Educated at Cornell University and subsequently Columbia University where he received a degree in law, Serviss initially turned to journalism. He worked as a journalist for the New York Sun from 1876 to 1892. His particular interest in astronomy led him to the lecture circuit where he became an extremely popular lecturer. He collaborated with S. V. White in founding the American Astronomical Society. His first book on astronomy, Astronomy Through an Opera Glass, appeared in 1888, but today he is best remembered for a number of science fiction works written around the turn of the 20th century. In 1898, he published Edison's Conquest of Mars, which was meant as a sequel to H. G. Wells' War of the Worlds, with Earth taking its revenge on Mars. He was a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the American Geographical Society. In addition to his many articles on science and astronomy that appeared in newspapers and various journals, his works include A Columbus of Space (1894), Pleasures of the Telescope (1901), Other Worlds (1901), The Moon (1907), Astronomy With the Naked Eye (1908), The Sky Pirate (1908), Curiosities of the Sky (1909), The Second Deluge (1911), Astronomy in a Nutshell (1912), The Moon Maiden (1915) and The Einstein Theory of Relativity (1923). |
