A Strange Manuscript Found in a Copper Cylinder

INTRODUCTION

INTRODUCTIONA Strange Manuscript Found in a Copper Cylinder is a Victorian-era fantasy novel by James De Mille. It was serialized posthumously—and anonymously—in Harper’s Weekly, before being published in book form by Harper and Brothers in 1888. It was serialized subsequently in the United Kingdom and Australia, then published in book form in the United Kingdom and Canada. Later editions were published from the plates of the Harper and Brothers first edition throughout the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

The satiric and fantastic romance is set in an imaginary semi-tropical land in Antarctica inhabited by prehistoric monsters and a cult of death-worshipers called the Kosekin. Begun many years before it was published, it is reminiscent of Edgar Allan Poe’s The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket and anticipates the exotic locale and fantasy-adventure elements of works of the “Lost World genre” such as Arthur Conan Doyle’s The Lost World and Edgar Rice Burroughs’ The Land That Time Forgot, as well as innumerable prehistoric world movies based loosely on these and other works.

The title and locale were inspired by Edgar Allan Poe’s “Ms. Found in a Bottle.” It was unfortunate for De Mille’s reputation as a writer that this work was published after H. Rider Haggard’s far more famous and popular novels She and King Solomon’s Mines, which explored similar themes. Since the actual writing of De Mille’s novel pre-dated the publication of the Haggard’s works, they are not in fact derivative of Haggard romances.

As for the author, James De Mille was born in Saint John, New Brunswick on August 23, 1833 and worked as a professor at Dalhousie University, Nova Scotia. He was the son of the merchant and shipowner Nathan De Mille. He attended Horton Academy in Wolfville and spent one year at Acadia University. He then travelled with his brother Elisha Budd to Europe, spending half a year in England, France and Italy.

Soon after his return to North America, he attended Brown University, from which he obtained a Master of Arts degree during 1854. He married Anne Pryor, daughter of the president of Acadia University, John Pryor, and was there appointed professor of classics. He served there until 1865 when he accepted a new appointment at Dalhousie as professor of English and rhetoric. He continued to write and teach at Dalhousie until his early death at the age of 46 on January 28, 1880.

—Karl Wurf

Rockville, Maryland