Mars and its Canals

Lowell, Percival

Published by The Macmillan Company, New York, 1911

About this Item

23 x 15.5 cm. Octavo. xv [1] 393pp. Index. Extensively illustrated with 16 plates including 4 in color, photographs, maps, as well as in-text woodcuts. Bound into green cloth with gilt cover and spine lettering. Originally published in 1906, this is a "Third Thousand" reprint from 1911 with four publication dates noted on the copyright page. TEG. Piece cut out of front free endpaper. Some rubbing to edges of cloth. Astronomer Percival Lowell popularized the hypothesis of the canals of Mars as evidence of intellegent extraterrestrial life. Lowell and his students were working at the limits of their telescope and they had to be trained (and psychologically primed) to see the canals. As instruments advanced, it became harder for other astronomers to see Lowell's canals. He observed a "wave of darkening" passing from the pole through the equator of Mars and took this as evidence of alien crops changing color with the seasons as on Earth. The idea of advanced life on Mars persisted into the mid 20th century, with the wave of darkening being sited as evidence. Seller Inventory # 73139

Bibliographic Details

Title: Mars and its Canals

Publisher: The Macmillan Company, New York

Publication Date: 1911

Binding: Hardcover

Condition: Very Good

Edition: Third Thousand.