Smeaton, Oliphant
Entry updated 12 September 2022. Tagged: Author.
(1856-1914) Scottish editor and author in whose Lost Race tale for boys, A Mystery of the Pacific (1899), three young Englishmen searching for a lost relative penetrate a mysterious Sargasso Sea-like barrier in the South Pacific and are taken in a trireme to a giant Island inhabited – they think exclusively – by descendants of ancient Romans. As the plot thickens, however, they discover Underground a second, far more ancient civilization comprising survivors of Atlantis. The three Englishmen demonstrate Western superiority with their guns (see Imperialism; Race in SF) before leaving. [JC]
William Henry Oliphant Smeaton
born Aberdeen, Scotland: 24 October 1856
died Edinburgh, Scotland: 31 March 1914
works (highly selected)
- A Mystery of the Pacific (London: Blackie and Son, 1899) [illus/hb/Wal Paget]
links
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