author
W. S. (William Shuler) Harris
b. 1865
Best known for the imaginative 1905 novel Life in a Thousand Worlds, this American minister wrote fiction that mixed religious thought, social criticism, and early science-fiction wonder. His books move from allegory and sermons to a tour of imagined planets and societies.
2 Audiobooks
Life in a Thousand Worlds
by W. S. (William Shuler) Harris
Mr. World and Miss Church-Member: A Twentieth Century Allegory
by W. S. (William Shuler) Harris
About the author
William Shuler Harris (1865–1956) was an American minister and author. Reliable library and public-domain sources identify him as both a clergyman and a writer, and his surviving work shows how comfortably he moved between preaching, allegory, and speculative fiction.
He is best remembered today for Life in a Thousand Worlds (1905), an unusual early science-fiction novel that sends its narrator across the solar system and beyond, using imagined worlds to reflect on society, morality, and class. He also wrote Sermons by the Devil (1904) and Mr. World and Miss Church-Member, works that point to his strong interest in religious and moral themes.
A historical profile from Lycoming College describes a long Methodist ministry in Pennsylvania, including appointments in places such as Sunbury, Easton, Pottstown, Harrisburg, Steelton, and Nazareth. That mix of active pastoral work and ambitious imaginative writing helps explain why his books feel both earnest and unusual today.