title: Hollow Earth: The Long and Curious History of Imagining Strange Lands, Fantastical Creatures, Advanced Civilizations, and Marvelous Machines Below the Earth's Surface
author:  David Standish 
description: The idea that another world exists below the surface of the Earth has captivated science fiction and fantasy writers since the days of Edgar Allan Poe's "Ms. Found in a Bottle" and Jules Verne's <i>Journey to the Center of the Earth</i>. As Standish reveals, the theory has also been promoted by serious (if sometimes slightly off-kilter) scientists, beginning with the eminent Edmond Halley, who theorized that smaller concentric spheres were nested inside the Earth. Standish's approach relies heavily on plot summaries of novels by the likes of Edgar Rice Burroughs, with frequent sarcastic interjections. "Stop him before he describes more!" he cries after one particularly lush passage. Scientists are dealt with in similarly detailed and skeptical fashion. Beneath all the wisecracks, however, Standish seems to have a genuine affection for his assorted crackpots and dreamers, and he provides an amusing tour of their various underground utopias. Unfortunately, the story fizzles at the end, failing to develop the all too sketchy hints that some people out there are still hollow-earth believersbut it's a fun romp while it lasts. 65 b&amp;w illus. <i>(July)</i> <br />Copyright  Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
zlib_text:  
  The Hollow Earth v. 12.11, www.philaletheians.co.uk, 25 December 2017 
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  The Hollow Earth 
  
  DOWN TO EARTH SERIES 
  THE HOLLOW EARTH 
  The Hollow Earth v. 12.11, www.philaletheians.co.uk, 25 December 2017 
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  From The Theosophist, July 1884, pp. 251-54. Cf. The Hollow Globe; or the World’s Agitator and Recon-
  ciler. A Treatise on the Physical Conformation of the Earth. Presented through the Organism of M.L. 
  Sherman, M.D., and written by Prof. Wm. F. Lyon. Chicago: Religio-Philosophical Publishing House, 
  1871. 
  Leaving aside the question of the supposed origin of this book as a spirit communi-
  cation (the “Spirit” may have been an “Adept”), its central idea is that this globe of 
  ours is constructed in the form of a hollow sphere, with a shell some thirty to forty 
  miles in thickness, and that the interior surface, which is a beautiful world, in a 
  more highly developed condition than the exterior, is accessible by a circuitous and 
  spirally formed aper