author
Ralph Centennius
Best known for a single, curious 1883 work, this elusive Canadian writer left behind an early vision of the future that still catches the eye of science-fiction historians. Even the name appears to have been a pseudonym, which only adds to the book’s strange appeal.
1 Audiobook
The Dominion in 1983
by Ralph Centennius
About the author
Ralph Centennius is the name attached to The Dominion in 1983, a Canadian speculative fiction work first published in 1883. Reliable reference sources describe “Ralph Centennius” as a pseudonym and note that the author’s real identity is unknown.
That mystery is part of why the work stands out. The Dominion in 1983 is often remembered as an early Canadian future-history tale, imagining what the country might look like a century ahead. Although very little can be said with confidence about the person behind the name, the book has endured because of its unusual place in early science fiction and utopian writing.
Because the author has not been securely identified, there is no confirmed personal biography to tell in the usual sense. What survives is the work itself and the small but lasting reputation it earned as a rare nineteenth-century Canadian vision of the future.