Imagining Mars: A Literary History is a 2011 non-fiction book by science fiction scholar . The book chronicles the history of Mars in fiction, and to a lesser extent in culture. The overarching thesis of the work is that the scientific understanding of Mars and the versions of the planet imagined in works of fiction have developed in parallel and influenced each other. It covers a timeframe spanning from the pre-telescope era up to the present day, especially the time period after 1877. Particular attention is paid to the influence of amateur astronomer Percival Lowell (1855–1916), who popularized the myth of Martian canals in the public consciousness, and science fiction author H. G. Wells (1866–1946) who wrote the seminal 1897 novel The War of the Worlds. The book charts how the depiction of Mars changed throughout the second half of the 1900s in response to successive advances in planetary science, while noting that some authors preferred to continue portraying the planet in a nostalgic way that was by then scientifically outdated.
The book received positive reviews upon release. Critics praised the depth and breadth of knowledge displayed, evidenced among other things by the inclusion of a large number of relatively obscure works. The interplay between science and fiction was found to be effectively illustrated. Crossley's inclusion of his personal assessments of literary merit was generally viewed as a positive; some reviewers perceived him to display a preference for hard science fiction. Also praised was the writing style, which was described as making the book not only appeal to science fiction scholars and fans but also be accessible to the general public. Some reviewers noted the lack of a bibliography listing the works cited in the book as a negative.
Background (born in 1945) is a science fiction scholar and professor emeritus of English at the University of Massachusetts Boston. He had previously written about science fiction authors H. G. Wells (1866–1946) and especially Olaf Stapledon (1886–1950), including the 1994 biography Olaf Stapledon: Speaking for the Future. The process of researching and writing Imagining Mars spanned more than a decade.
Crossley had previously covered specific aspects of Mars in fiction in the 2000 essay "Sign, Symbol, Power: The New Martian Novel" and the 2004 Philological Quarterly article "H. G. Wells, Visionary Telescopes, and the 'Matter of Mars'", and would do so again in the 2012 essay "From Invasion to Liberation: Alternative Visions of Mars, Planet of War". Earlier book-length treatments of the subject by other authors include Robert Markley's 2005 Dying Planet: Mars in Science and the Imagination and 's 2005 Mars: A Tour of the Human Imagination.
Contents The book contains a preface, fourteen chapters, an afterword, endnotes, and an index. The chapters are:
1. "The Meaning of Mars" (1–19) On the cultural significance of Mars across the centuries, with a brief overview of its shifting depiction in fiction. Crossley argues that "the literary and scientific imaginations collaborate with each other and exist in tension with each other". He describes Marjorie Hope Nicolson's 1948 study Voyages to the Moon as "the definitive history of Moon fantasies" and writes that Mars lacks a counterpart, with the closest attempt thus far being Robert Markley's 2005 book Dying Planet: Mars in Science and the Imagination. He divides the history of Mars observation into three eras, using a scheme devised by astronomy historian : the era of naked eye astronomy, Earth-based telescope observation, and the Space Age.
2. "Dreamworlds of the Telescope" (20–36) On the history of Mars observation between the invention of the telescope in the early 1600s and the 1877 opposition of Mars. Crossley discusses several works from this period that speculate or fantasize about the planet's conditions and possible inhabitants, including Bernard Le Bovier de Fontenelle's 1686 work Entretiens sur la pluralité des mondes, Emanuel Swedenborg's 1758 work De Telluribus in Mundo Nostro Solari, and the anonymously published 1839 novel A Fantastical Excursion into the Planets.
3. "Inventing a New Mars" (37–67) On the observations made during the 1877 opposition, and six books that were written in its wake. The main observation discussed is Italian astronomer Giovanni Schiaparelli's mistaken identification of straight lines on the Martian surface (actually optical illusions), which he called (literally channels), and which led to the myth of Martian canals. The books covered are Percy Greg's 1880 novel Across the Zodiac, W. S. Lach-Szyrma's 1883 novel Aleriel, or A Voyage to Other Worlds, William James Roe's 1887 novel Bellona's Husband: A Romance, Hugh MacColl's 1889 novel Mr. Stranger's Sealed Packet, Robert Cromie's 1890 novel A Plunge into Space, and Robert D. Braine's 1892 novel Messages from Mars, By Aid of the Telescope Plant.
4. "Percival Lowell's Mars" (68–89) On the influence of US amateur astronomer Percival Lowell on the popular conception of Mars. Lowell interpreted Schiaparelli's as artificial waterways, constructed by an advanced Martian civilization to stave off desertification. He wrote three non-fiction books on the subject—Mars in 1895, Mars and Its Canals in 1906, and Mars as the Abode of Life in 1908—popularizing his ideas about Mars and Martians among the general public. Says Crossley, "No figure is more central to the cultural and literary history of Mars in the twentieth century than Percival Lowell." His fellow astronomers were more skeptical, questioning not only Lowell's speculations about the conditions on Mars but also the existence of the canals themselves. Lowell died resolute in his convictions in 1916, by which time the canals had been abandoned as a serious scientific theory.
5. "Mars and Utopia" (90–109) On Mars as a setting for works of utopian fiction in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Crossley identifies feminist, socialist, and religious elements in the imagined ideal Martian societies. The influence of Schiaparelli and Lowell receives specific attention. Crossley highlights German science fiction writer Kurd Lasswitz's 1897 novel Auf zwei Planeten and Russian science fiction writer Alexander Bogdanov's 1908 novel Red Star as the most significant works in this tradition.
6. "H. G. Wells and the Great Disillusionment" (110–128) On the central position of H. G. Wells's 1897 novel The War of the Worlds in the history of Martian fiction. In Crossley's view, Wells' story displayed originality that set it apart from contemporary fiction about Mars in several different ways. Rather than being portrayed as essentially human and being noble creatures to emulate, Wells's Martians have a completely alien appearance and are evil—in Wells's words "intellects vast and cool and unsympathetic". Crossley also argues that unlike other Martian authors of the time, Wells was scarcely influenced by Lowell's ideas about planetary science, drawing instead primarily upon Charles Darwin's biological notion of evolution by natural selection. Crossley identifies the alien invasion story—which he notes as a departure from the usual scenario of a visit to Mars by humans—as a satirical critique of contemporary British colonialism in general and its devastating effects on the Aboriginal Tasmanians in particular. Of Garrett P. Serviss's unauthorized 1898 sequel Edison's Conquest of Mars, Crossley writes that "it is astonishingly impervious to Wells's anti-imperialist motive".
7. "Mars and the Paranormal" (129–148) On the interplay between the growing interest in Mars and in the paranormal in the late 1800s. The central figure in this is French author and astronomer Camille Flammarion and his 1889 novel Uranie. Also covered is Hélène Smith, a medium who claimed to be in communication with Mars. Crossley discusses some works of Martian fiction from this era that employ supernatural elements such as reincarnation, concluding that they for the most part lack literary merit.
8. "Masculinist Fantasies" (149–167) On a trend that emerged around the turn of the century of portraying fictional Mars as the setting for characteristically male-dominated adventure stories. Crossley acknowledges that the term "masculinism" is anachronistic here, but finds it fitting as he views the stories in question as standing in fundamental opposition to works of feminist science fiction such as the 1893 novel Unveiling a Parallel: A Romance by Alice Ilgenfritz Jones and . Recurring features identified by Crossley include Martian princesses, colonialist and racist attitudes, and using Mars as a kind of stand-in for the bygone American frontier. Six books receive in-depth analysis: Gustavus W. Pope's 1894 novel Journey to Mars, Ellsworth Douglass's 1899 novel Pharaoh's Broker, George Griffith's 1901 novel A Honeymoon in Space, Edwin Lester Arnold's 1905 novel Lieut. Gullivar Jones: His Vacation, Edgar Rice Burroughs's 1912 novel A Princess of Mars (the first in his Barsoom series), and Marcianus Rossi's 1920 novel A Trip to Mars. The chapter also briefly covers works aimed specifically at teenage boys.
9. "Quite in the Best Tradition" (168–194) On Martian fiction in the 1920s and 1930s. Crossley notes an initial decrease in the popularity of Mars in this era, followed by an upswing beginning with the release of Olaf Stapledon's 1930 novel Last and First Men. He argues that the influence of Lowell was by this time largely supplanted by that of Wells, evidenced particularly by the alienness of the planet's inhabitants in works such as Stanley G. Weinbaum's 1934 short story "A Martian Odyssey". In Crossley's estimation, the central piece of Martian fiction in this era was C. S. Lewis's 1938 novel Out of the Silent Planet. Also discussed is Orson Welles's 1938 radio adaptation of The War of the Worlds.
10. "On the Threshold of the Space Age" (195–221) On Martian fiction in the 1940s and 1950s. By this time, advances in planetary science such as the failure of spectrographic analysis to detect oxygen in the Martian atmosphere had rendered previous notions of a habitable Mars obsolete. Crossley describes it as a kind of transitional era, when "romantic Mars [grew] increasingly untenable and realistic Mars still [remained] largely unpalatable to the literary imagination". He compares and contrasts Ray Bradbury using Mars as a vehicle for social commentary while paying scant attention to scientific realities in the 1950 fix-up novel The Martian Chronicles and Arthur C. Clarke striving to portray the planet realistically in the 1951 novel The Sands of Mars.
11. "Retrograde Visions" (222–242)