A Strange Manuscript Found in a Copper Cylinder (1888) is a novel by
James De Mille. Originally serialized in Harper's Weekly, the novel
was published posthumously and, at first, anonymously. Although De
Mille's work predated such popular Lost World novels as H. Rider
Haggard's She (1887) and King Solomon's Mines (1885), it was
published nearly a decade after his death, leading critics to assume he
had merely written a derivative work of fiction. Recent scholarship,
however, has sought to emphasize De Mille's talents as a writer and
importance in the historical development of literary science fiction.
"The wind had failed, a deep calm had succeeded, and everywhere, as far
as the eye could reach, the water was smooth and glassy. The yacht rose
and fell at the impulse of the long ocean undulations, and the creaking
of the spars sounded out a lazy accompaniment to the motion of the
vessel." Sailing in their yacht, a crew spots a copper cylinder afloat
on the sunbeaten sea. Hauling it aboard, they open it to reveal a
manuscript sealed from the elements containing the story of Adam More.
Shipwrecked while returning to Britain from Tasmania, the sailor found
himself stranded on a strange desert island near Antarctica. Soon, he
stumbles upon a lost world of prehistoric plants and animals, a land of
indescribable beauty and wonder. In the harsh volcanic landscape, he
discovers a race of humans whose values are entirely foreign to his
Western frame of mind. With a beautifully designed cover and
professionally typeset manuscript, this edition of James De Mille's A
Strange Manuscript Found in a Copper Cylinder is a classic work of
American science fiction reimagined for modern readers.
