Erskine, Thomas
Entry updated 27 May 2024. Tagged: Author.

(1750-1823) Scottish politician, barrister, poet and author, famous in the 1790s for his frequently successful court appearances on behalf of the freedom of the press, including a famous defense of Thomas Paine in 1792, and of figures prosecuted by a government whose responses to perceived republican threats to the British state prefigure some government actions in the early twenty-first century; he served as Lord Chancellor 1806-1807. He was active as a poet from as early as 1768; as a polemicist, his many influential speeches stayed in print indefinitely; at the end of his life he promoted the Greek revolt against Turkey.
Erskine is of Proto SF interest for Armata: A Fragment (1817) and The Second Part of Armata (1817), both anonymous; though published separately, the two volumes comprise a continuous narrative. The unnamed protagonist, who tells his own story, is driven into the Antarctic by a great maelstrom which eventually conveys him 7,000 miles by water and land bridge to a planet named Deucalia, where he discovers the Island of Armata, a highly Satirical mirror of Britain. The Fragment treats a war between Deucalia and Capetia (ie France) as foolish; the Second Part takes a dim view of British society as a whole, from a liberal standpoint (fox-hunting is excoriated, as part of a passionate advocacy of animal rights). Erskine's literary eloquence and his general cast of mind make his text far more congenial than many of its fellows. [JC]
Thomas Erskine, Baron Erskine of Restormel Castle
born Edinburgh, Scotland: 10 January 1750
died Almondell, near Edinburgh, Scotland: 25 October 1823
works
- Armata: A Fragment (London: John Murray, 1817) [the date 1816 has been given, but no evidence has been found to substantiate it: often found bound with the second part below: hb/]
- The Second Part of Armata (London: John Murray, 1817) [often found bound with the first part above: hb/]
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