Smith, William Hawley
Entry updated 12 September 2022. Tagged: Author.
(1845-1922) US educator and author whose first novel, The Evolution of "Dodd," in His Struggle for the Survival of the Fittest in Himself: Tracing his Chances, his Changes, and How He Came Out (1884) [see Checklist for vt and other data], examines Social Darwinism cursorily. Of sf interest is very Near Future The Promoters: A Novel without a Woman (1904), whose shady protagonists hope to apply to the real world the example of Jules Verne's The Purchase of the North Pole (1889), in which an explosion changes Earth's orbit; their intention is to profit from deft real estate transactions. Their plot, which involves numerous cannon shooting simultaneously into the sky, is eventually thwarted. [JC]
William Hawley Smith
born Sunderland, Massachusetts: 7 October 1845
died Peoria, Illinois: 8 May 1922
works
- The Evolution of "Dodd," in His Struggle for the Survival of the Fittest in Himself: Tracing his Chances, his Changes, and How He Came Out (Peoria, Illinois: Henderson and Smith, 1884) [first appeared, date unknown, Illinois School Journal: binding unknown/]
- The Evolution of "Dodd": A Pedagogical Story Giving his Struggle for the Survival of the Fittest Tracing his Chances, his Changes, and How He Came Out (Chicago, Illinois: Rand, McNally and Company, 1884) [vt of the above: hb/]
- The Promoters: A Novel without a Woman (Chicago, Illinois: Rand, McNally and Company, 1904) [illus/hb/John Clitheroe Gilbert]
links
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