DAIL, C(harles Curtis

(1851-1902)

   US writer and lawyer whose Willmoth the Wanderer, or The Man from Saturn (1890; rev c1891) is a real oddity. Though told with no great skill, its narrative, purporting to be that of Willmoth the Saturnian as told towards the end of his several-million-year lifespan, is an eventful affair. Willmoth proceeds from Saturn to Venus (travel via ANTIGRAVITY) and, late in the book, to a prehistoric Earth, whose primitive inhabitants he breeds into Homo sapiens. CCD's episodic second novel, The Stone Giant: A Story of the Mammoth Cave (1898), lies within the overarching context of the first book. It is presented as a translation (by Willmoth) of memoirs by the prehistoric ruler Wymorian, an 8ft (2.4m) giant and founder of ATLANTIS, who is given (by ancient descendants of Willmoth) an elixir of life. There is much talk about the ethics of the IMMORTALITY experiment, which on the whole is a failure - as, notoriously, was Atlantis.

   PN/JC