RARE NEWSPAPER PRINTING OF POE'S "LUNAR DISCOVERIES."


POE, EDGAR ALLAN. 1809-1849; writing as Baron HANS PHALL. Lunar Discoveries. In: New York Transcript. vol III no 9. New York: Hayward Stanley & Co., September 2, 1835. 4 pp. Folio (430 x 310 mm). Disbound; together with daily issues from the rest of the week. Toning and spotting.THE POE STORY THAT INSPIRED "THE GREAT MOON HOAX," THOUGHT TO BE THE FIRST SCIENCE FICTION STORY. Poe published "Lunar Discoveries: Extraordinary Aerial Voyage" in the June issue of the Southern Literary Messenger, a journal of news and literature. The story was a satire of the fever consuming the country in anticipation of the approach of Halley's Comet; it describes a visit by balloon of extra-terrestrials from the moon. Historians (and Poe himself) believe that the pranksters behind the Sun's Great Moon Hoax used Poe's story as an inspiration. This printing of the work by Baron Phaall (who writes of people descending from the sky, heh-heh) actually appears just two days after the final issue of the Great Moon Hoax appeared in the Sun, and perhaps before the story had been universally debunked.