THE MOON HOAX; OR, A DISCOVERY THAT THE MOON HAS A VAST POPULATION OF HUMAN BEINGS.. by Locke, Richard Adams - 1975

Boston: Gregg Press, 1975. Octavo, cloth. New edition. Reprint of the 1859 William Gowans edition. New 30-page historical introduction by Ormond Seavey. Edgar Allan Poe's comment on the Moon Hoax is appended. A reprint of Locke's successful hoax perpetrated in the New York Sun, in August 1835, that pretended to reveal a discovery that men and animals existed on the moon. The revelations, supposedly reprinted from the actually defunct Edinburgh Journal of Science, pretended to reveal a discovery that men and animals existed on the moon and were so cleverly wrought that, for a short time, the report was given credence in scientific circles in the United States and Europe. The report was soon denounced as a hoax by the public press and Richard Adams Locke (1800-1871), a reporter for the Sun, was identified as the perpetrator of the "ingenious astronomical hoax." Interest in the lunar discoveries increased the Sun's circulation to more than nineteen thousand, the largest of any daily of that time. According to William Gowans who reprinted the story in 1859, Locke's account created such public interest that the owners of the Sun published sixty thousand copies of it in pamphlet form. The pamphlet was published in September 1835 and every copy was sold in less than a month. Nevertheless, the 1835 printings are rare and only a handful of copies survive. Anatomy of Wonder (1981) 1-137. Bleiler, Science-Fiction: The Early Years 1348 and 1349. A fine copy without dust jacket as issued. (#156428)