SIXTY BOOKS IMPORTANT TO THE DEVELOPMENT OF SF, PUBLISHED BEFORE THE NAME WAS INVENTED
By the last quarter of the nineteenth century, a kind of story most often called “scientific romance” was relatively common. But this list is broader and more ambitious than just a list of these scientific romances. My intention is to list all (but only) the most important works, without which the field as it is today in the English language would be very different. I attempted to list only fifty books and to end the list at 1926, but common sense indicated that it be longer and extend slightly beyond Gernsback’s invention of the name to a few works obviously not part of the early pulp tradition. And by doing so, perhaps I have made the list more provocative and more interesting. I have read almost everything on the list and am familiar with the rest.
Note: In those cases where there are two dates, the earlier indicates the original date of publication, the second the first publication in book form. Books in this listing appear in order by earliest date.
* = translation ** = a collection or compilation of earlier works
1. Jonathan Swift. Gulliver’s Travels (1726).
2. Louis-Sébastien Mercier. Memoirs of the Year 2440 (1771).*
3. Jean Cousin de Grainville. The Last Man or Omegarus and Syderia (1805).*
4. Mary Shelley. Frankenstein (1818).
5. Joseph Atterly (pseud. George Tucker). A Voyage to the Moon (1827).
6. Edgar Allan Poe. The Science Fiction of Edgar Allan Poe (ca. 1840s) (1976).**
7. Fitz-James O’Brien. The Supernatural Tales of Fitz-James O’Brien (ca. 1860s) (2 vols 1988).**
8. Jules Verne. A Journey to the Center of the Earth (1863).*
9. Chrysostom Trueman (“ed.”). The History of a Voyage to the Moon (1864).
10. Jules Verne. From the Earth to the Moon (1865) and Around the Moon (1870).*
11. Edward S. Ellis. The Steam Man of the Prairies (1868).
12. Edward Everett Hale. “The Brick Moon” (1869).
13. Jules Verne. 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1870).* (See also No. 10.)
14. N. Camille Flammarion. Stories of Infinity (ca. 1870s) (1897).***
15. Sir George Chesney. The Battle of Dorking (1871).
16. Edward Bulwer Lytton. The Coming Race (1871).
17. Percy Greg. Across the Zodiac (1880).
18. Edward Bellamy. The Blindman’s World and Other Stories (ca. 1880s) (1898).**
19. Edward Page Mitchell. The Crystal Man (ca. 1880s) (1973).**
20. Frank R. Stockton. The Science Fiction of Frank R. Stockton (ca. 1880s) (1976).**
21. Albert Robida. Le Vingtieme Siècle (1882). Profuse illustration with text: never translated.
22. Edwin A. Abbott. Flatland (1884).
23. Robert Louis Stevenson. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1886).
24. W. H. Hudson. A Crystal Age (1887).
25. Edward Bellamy. Looking Backward (1888).
26. Mark Twain. A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court (1889).
27. Ignatius Donnelly. Caesar’s Column (1890).
28. H. G. Wells. The Short Stories of H. G. Wells (ca. 1890s) (1927).**
29. N. Camille Flammarion. Omega: The Last Days of the World. (1893–4).*
30. George Griffith. The Angel of the Revolution (1893).
31. Gustavus W. Pope. Journey to Mars (1894).
32. H. G. Wells. The Time Machine (1895).
33. Gabriel Tarde. Underground Man (1896/1904).*
34. H. G. Wells. The Island of Dr. Moreau (1896).
35. Kurd Lasswitz. Two Planets (1897).*
36. H. G. Wells. The War of the Worlds (1898).
37. H. G. Wells. When the Sleeper Wakes (1899).
38. Simon Newcomb. His Wisdom, the Defender (1900).
39. M. P. Shiel. The Purple Cloud (1901).
40. H. G. Wells. The First Men in the Moon (1901).
41. H. G. Wells. A Modern Utopia (1905).
42. J. D. Beresford. The Hampdenshire Wonder (1911).
43. Hugo Gernsback. Ralph 124 C 41+ (1911–12/1925).
44. Rudyard Kipling. With the Night Mail (1905/1909) and “As Easy as A.B.C.” (1912).
45. Arthur Conan Doyle. The Lost World (1912).
46. William Hope Hodgson. The Night Land (1912).
47. George Allan England. Darkness and Dawn (1914).
48. Jack London. The Science Fiction of Jack London (ca. 1915) (1975).**
49. Edgar Rice Burroughs. A Princess of Mars (1912/1917).
50. A. Merritt. The Moon Pool (1919).
51. Murray Leinster. The Forgotten Planet (1920–53/1954).
52. Karel Čapek. R.U.R. (1920).*
53. David Lindsay. A Voyage to Arcturus (1920).
54. George Bernard Shaw. Back to Methuselah (1921).
55. Ray Cummings. The Girl in the Golden Atom (1922).
56. E. V. Odle. The Clockwork Man (1923).
57. Yevgeny Zamiatin. We (1924).*
58. S. Fowler Wright. The World Below (1929).
59. Olaf Stapledon. Last and First Men (1930).
60. Aldous Huxley. Brave New World (1932).