Luis Philip Senarens, the American Jules Verne

Luis Philip Senarens (April 24, 1863 – December 26, 1939) was an American dime novel

writer A writer is a person who uses written words in different writing styles and techniques to communicate ideas. Writers produce different forms of literary art and creative writing such as novels, short stories, books, poetry, travelogues, p ...

specializing in

science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel unive ...

, once called "the American

Jules Verne Jules Gabriel Verne (;''Longman Pronunciation Dictionary''. ; 8 February 1828 – 24 March 1905) was a French novelist, poet, and playwright. His collaboration with the publisher Pierre-Jules Hetzel led to the creation of the ''Voyages extraor ...

Biography

Senarens grew up in a Cuban-American family in

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

. Around 1882, Senarens began writing new stories in the

Frank Reade Frank Reade was the protagonist of a series of dime novels published primarily for boys. The first novel, ''Frank Reade and His Steam Man of the Plains'', an imitation of Edward S. Ellis, Edward Ellis's ''The Steam Man of the Prairies'' (1868), w ...

adventure story series begun by Harry Enton in 1868. Senarens introduced Frank Reade, Jr. as the new main character. Senarens added elements such as

electricity Electricity is the set of physical phenomena associated with the presence and motion of matter that has a property of electric charge. Electricity is related to magnetism, both being part of the phenomenon of electromagnetism, as described ...

, airships, and helicopters which resulted in him being called "the American Jules Verne." The stories were very successful, and by the 1890s Senarens was asked by publisher Frank Tousey to write a similar series featuring Jack Wright, the "Boy Inventor". Later in the decade, Tousey created the ''Frank Reade Library'', a periodical devoted to "invention" stories, largely (or wholly) composed by Senarens using the pseudonym Noname. Mike Ashley calls him "the first prolific writer of science fiction". He would eventually write more than 300 dime novels. In 1917 Senarens became the editor of the Tousey detective story periodical, ''Mystery Magazine''. Senarens also wrote under the names Kit Clyde, W. J. Earle, Police Captain Howard, Noname and Ned Sparling.

Works

Frank Reade, Jr. series

The eleven Frank Reade, Jr., stories were published as by NONAME. *''Frank Reade, Jr., and His Airship'' (1884) *''Frank Reade, Jr., and His New Steam Man: the Young Inventor's Trip to the Far West'' (1892) *''Frank Reade Jr., and His Queen Clipper of the Clouds'' (1893) *''Frank Reade, Jr., and His Steam Wonder'' (1893) *''From Pole to Pole; Or, Frank Reade, Jr.'s Strange Submarine Voyage'' (1893) *''Lost in a Comet's Tail, or Frank Reade, Jr.'s Strange Adventure with His New Airship'' (1895) *''Lost in the Atlantic Valley Or, Frank Reade, Jr., and His Wonder, the "Dart"'' (1903) *''From Zone to Zone Or, The Wonderful Trip of Frank Reade, Jr., with His Latest Air-Ship'' (1903) *''Frank Reade, Jr.’s Search for the Silver Whale; Or, UNDER THE OCEAN IN THE ELECTRIC “DOLPHIN”'' *''The Transient Lake, or Frank Reade, Jr.’s Adventures in a Mysterious Country.'' *The Sunken Isthmus or, Frank Reade, Jr., in the Yucatán Channel.

Jack Wright series

*''Jack Wright, The Boy Inventor'' (1891) *''Jack Wright And His Electric Canoe'' (1891) *''Jack Wright And His Under-Water Iron-clad'' (1891) *''Jack Wright And His Prairie Engine'' (1892) *''Jack Wright And His Electric Air Schooner'' (1892)

References

External links

* * * * 1863 births 1939 deaths 19th-century American novelists American male novelists American science fiction writers American magazine editors American writers of Cuban descent Writers from Brooklyn American male short story writers 19th-century American short story writers 19th-century American male writers Dime novelists Novelists from New York (state) American male non-fiction writers {{NYC-stub