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The Martians
The True Story of an Alien Craze that Captured Turn-of-the-Century America
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Brief Description
The Times headline was no joke. In the early 1900s, many Americans actually believed that we had discovered intelligent life on Mars. The Martians is a truly bizarre tale reconstructed through newly discovered clippings, letters, and photographs by bestselling science writer David Baron. It begins in...
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The Martians
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“There Is Life on the Planet Mars” — The New York Times, 9 December 1906
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Description
The Times headline was no joke. In the early 1900s, many Americans actually believed that we had discovered intelligent life on Mars.
The Martians is a truly bizarre tale reconstructed through newly discovered clippings, letters, and photographs by bestselling science writer David Baron. It begins in the 1890s with Percival Lowell, a wealthy Harvard scion who was so certain of his Mars discovery that he (almost) convinced a generation of astronomers that grainy telescopic photographs of the red planet revealed meltwater and an intricate canal system, declaring "there can be no doubt that living beings inhabit our neighboring world" (New York Times).
So frenzied was the reaction that international controversies arose. Tesla announced he had received Martian radio signals. Biologists debated whether Martians were winged or gilled. Martians headlined Broadway shows, and a new genre called science fiction arose.
While Lowell's claims were savagely debunked, his influence sparked a compulsive interest in Mars and life in outer space that continues to this day.
Book Details
INFORMATION
ISBN: 9781324090663
Publisher: WW Norton & Co
Format: Hardback
Date Published: 10 October 2025
Country: United States
Imprint: WW Norton & Co
Illustration: 101 illustrations
Audience: General / adult
DIMENSIONS
Spine width: 28.0mm
Width: 160.0mm
Height: 236.0mm
Weight: 580g
Pages: 336
About the Author
David Baron is an award-winning journalist, broadcaster, and author of The Beast in the Garden and American Eclipse. A former science correspondent for NPR, he has also written for the New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, Scientific American, and other publications. David recently served as the Baruch S. Blumberg NASA/Library of Congress Chair in Astrobiology, Exploration, and Scientific Innovation. He lives in Boulder, Colorado.
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