author
James Howard Calisch
1863–1926
An early speculative writer with a sharp satirical streak, he used a Martian setting to reflect the anxieties and politics of World War I. His surviving work feels curious, unusual, and ahead of its time in the way it blends fantasy with social commentary.
1 Audiobook
About the author
Born in Amsterdam on April 25, 1863, and later associated with New York, he is identified by reliable reference sources as a Dutch-born author who lived in the United States. Some sources also note that he was born Jacobus Calisch and later changed his name in 1906.
He is best remembered for The Mania of the Nations on the Planet Mars, and its Terrific Consequences: A Combination of Fun and Wisdom, published in New York in 1915. The book imagines the history and politics of Mars in order to cast a satirical light on nationalism, conflict, and the world at the start of World War I.
Although little biographical detail is easy to confirm today, his work has continued to circulate through archives and Project Gutenberg, which has helped keep this curious early science-fiction satire available to modern readers. He died in New York on August 25, 1926.