author
William Carpenter
1830–1896
An English printer and writer with a flair for argument, he became known for his outspoken defense of flat-Earth ideas in the nineteenth century. His work offers a vivid glimpse into the era's battles over science, belief, and public debate.
1 Audiobook
One Hundred Proofs That the Earth Is Not a Globe
by William Carpenter
About the author
Born on February 25, 1830, in Greenwich, England, William Carpenter was a printer and author who later became active in both England and the United States. He is best remembered for promoting the flat-Earth view associated with Samuel Rowbotham's Zetetic ideas, and he wrote in a direct, combative style meant to challenge accepted scientific opinion.
Carpenter emigrated to the United States and continued publishing and speaking there. His best-known work, One Hundred Proofs That the Earth Is Not a Globe, gathered many of his arguments into a short, provocative book that kept circulating long after it first appeared.
He died on September 1, 1896. Today, his writing is less notable for scientific accuracy than for what it reveals about nineteenth-century popular controversy, self-publishing, and the persistence of fringe ideas.