Hollow Earth: The Long and Curious History of Imagining Strange Lands, Fantastical Creatures, Advanced Civilizations, and Marvelous Machines Below the Earth's Surface - Hardcover

Standish, David

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0306813734 ISBN 13: 9780306813733

Publisher: Da Capo Press, 2006

Synopsis

Beliefs in mysterious underworlds are as old as humanity. But the idea that the earth has a hollow interior was first proposed as a scientific theory in 1691 by Sir Edmond Halley (of comet fame), who also suggested that there might be life down there as well. Hollow Earth traces the many surprising, marvelous, and just plain weird permutations his ideas have taken over the centuries. Both Edgar Allan Poe and (more famously) Jules Verne picked up the torch in the nineteenth century, the latter with his science fiction epic A Journey to the Center of the Earth. The notion of a hollow earth even inspired a religion at the turn of the twentieth century-Koreshanity, which held not only that the earth was hollow, but also that we're all living on the inside. Utopian novels and adventures abounded at this same time, including L. Frank Baum's hollow earth addition to the Oz series and Edgar Rice Burroughs's Pellucidar books chronicling a stone-age hollow earth. In the 1940s an enterprising science-fiction magazine editor convinced people that the true origins of flying saucers lay within the hollow earth, relics of an advanced alien civilization. And there are still devout hollow earthers today, some of whom claim there is a New Age utopia lurking beneath the earth's surface, with at least one entrance near Mt. Shasta in California. Hollow Earth travels through centuries and cultures, exploring how each era's relationship to the idea of a hollow earth mirrored its hopes, fears, and values. Illustrated with everything from seventeenth-century maps to 1950s pulp art to movie posters and more, Hollow Earth is for anyone interested in the history of strange ideas that just won't go away.

About this title

About the Author:

David Standish is the author of The Art of Money and has written for Smithsonian, Audubon, Esquire, Outside, Travel & Leisure, Playboy, and Chicago magazine. He lives in Chicago.

Review:

"Hollow Earth is tremendous fun." -- Village Voice, 7/5/06

"A fascinating history of an idea that just refused to die...A great read." -- IEEE Spectrum, August 2006

"A monumental work of screwball scholarship...A highly entertaining romp." -- Seed Magazine, September 2006

"Fans of Jules Verne...will get a thoughtful laugh out of Hollow Earth...A thoroughly enjoyable and fascinating read." -- Popular Science, August 2006

"Lively and intriguing." -- Boston Sunday Globe, 9/10/2006

"[A] fascinating account...Standish has done an admirable job...[An] excellent book." -- Scotland on Sunday, 9/3/06

"[A] lively and intriguing illustrated cultural history...Highly recommended for both science and literature collections." -- Library Journal, starred review, 7/15/06

"[An] entertaining new book...Standish's research is impressive." -- New York Times Book Review Editor's Choice, 1/28/07

"[Earth] teems with curious tangents...and rewarding artifacts. [It] takes readers deep into a fascinating eddy of history." -- Buffalo News, 9/17/2006

"[The] single strangest and most fascinating book published so far this year...In short, it's a marvel." -- Palm Beach Post, 9/17/2006

About this edition

• Publisher: Da Capo Press
• Publication date: 2006
• ISBN 10: 0306813734
• ISBN 13: 9780306813733
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 304