Barton, Samuel
Entry updated 12 September 2022. Tagged: Author.
(1839-1895) US author who worked as a broker and also published under the pseudonym A B Roker. His sf novel, The Battle of the Swash and the Capture of Canada (1888), thought by Thomas D Clareson to be the first American Future War tale, was written to show the defencelessness of the US coasts (and incidentally the vulnerability of Canada) as the USA and UK come to blows, a conflict eventually won by the US through the invention of self-destructing torpedo boats. This author has been wrongly identified as the US Congressman Samuel Barton (1785-1858): the author of The Battle of the Swash was in fact the Congressman's son. [JC]
Samuel Barton
born Staten Island, New York: 27 February 1839
died New York: 16 November 1895
works
- The Battle of the Swash and the Capture of Canada (New York: Charles T Dillingham, 1888) [pb/]
links
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