[Gutenberg 28449] • The Motor Boat Club and The Wireless; Or, the Dot, Dash and Dare Cruise

Harrie Irving Hancock (1866/8-1922) was an American chemist and writer, mainly remembered as an author of children's literature and juveniles in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. A prolific author who liked to work at night, Hancock wrote for the New York Journal, the New York World, and Leslie's Weekly. He was a journalist for the Boston Globe, served as a war correspondent in Cuba and the Philippines during the Spanish-American War, and produced more than 50 serials for Norman Munro's juvenile magazine Golden Hours between 1889 and 1901. His output included westerns, detective stories, historical adventures and several series of books for boys. He also published books on physical fitness and an Encyclopedia of Knowledge and Manners, and served as the editor of a History of West Point. He is perhaps best known for his four-book series The Invasion of the United States (1916), which depicted a fictional invasion of the USA by Germany in 1920-21 - reflecting, and to some degree helping to intensify, the shift of American public opinion towards getting involved in the First World War.