Hollow Earth- The Long and Curious History of Imagining Strange Lands

342 Pages·2016·5.57 MB·English

by  Standish David

Table of Contents

Praise
Title Page
Dedication
Epigraph
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Chapter 1 - HOLLOW SCIENCE
Chapter 2 - SYMMES’ HOLES
Chapter 3 - POLAR GOTHIC: REYNOLDS AND POE
Chapter 4 - JULES VERNE: A JOURNEY TO THE CENTER OF GEOLOGY
Chapter 5 - CYRUS TEED AND KORESHANITY
Chapter 6 - HOLLOW UTOPIAS, ROMANCES, AND A LITTLE KIDDIE LIT
Chapter 7 - EDGAR RICE BURROUGHS AT THE EARTH’S CORE
Chapter 8 - THE HOLLOW EARTH LIVES: EVIL NAZIS, FLYING
SAUCERS, SUPERMAN, NEW …
BIBLIOGRAPHY
INDEX
Copyright Page
PRAISE FOR HOLLOW EARTH

“A surprising history of imaginary voyages to the planet’s core … entertaining
… Standish’s research is impressive.”
—New York Times Book Review

“Standish … has an engaging affection for his cast of fantasists and misguided
visionaries.”
—The New Yorker

“Gives us fascinating and often bizarre tales … Hollow Earth is full of lively
illustrations and curious lore. Standish is a good explorer of the dusty corners of
history, science and popular myth. His prose is clear and often humorous …
He’s a good guide to the imaginary hollows.”
—Los Angeles Times Book Review

“Standish … treat[s] us to a chronicle of fantasies in life and literature about
subterranean worlds … Spelunkers of the imagination may enjoy this guide to a
place not found on any map.”
—Wall Street Journal

“Lively and intriguing.”
—Boston Sunday Globe
“Standish proves a shimmering, informed guide … displaying a genuine care
and admiration for those whose creations were scientifically, socially, or
literarily worthy, or at least deeply, appealingly eccentric … smart and closely
read.”
—Chicago Tribune

“[Hollow Earth] basks in the lurid glow of a theory whose hypnotic appeal will
long outlive its rational plausibility.”
—Village Voice

“Fans of Jules Verne, pulp-fiction adventure stories, and schlocky 1950s movies
will get a thoughtful laugh out of Hollow Earth … A thoroughly enjoyable and
fascinating read.”
—Popular Science

“The hole story is … semi-tortuous and often quite amusing. A journey, so to
speak, to the center of mirth.”
—San Diego Union-Tribune

“The single strangest and most fascinating book published so far this year … a
marvel.”
—Palm Beach Post

“Standish seems to have a genuine affection for his assorted crackpots and
dreamers, and he provides an amusing tour of their various underground utopias
… a fun romp.”
—Publishers Weekly”

“[A] lively and intriguing illustrated cultural history … Highly recommended for
both science and literature collections.”
—Library Journal

“A monumental work of screwball scholarship … A highly entertaining romp
through the history of a theory.”
—Seed

“[An] entertaining cultural history of a delusion.”
—Times Literary Supplement (London)
For Lisa, Maude, and Wilson
Be a Columbus to whole new continents and worlds within you, opening new channels, not of trade,
but of thought… . What was the meaning of that South-Sea Exploring Expedition, with all its parade
and expense, but an indirect recognition of the fact that there are continents and seas in the moral
world to which every man is an isthmus or an inlet, yet unexplored by him, but that it is easier to sail
many thousand miles through cold and storm and cannibals, in a government ship, with five hundred
men and boys to assist one, than it is to explore the private sea, the Atlantic and Pacific Ocean of
one’s being alone…. It is not worth the while to go round the world to count the cats in Zanzibar. Yet
do this till you can do better, and you may perhaps find some “Symmes’ Hole” by which to get at the
inside at last.

—Henry David Thoreau, Walden
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

In roughly chronological order, I would like to thank Senior Editor Kathleen
Burke at Smithsonian magazine for giving me the go-ahead to do an article on
the hollow earth for them, which got me started on this, and my apologies for
going crazy and turning in a manuscript far too long. Great thanks, too, to my
wonderful agent, Leslie Breed, for believing in the idea and finding a home for
it. Senior Editor Ben Schafer at Da Capo stuck with the book despite many
opportunities to bail out, given my turtle-like pace, fondness for digression, and
writerly crabbiness. I am also grateful to several friends who read the manuscript
in progress, offering both encouragement and helpful critiques—Scott Guthery,
Beth Meredith, Chris Miller, and Lucie Singh. Medill School of Journalism
graduate students Keith Chu and Michael Andersen were resourceful and
persistent in tracking down source material and fact-checking. And a number of
people provided invaluable assistance in sharing art and photography for the
book’s illustrations: Klaus-Peter Gelber of the Mineralogical Institute at the
University of Würzburg for Athanasius Kircher engravings; Rick Loomis of
Sumner & Stillman Antiquarian Booksellers (www.sumnerandstillman.com) for
pictures of early Jules Verne editions; Michael Widner, archivist for the
Koreshan State Historical Site in Estero, Florida, for many photographs of the
Koreshan community; Bill and Sue-On Hillman, proprietors of the ERBzine
website (www.erbzine.com), for artwork from Edgar Rice Burroughs’s
Pellucidar novels; also the Frank Frazetta Museum
(www.frazettaartgallery.com), for permission to use his terrific Pelludicar cover
art from the 1960s and 1970s; and Jean-Luc Rivera for sending scans of sci-fi
magazine covers from his extensive “Shaver Mystery” collection. And finally, I
would like to remember John Weigel and Walter Havighurst, Miami University
English professors whose influence on me proved both deep and lasting.