COOK, William Wallace

(1867-1933)

   US writer, reportedly pseudonymous, much of whose production appeared after the turn of the century in such magazines as The ARGOSY, and only later in book form, in a stapled format reminiscent of DIME-NOVEL SF. Noteworthy among these books are A Round Trip to the Year 2000, or A Flight Through Time (1903 The Argosy; 1925), in which various contemporary writers travel by SUSPENDED ANIMATION to AD2000, where they observe social conditions, and find themselves popular, and Adrift in the Unknown, or Adventures in a Queer Realm (1904-5 The Argosy; 1925), a satire on US capitalism in which a burglar goes along for the ride with a reformist scientist in his spaceship to MERCURY, where he teaches the kidnapped capitalists he has brought with him some lessons in social justice. WWC was a crude writer, but is of interest in his attempts to combine adventure plots and SATIRE.

   JC

   Other works: Castaway at the Pole (1904 The Argosy; 1926); Marooned in 1492, or Under Fortune's Flag (1905 The Argosy; 1925); The Eighth Wonder, or Working for Miracles (1906-7 The Argosy; 1925); Around the World in Eighty Hours (1925).

   See also: DISCOVERY AND INVENTION; HISTORY OF SF; ROBOTS; TIME TRAVEL.