author
Richard Adams Locke
1800–1871
Best remembered as the writer behind the sensational 1835 "Great Moon Hoax," this British-born journalist helped shape one of the most famous media pranks of the 19th century. His mix of satire, science, and newspaper flair still makes his work surprisingly modern.
1 Audiobook
The moon hoax : or, A discovery that the moon has a vast population of human beings
by Richard Adams Locke
About the author
Born in Somerset, England, in 1800, Richard Adams Locke built his career as a journalist and editor before moving to the United States in 1832. He worked in New York journalism and became closely associated with The Sun, where his writing reached a wide audience.
Locke is most famous for authoring the series later known as the Great Moon Hoax, published in 1835. The articles described astonishing discoveries on the Moon in a style that mimicked serious scientific reporting, and they caused a huge stir before being recognized as a satire and hoax.
Although he wrote and edited in other contexts as well, that episode secured his place in literary and media history. Today he is remembered less as a novelist than as a sharp newspaper writer whose work showed how easily imagination, public curiosity, and the press could collide.