The Steam Man of the Prairies

Ellis, Edward F. The Steam Man of the Prairies (vt The Huge Hunter, or The Steam Man of the Prairies).[1] NYC: American Novels Publishing Co. (Irwin P. Beadle's American novels #45), 1868.[2]

In the United states, the environment for science fiction was there, but it took Verne's works to provide the catalyst for a new genre to grow. In Edward F Ellis[']s The Steam Man of the Prairies (1868), probably inspired by a prototype steam robot built and patented by Zadoc Dederick, crippled boy genius Johnny Brainerd builds a steam-powered robot and takes it out West to fight Indians. Yet the story, like Dedieric's robot, seems to have been soon forgotten. Neither Ellis nor anyone else wrote anything like it for eight years, and the original was apparently never reprinted during that time." (Pierce 225)

RDE, JJP, finishing, 16Mar26

RDE, JJP, finishing, 16Mar26