Strange Manuscript Found in a Copper Cylinder

De Mille, James; Mint Editions (COR)

ISBN 10: 1513134167 / ISBN 13: 9781513134161

Published by Mint Editions, 2022

About this Item

Seller Inventory # 44213168-n

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Strange Manuscript Found in a Copper Cylinder
• Publisher: Mint Editions
• Publication Date: 2022
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1513134167
• ISBN 13: 9781513134161
• Binding: Hardcover
• Condition: New

About this title

Synopsis

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. 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.

Since our inception in 2020, Mint Editions has kept sustainability and innovation at the forefront of our mission. Each and every Mint Edition title gets a fresh, professionally typeset manuscript and a dazzling new cover, all while maintaining the integrity of the original book.

With thousands of titles in our collection, we aim to spotlight diverse public domain works to help them find modern audiences. Mint Editions celebrates a breadth of literary works, curated from both canonical and overlooked classics from writers around the globe.

About the Author

James De Mille (1833-1880) was a Canadian novelist and professor. Born in Saint John, New Brunswick, De Mille was the son of a merchant. As a young man, he traveled to Europe with his brother before returning to North America to pursue his Master of Arts degree at Brown University. Upon graduating in 1854, he married Anne Pryor and found employment at Acadia University as a Classics professor. In 1865, he was appointed professor of English and rhetoric at Dalhousie University in Nova Scotia. Over the next fifteen years, he wrote over a dozen novels and short story collections, many of which were intended for a young adult audience. His most popular work, A Strange Manuscript Found in a Copper Cylinder (1888), was published posthumously as a serial in Harper’s Weekly, in which many of De Mille’s earlier works had appeared during his lifetime. Although his career was cut short by his death at the age of 46, De Mille is considered a pioneering practitioner of the Lost World genre of science fiction.