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Harris-Burland, J B

(1870-1926) UK author who began to publish magazine stories before the end of the nineteenth century, and who was very early to use the automobile in tales of adventure, an example being "Lord Beden's Motor" (December 1901 Strand). His first novels of sf interest, Dacobra, or The White Priests of Ahriman (1903) and The Princess Thora (1904; vt Dr Silex 1905 UK as J B Harris-Burland), were signed Harris Burland. The first tale sets in an occult frame a wide range of supernatural subjects including Immortality; the second, a Lost-World novel, features a race of lost Normans who have developed into Supermen of giant stature in an enclave at the North Pole. The Black Motor Car (1905), a tale of contorted revenge, features the eponymous vehicle, which is so fast it cannot be caught. The Gold Worshipers (1906) returns to one of the subjects of the first novel – the Transmutation of metals – in a congested tale of greed, gold-making and amply reimbursed remorse. [JC]

John Burland Harris-Burland

born Aldershot, Hampshire: 1 November 1870

died Pevensey, Sussex: 22 July 1926

works

Dacobra, or The White Priests of Ahriman (London: R A Everett and Co, 1903) as Harris Burland [hb/]
The Princess Thora (Boston, Massachusetts: Little, Brown and Company, 1904) as Harris Burland [hb/]
- Dr Silex (London: Ward, Lock and Co, 1905) as J B Harris-Burland [vt of the above: hb/]
The Black Motor Car (New York: The G W Dillingham Company, 1905) [hb/]
The Gold Worshipers (New York: G W Dillingham Company, 1906) [hb/]
Workers in Darkness (London: Greening and Co, 1908) [hb/]
The Disc (London: Greening and Co, 1909) [hb/]
Three Antiquarians (London: Murqi Press, 1999) [coll: pb/nonpictorial]

links

Entry from The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction (2011-current) edited by John Clute and David Langford.
Accessed 23:32 pm on 11 July 2025.
<https://sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/harris-burland_j_b>