Description
At the dawn of the twentieth century, the United States went mad for Mars. Martians appeared in newspapers, popular music, and Broadway plays after the American astronomer Percival Lowell proclaimed the red planet a civilized world crisscrossed by irrigation canals. The catalyst for this public craze was Camille Flammarion, who served as Lowell’s muse and champion. An examination of the correspondence, private writings, and published remarks of these two men reveals how the French astronomer encouraged and promoted his American friend. Although the Martians and their canals were never real, the excitement spurred by Lowell and Flammarion proved world-changing, for it inspired a new genre called science fiction and helped launch us into space—toward Mars.