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Fantasy Commentator, v. 1, issue 5, Winter 1944-1945

Page 73

FANTASY COMMENTATOR       73
was originally published serially in the Saturday Evening Post, in which form it is memorable for many striking illustrations.Much of the data cited in Ignatius Donnelly's treatise on the subject is well presented in Dennis Wheatley's fictional They Found Atlantis (1936), and Pierre Benoit, in his Atlantida (1920), has also utilized this popular locale of legend. The finest of the Atlantis novels, in the opinion of this writer, is The Scarlet Empire (1906), where David M. Parry tells of the awakening of a would-be suicide in a great, glass-enclosed nation on the ocean's bed; not only is the story itself of high quality, but the book has several strikingly good two-colored illustrations. Mention has already een made of Aubrey's Queen of Atlantis, whose subject-matter permits its inclusion in this paragraph. The City of Wonder (1935) by E. Charles Vivian also deserves note, for therein is discovered a mighty city which was built by ancient colonists of Atlantis. And in conclusion, two books which relate  the attempts of an undersea race to depopulate ahd conquer the world's continents may be listed: Ray Cummings' Sea Girl (1930), whose action is laid in the year 1990, and H. M. Egbert's Sea Demons (1925), in  which World War I is utilized as a background. The latter novel was serialized in Allstory magazine some nine years before its appearance as a book; its pseudonymous author is of course none other than Victor Rousseau Emanuel.
William H. Wilson, in his Rafnaland (1900), furnishes us with an excellent tale of lost Norsemen. William LeQueux's Eye of Istar (1897) also deals with the lost race theme; such a tale is rather unexpected from his pen, as the bulk of his novels are sophisticated mysteries. Also unexpected is the plot-twist to be found in Alfred Fleckenstein's Prince of Gravas (1898), for here the tale reaches the reader from an ancient papyrus found buried with a mummy. Of more recent vintage is The Duke of Oblivion (1914), by John Reed Scott; this  novel tells of a mist-enshrouded island, ever hidden from the eyes of man. S. Fowler Wright's Island of Captain Sparrow (1928) might be mentioned, as it, too, is a story of a far-away island; and doubtfully included is the same author's World Below (1929)---though primarily a novel of the far future, one encounters herein a race of giants living benath the world's surface.
Subterranean caverns are a popular hiding place for lost races. Edgar Rice Burroughs has of course written a series of novels which utilized this motif, but there are better tales along similar lines which unfortunately do not appear to be as well known. One of these is Clifford Smyth's Gilded Man (1918), where, inside a group of huge underground caverns, are great cities and flourishing people; this is an excellent novel. Richard Tooker, better known for his Day of the Brown Horde (1929), has authored an interesting juvenile, Inland Deep (1936), wherein a race of strange frog-men are discovered in a subterranean cavern. And of course mention of the popular John Taine's Gold Tooth (1927) would be appropos at this point, as would that of The Moon Pool (1919) by A. Merritt; 
the action of the latter novel is laid wholly beneath the earth's surface. In Joseph O'Neill's Land Under England (1935) the hero discovers below the British Isles a place of lands and cities where descendants of the ancient Romans dwell.  And assuredly one of the best of the lost race novels with a subterranean background is The Light in the Sky (1929), by Herbert Clock and Eric Boetzel; the hero of this work finds himself in a metropolis located in the heart of a tremendous cavern,  the people (so we eventually discover) being of Aztec ancestry.
Authors have in several instances utilized unexplored polar regions as locales for their lost race novels. Poe's Narrative of A. Gordon Pym is a well-known example, and Lovecraft uses the Antarctic as the setting for "At the Mountains of Madness." Not at all well known, however, is Charles Romeyn Dako's sequel to Poe's work, "A Strange Discovery" (1899), now an exceedingly difficult
(continued on page 84)

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FANTASY COMMENTATOR 73 was originally published serially in the Saturday Evening Post, in which form it is memorable for many striking illustrations.Much of the data cited in Ignatius Donnelly's treatise on the subject is well presented in Dennis Wheatley's fictional They Found Atlantis (1936), and Pierre Benoit, in his Atlantida (1920), has also utilized this popular locale of legend. The finest of the Atlantis novels, in the opinion of this writer, is The Scarlet Empire (1906), where David M. Parry tells of the awakening of a would-be suicide in a great, glass-enclosed nation on the ocean's bed; not only is the story itself of high quality, but the book has several strikingly good two-colored illustrations. Mention has already een made of Aubrey's Queen of Atlantis, whose subject-matter permits its inclusion in this paragraph. The City of Wonder (1935) by E. Charles Vivian also deserves note, for therein is discovered a mighty city which was built by ancient colonists of Atlantis. And in conclusion, two books which relate the attempts of an undersea race to depopulate ahd conquer the world's continents may be listed: Ray Cummings' Sea Girl (1930), whose action is laid in the year 1990, and H. M. Egbert's Sea Demons (1925), in which World War I is utilized as a background. The latter novel was serialized in Allstory magazine some nine years before its appearance as a book; its pseudonymous author is of course none other than Victor Rousseau Emanuel. William H. Wilson, in his Rafnaland (1900), furnishes us with an excellent tale of lost Norsemen. William LeQueux's Eye of Istar (1897) also deals with the lost race theme; such a tale is rather unexpected from his pen, as the bulk of his novels are sophisticated mysteries. Also unexpected is the plot-twist to be found in Alfred Fleckenstein's Prince of Gravas (1898), for here the tale reaches the reader from an ancient papyrus found buried with a mummy. Of more recent vintage is The Duke of Oblivion (1914), by John Reed Scott; this novel tells of a mist-enshrouded island, ever hidden from the eyes of man. S. Fowler Wright's Island of Captain Sparrow (1928) might be mentioned, as it, too, is a story of a far-away island; and doubtfully included is the same author's World Below (1929)---though primarily a novel of the far future, one encounters herein a race of giants living benath the world's surface. Subterranean caverns are a popular hiding place for lost races. Edgar Rice Burroughs has of course written a series of novels which utilized this motif, but there are better tales along similar lines which unfortunately do not appear to be as well known. One of these is Clifford Smyth's Gilded Man (1918), where, inside a group of huge underground caverns, are great cities and flourishing people; this is an excellent novel. Richard Tooker, better known for his Day of the Brown Horde (1929), has authored an interesting juvenile, Inland Deep (1936), wherein a race of strange frog-men are discovered in a subterranean cavern. And of course mention of the popular John Taine's Gold Tooth (1927) would be appropos at this point, as would that of The Moon Pool (1919) by A. Merritt; the action of the latter novel is laid wholly beneath the earth's surface. In Joseph O'Neill's Land Under England (1935) the hero discovers below the British Isles a place of lands and cities where descendants of the ancient Romans dwell. And assuredly one of the best of the lost race novels with a subterranean background is The Light in the Sky (1929), by Herbert Clock and Eric Boetzel; the hero of this work finds himself in a metropolis located in the heart of a tremendous cavern, the people (so we eventually discover) being of Aztec ancestry. Authors have in several instances utilized unexplored polar regions as locales for their lost race novels. Poe's Narrative of A. Gordon Pym is a well-known example, and Lovecraft uses the Antarctic as the setting for "At the Mountains of Madness." Not at all well known, however, is Charles Romeyn Dako's sequel to Poe's work, "A Strange Discovery" (1899), now an exceedingly difficult (continued on page 84)