Imagining Mars: A Literary History is a 2011 non-fiction book by science fiction scholar Robert Crossley. The book chronicles the history of Mars in fiction, and to a lesser extent in culture. The overarching thesis of the work is that the scientific understanding of Mars and the versions of the planet imagined in works of fiction have developed in parallel and influenced each other. It covers a timeframe spanning from the pre-telescope era up to the present day, especially the time period after 1877. Particular attention is paid to the influence of amateur astronomer Percival Lowell (1855–1916), who popularized the myth of Martian canals in the public consciousness, and science fiction author H. G. Wells (1866–1946) who wrote the seminal 1897 novel The War of the Worlds. The book charts how the depiction of Mars changed throughout the second half of the 1900s in response to successive advances in planetary science, while noting that some authors preferred to continue portraying the planet in a nostalgic way that was by then scientifically outdated. The book received positive reviews upon release. Critics praised the depth and breadth of knowledge displayed, evidenced among other things by the inclusion of a large number of relatively obscure works. The interplay between science and fiction was found to be effectively illustrated. Crossley's inclusion of his personal assessments of literary merit was generally viewed as a positive; some reviewers perceived him to display a preference for hard science fiction. Also praised was the writing style, which was described as making the book not only appeal to science fiction scholars and fans but also be accessible to the general public. Some reviewers noted the lack of a bibliography listing the works cited in the book as a negative.
Background Robert Crossley (born in 1945) is a science fiction scholar and professor emeritus of English at the University of Massachusetts Boston. He had previously written about science fiction authors H. G. Wells (1866–1946) and especially Olaf Stapledon (1886–1950), including the 1994 biography Olaf Stapledon: Speaking for the Future. The process of researching and writing Imagining Mars spanned more than a decade. Crossley had previously covered specific aspects of Mars in fiction in the 2000 essay "Sign, Symbol, Power: The New Martian Novel" and the 2004 Philological Quarterly article "H. G. Wells, Visionary Telescopes, and the 'Matter of Mars'", and would do so again in the 2012 essay "From Invasion to Liberation: Alternative Visions of Mars, Planet of War". Earlier book-length treatments of the subject by other authors include Robert Markley's 2005 Dying Planet: Mars in Science and the Imagination and Eric S. Rabkin's 2005 Mars: A Tour of the Human Imagination.
Contents The book contains a preface, fourteen chapters, an afterword, endnotes, and an index. The chapters are:
1. "The Meaning of Mars" (1–19) On the cultural significance of Mars across the centuries, with a brief overview of its shifting depiction in fiction. Crossley argues that "the literary and scientific imaginations collaborate with each other and exist in tension with each other". He describes Marjorie Hope Nicolson's 1948 study Voyages to the Moon as "the definitive history of Moon fantasies" and writes that Mars lacks a counterpart, with the closest attempt thus far being Robert Markley's 2005 book Dying Planet: Mars in Science and the Imagination. He divides the history of Mars observation into three eras, using a scheme devised by astronomy historian William Sheehan: the era of naked eye astronomy, Earth-based telescope observation, and the Space Age.
2. "Dreamworlds of the Telescope" (20–36) On the history of Mars observation between the invention of the telescope in the early 1600s and the 1877 opposition of Mars. Crossley discusses several works from this period that speculate or fantasize about the planet's conditions and possible inhabitants, including Bernard Le Bovier de Fontenelle's 1686 work Entretiens sur la pluralité des mondes, Emanuel Swedenborg's 1758 work De Telluribus in Mundo Nostro Solari, and the anonymously published 1839 novel A Fantastical Excursion into the Planets.
3. "Inventing a New Mars" (37–67) On the observations made during the 1877 opposition, and six books that were written in its wake. The main observation discussed is Italian astronomer Giovanni Schiaparelli's mistaken identification of straight lines on the Martian surface (actually optical illusions), which he called canali (literally channels), and which led to the myth of Martian canals. The books covered are Percy Greg's 1880 novel Across the Zodiac, W. S. Lach-Szyrma's 1883 novel Aleriel, or A Voyage to Other Worlds, William James Roe's 1887 novel Bellona's Husband: A Romance, Hugh MacColl's 1889 novel Mr. Stranger's Sealed Packet, Robert Cromie's 1890 novel A Plunge into Space, and Robert D. Braine's 1892 novel Messages from Mars, By Aid of the Telescope Plant.
4. "Percival Lowell's Mars" (68–89) On the influence of US amateur astronomer Percival Lowell on the popular conception of Mars. Lowell interpreted Schiaparelli's canali as artificial waterways, constructed by an advanced Martian civilization to stave off desertification. He wrote three non-fiction books on the subject—Mars in 1895, Mars and Its Canals in 1906, and Mars as the Abode of Life in 1908—popularizing his ideas about Mars and Martians among the general public. Says Crossley, "No figure is more central to the cultural and literary history of Mars in the twentieth century than Percival Lowell." His fellow astronomers were more skeptical, questioning not only Lowell's speculations about the conditions on Mars but also the existence of the canals themselves. Lowell died resolute in his convictions in 1916, by which time the canals had been abandoned as a serious scientific theory.
5. "Mars and Utopia" (90–109) On Mars as a setting for works of utopian fiction in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Crossley identifies feminist, socialist, and religious elements in the imagined ideal Martian societies. The influence of Schiaparelli and Lowell receives specific attention. Crossley highlights German science fiction writer Kurd Lasswitz's 1897 novel Auf zwei Planeten and Russian science fiction writer Alexander Bogdanov's 1908 novel Red Star as the most significant works in this tradition.
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