James Howard Calisch

Born Jacobus Calisch in Amsterdam in 1863, he later lived in the United States and changed his name to James Howard Calisch in 1906. Reference sources on early science fiction also note that he wrote under the pseudonym A. Calmadenker.

He is remembered chiefly for The Mania of the Nations on the Planet Mars, and Its Terrific Consequences (1915), a short work that mixes fantasy, satire, and social commentary. The book has remained accessible through major public-domain and library collections, which has helped preserve his reputation with modern readers of early speculative fiction.

Calisch also appears in the Library of Congress catalog as the writer of songs including Liberty's Rising Sun, showing that his creative work was not limited to fiction alone. He died in 1926.