Essential Robert Duncan Milne

Robert Duncan Milne was a late 19th-century Science Fiction writer born in Cupar, Scotland but who was based in San Francisco. His work was primarily published in newspapers and the magazine The Argonaut. His works were rediscovered and collected together Into the Sun & Other Stories (1980) by Sam Moskowitz.Keith Williams is Reader in English at the University of Dundee, Scotland, where he runs the science fiction programme. His books include H.G. Wells, Modernity and the Movies (2007) and James Joyce and Cinematicity: Before and After Film (2020). He has researched and published widely on early science fiction and its prescience about modern media and communications.Ari Brin obtained her M.Litt in Science Fiction from the University of Dundee in 2017. Her PhD research since 2016 has focused on the life and work of Robert Duncan Milne, involving the collection, transcription, and analysis of over 100 works of fiction.

• List of IllustrationsForeword by Ken MacLeod Acknowledgements Introduction: The Ghost of Futures Past Note on the Text Introduction to Thematic Cluster 1 The Artificial Eyes and Ears of Science: Early Imaginings of Global Telecommunication Systems and Surveillance Devices The Great Electric Diaphragm (1879) The Aerial Cone Reflector (1881) The Palæoscopic Camera (1881) Introduction to Thematic Cluster 2 Science Fiction Crime Stories: The Impact of Technology on Human Matters and “Karmic” Justice in the Modern Age A Dead Man’s Ring (1883) A Modern Proteus (1888) The Silent Witness (1889) The Eidoloscope (1890) Introduction to Thematic Cluster 3Scientizing Spiritualism: Stories of Clairvoyance, Telekinesis, and Teleportation A New Palingenesis (1883) A Modern Magic Mirror (1884) Prof. Vehr’s Electrical Experiment (1885) Baron Von Steinbach’s Soul (1885) Introduction to Thematic Cluster 4Bodies without Limits: Stories of Transfusions, Youth-Elixirs, and Radical Surgeries A Man Who Grew Young Again (1887) The Centenary of the Elixir (1889) Brain Transference (1891) Introduction to Thematic Cluster 5Apocalypse and Things to Come:Visions of Possible Futures Into the Sun (1882) The Awful Cataclysm in Ireland (1885) A Question of Reciprocity (1891) How San Francisco Looked in 1893An Archeological Fantasy (1893) Bibliography Notes Index

Asked to come up with a list of H. G. Wells’s precursors in science fiction, almost the last name we are likely to hear is that of Robert Duncan Milne (1844-99) [...] Now Wells scholar Keith Williams and his co-editor have put together eighteen of the seventy-odd stories that Milne published in San Francisco newspapers in the 1880s and early 1890s, together with critical introductions to each story. The result is a true collectors’ item [...]