Etidorhpa
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 Second edition | |
| Author | John Uri Lloyd |
|---|---|
| Illustrator | John Augustus Knapp |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Documentary |
| Publisher | privately printed |
Publication date | 1895 |
| Publication place | United States |
| Media type | Print (Hardcover) |
Etidorhpa, or, the end of the earth: the strange history of a mysterious being and the account of a remarkable journey is the title of a scientific allegory or science fiction novel by John Uri Lloyd, a pharmacognocist and pharmaceutical manufacturer of Cincinnati, Ohio.[1] Etidorhpa was published in 1895.
The word "Etidorhpa" is the backward spelling of the name "Aphrodite." The first editions of Etidorhpa were distributed privately; later editions of the book feature numerous fanciful illustrations by John Augustus Knapp. Eventually a popular success, the book had eighteen editions and was translated into seven languages.[2] Etidorhpa literary clubs were founded in the United States, and some parents named their infant daughters Etidorhpa.[3]
The book purports to be a manuscript dictated by a strange being named I-Am-The-Man to a man named Llewyllyn Drury. Drury's adventure culminates in a trek through a cave in Kentucky into the core of the earth. Ideas presented in Etidorhpa include practical alchemy, secret Masonic orders, the Hollow Earth theory, and the concept of transcending the physical realm.
Hollow Earth
Etidorhpa belongs to a subgenre of fiction that shares elements of science fiction, fantasy, utopian fiction, and scientific (or pseudoscientific) speculation.[4] Jules Verne's Journey to the Center of the Earth is the most famous book of this type, though many others can be cited. It imagined another world in the center of a hollow earth.
Among John Uri Lloyd's generation, Edward Bulwer-Lytton's The Coming Race was popular and influential. During the next generation, Edgar Rice Burroughs wrote a series of Hollow Earth novels.
Drugs
Since Lloyd was a pharmacologist, his novel has provoked speculation that drug use contributed to its fantastic and visionary nature.[5] Substances from marijuana and opium to nightshade, henbane, jimsonweed, and psilocybin mushrooms have been suggested as possibilities,[6] although no real evidence on the matter is available.
