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Re: The Airship Sightings Over the United States Between the Years 1896-1898 and Its Connection to Verne's Novel Robur the Conqueror!

From: Terry Harpold <tharpold~at~english.ufl.edu>
Date: Wed, 7 Apr 2004 06:37:12 -0400
To: Jules Verne Forum <jvf~at~Gilead.org.il>

On Tuesday, April 6, 2004, Ron Miller <spaceart~at~worldnet.att.net> writes:

>Several years ago I wrote a long magazine article on this very subject, the
>conclusion of which was that Robur the Conqueror had a major influence on
>the 19th century airship sightings. If I can't post the entire article to
>the group, I will at least post a synopsis.

Yes, Ron, that would be swell (and I'd like to get my hands on the full article, too, BTW). The 1897 "Airship flap" is of special interest to me (my passion for "Forteana" showing here -- see <http://www.forteantimes.com> if you don't know what that means); having just read _Robur_, it was was on my mind again.

Good sources (more or less critical, more or less credulous) on the flap -- I don't recall if the Bartholomew or Cohen mention Verne; I haven't read the Busby yet:

  Bartholomew, Robert E. “The Airship Hysteria of 1896-97.” Skeptical Inquirer 14.2 (1990): 171-81.
  
  Busby, Michael. Solving the 1897 Airship Mystery. Gretna, LA: Pelican Publishing, 2004.
  
  Cohen, Daniel. The Great Airship Mystery: A UFO of the 1890s. East Rutherford, NJ: Putnam Publishers, 1981.

TH

--------------------------------
Terry Harpold
Assistant Professor
Department of English
University of Florida

tharpold~at~acm.org
tharpold~at~english.ufl.edu
http://www.english.ufl.edu/~tharpold
Received on Wed 07 Apr 2004 - 13:37:25 IDT

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