Thursday, July 28, 2011

1920's short story: "The Retreat to Mars" by Cecil B. White

Thanks to a generous fan of old science fiction magazines at the Internet Archive, you can read or download “The Retreat to Mars,” a short story penned by Cecil B. White and illustrated by pioneering pulp sci-fi artist Frank R. Paul, as it was originally published in the August 1927 issue of Amazing Stories magazine. Set mostly on Earth, the storyline revolves around an archaeologist who discovers documents and artifacts from an advanced but deceased Martian civilization buried in the dark of Africa.


According to the reference book Science-Fiction: The Gernsback Years: A Complete Coverage of the Genre Magazines Amazing, Astounding, Wonder, and Others from 1926 Through 1936 (1998), by Everett Franklin Bleiler and Richard Bleiler, the name “Cecil B. White” was a pseudonym used by William Henry Christie (1896-1955), a noteworthy astronomer and physicist.

Thanks to David Tackett of the blog QuasarDragon for the link!

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