Prospero, Peter
Entry updated 12 September 2022. Tagged: Author.
Pseudonym, likely used by US editor and author Nathan Covington Brooks (1809-1898) for the novel-length sf tale, "The Atlantis: A Southern World" [for full title see Checklist] (September 1838-June 1839 American Museum of Science, Literature, and the Arts), the first four chapters of which appeared in The Man Who Called Himself Poe (anth 1969) edited by Sam Moskowitz. The tale itself is like and unlike Edgar Allan Poe's The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket (first four chapters January-May 1837 Southern Literary Messenger; 1838 2vols): using an advanced form of Transportation – a steam engine – the protagonist travels into clement waters near the South Pole, where he discovers a great City, the capital of Atlantis, up a large river; but little of Poe's narrative genius can be found here. As a colleague of Poe's, and editor of American Museum, Brooks was well placed to publish this unconvincing tale. [JC]
Nathan Covington Brooks
born West Nottingham, Maryland: 12 August 1809
died Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: 6 October 1898
works
- "The Atlantis: A Southern World, – Or a Wonderful Continent, – Discovered in the Great Southern Ocean, and Supposed to Be in the Atlantis of Plato, or the Terra Australis Incognita of Dr Swift, During a Voyage Conducted by Alonzo Pinzon, Commander of the American Metal Ship Astraea" (September 1838-June 1839 American Museum of Science, Literature, and the Arts) [mag/]
- The Man Who Called Himself Poe (Garden City, New York: Doubleday and Company, 1969) edited by Sam Moskowitz [anth: contains first four chapters of the above: hb/Milton Glaser]
about the author
- Henry M Eichner. Atlantean Chronicles (Alhambra, California: Fantasy Publishing Company, 1971) [nonfiction: p200-201: hb/Henry M Eichner]
- Everett F Bleiler. Science-Fiction: The Early Years: A Full Description of More Than 3,000 Science-Fiction Stories ... (Kent, Ohio: The Kent State University Press, 1990) [nonfiction: p527: hb/nonpictorial]
links
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