author
L. P. (Louis Pope) Gratacap
1851–1917
A naturalist, museum curator, and imaginative early science-fiction writer, Louis Pope Gratacap brought scientific curiosity to stories about Mars, prehistoric humanity, climate catastrophe, and future New York. His unusual career at the American Museum of Natural History gave his fiction a distinctive blend of scholarship and speculation.
1 Audiobook
The Mayor of New York : A romance of days to come
by L. P. (Louis Pope) Gratacap
About the author
Louis Pope Gratacap was born in Brooklyn, New York, on November 1, 1851, and studied at the College of the City of New York and Columbia’s School of Mines. In 1876, he began working at the American Museum of Natural History, where he later became curator of mineralogy and mollusks. He remained with the museum for more than forty years and took part in expeditions, including a 1906 journey to Iceland.
Alongside his scientific work, Gratacap was a prolific writer and lecturer. His books covered philosophical, political, religious, and scientific subjects, and he was especially interested in speculative fiction. His best-known novels include The Certainty of a Future Life in Mars (1903), A Woman of the Ice Age (1906), The Evacuation of England (1908), The Mayor of New York (1910), The New Northland (1915), and The End (1917).
Gratacap died in New York on December 19, 1917. Today, he is remembered both for his long service as a museum scientist and for the ambitious, eccentric imagination of his early science-fiction novels.