Cook, William Wallace
Entry updated 27 March 2023. Tagged: Author.
(1867-1933) US newspaper reporter and author, sometimes as by John Milton Edwards, under which name he published The Fiction Factory [for subtitle see Checklist] (1912), a detailed account of his early career in magazine publishing; most of his many stories appeared after the turn of the century in such magazines as The Argosy, some of them only reaching book form after a decade or so, in a stapled format reminiscent of Dime-Novel SF; they are all, however, full-length novels, most of them, unusually for this market, containing elements of Satire. Noteworthy among them is A Round Trip to the Year 2000, or A Flight Through Time (July-November 1903 Argosy; 1925), in which various contemporary novelists travel by Suspended Animation to 2000 CE, where they observe social conditions, which include the use of metallic Robot slaves known as muglugs, and find themselves popular; a sequel, "Castaways of the Year 2000" (October 1912-February 1913 Argosy), did not reach book form. Also of interest, Cast Away at the Pole (March 1904 Argosy; 1926) satirizes the Lost Race genre; and Adrift in the Unknown: or, Marooned on Mercury (December 1904-April 1905 Argosy; 1905; vt Adrift in the Unknown: or, Queer Adventures in a Queer Realm) is a satire on US capitalism in which a burglar goes along for the ride with a reformist Scientist in his Spaceship to Mercury, where he teaches the kidnapped capitalists he has brought with him some lessons in social justice. Cook was a crude writer, but is of interest for his attempts to combine adventure plots and Satire. [JC]
see also: History of SF; Invention; Time Travel.
William Wallace Cook
born Marshall, Michigan: 11 April 1867
died Marshall, Michigan: 20 July 1933
works
- A Round Trip to the Year 2000, or A Flight Through Time (New York: Street and Smith, 1925) [first appeared July-November 1903 The Argosy: #4 in the publisher's American Adventure Library series: pb/]
- Adrift in the Unknown: or, Marooned on Mercury (New York: Street and Smith Publications, 1908) [first appeared December 1904-April 1905 Argosy: in the publisher's New Fiction series: pb/]
- Adrift in the Unknown: or, Queer Adventures in a Queer Realm (New York: Street and Smith Publications, 1925) [vt of the above: in the publisher's Adventure Library series: pb/]
- Marooned in 1492, or Under Fortune's Flag (New York: Street and Smith, 1925) [first appeared December 1904-April 1905 The Argosy: #9 in the publisher's American Adventure Library series: pb/]
- The Eighth Wonder, or Working for Miracles (New York: Street and Smith, 1925) [first appeared November 1906-February 1907 The Argosy: #24 in the publisher's American Adventure Library series: pb/]
- Around the World in Eighty Hours: An Adventure Story (New York: Chelsea House, 1925) [hb/]
- Cast Away at the Pole (New York: Street and Smith, 1926) [first appeared March 1904 The Argosy: #28 in the publisher's American Adventure Library series: pb/]
nonfiction
- The Fiction Factory: Being the Experience of a Writer Who, for Twenty-Two Years, has Kept a Story-Mill Grinding Successfully (Ridgewood, New Jersey: The Editor Company, 1912) as by John Milton Edwards [nonfiction: hb/]
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