Pallander, Edwin
Entry updated 12 September 2022. Tagged: Author.
Pseudonym of UK biologist, botanist and author Lancelot Francis Sanderson Bayly (1869-1952), who collaborated with Ellsworth Douglass on one story, "The Wheels of Dr Gynochio Gyves" (September 1899 Cassell's), the protagonist's last Invention being a Spaceship capable of reaching the Moon. Across the Zodiac: A Story of Adventure (1896) is an interplanetary romance based clearly on Jules Verne's Vingt Mille Lieues sous les mers: Tour du monde sous-marin (1871 2vols; many trans as Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea(s) from 1872 [see his entry for details]), though in this case the submarine is a Spaceship and the Captain Nemo figure with grievances against imperial Russia is a caricature villain, a bully, and something of a Mad Scientist. His ship the Astrolabe conveys its four protagonists (Verne's usual complement) to the Moon, where remains of an ancient civilization are discovered, and thence via Venus back to Earth. The Adventures of a Micro-Man (1902) is perhaps the best of the tales of Miniaturization common to the period (see Great and Small), in which shrunken protagonists are given guided tours of the inside of the body (see for instance Alfred Taylor Schofield) or other fields of interest. Here, after its protagonists have been shrunken via a mysterious gas known as Microgen, and must spend ten days in a domestic garden – threatened by insects, bemused by thistles, almost drowned by rain – before returning to their full size. [JC]
Lancelot Francis Sanderson Bayly
born County Tipperary, Ireland: 16 October 1869
died Padworth, Berkshire: 4 December 1952
works
- Across the Zodiac: A Story of Adventure (London: Digby, Long and Co, 1896) [hb/]
- The Adventures of a Micro-Man (London: Digby, Long and Co, 1902) [hb/]
about the author
- Jess Nevins. The Encyclopedia of Fantastic Victoriana (Austin, Texas: MonkeyBrain Books, 2005) [encyclopedia: pp 121-122, 387-388, 399-401: hb/John Picacio]
links
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