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The Steam Man of the Prairies

The Steam Man of the Prairies
The steam man of the prairies (1868) big.jpg
Beadle's American Novel No. 45, August 1868, featuring "The Steam Man of the Prairies"
Author Edward S. Ellis
Working title The Huge Hunter
Country United States
Language English
Genre Science fiction
Published 1868
Media type Print
Text at

The Steam Man of the Prairies by Edward S. Ellis was the first U.S. science fiction dime novel and archetype of the Frank Reade series. It is one of the earliest examples of the so-called "Edisonade" genre. Ellis was a prolific 19th century author best known as a historian and biographer and a source of early heroic frontier tales in the style of James Fenimore Cooper. This novel may be inspired by the steam powered invention of Zadoc Dederick. The original novel was reissued six times from 1868 to 1904. A copy of the first 1868 printing with its cover intact is owned by the Rosenbach Museum and Library, Philadelphia

The first novel starts with Ethan Hopkins and Mickey McSquizzle—a "Yankee" and an "Irishman"—encounter a colossal, steam-powered man in the American prairies. This steam-man was constructed by Johnny Brainerd, a teenaged boy, who uses the steam-man to carry him in a carriage on various adventures.



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