph-web