ATTERLEY, Joseph

   Pseudonym of George Tucker (1775-1861), Chairman of the Faculty of the University of Virginia while Edgar Allan POE was a student there, and an influence on him. JA's A Voyage to the Moon with Some Account of the Manners and Customs, Science and Philosophy, of the People of Morosofia, and Other Lunarians (1827) describes a trip to eccentric lunar societies, including one UTOPIA. The spacecraft is coated with the first antigravitic metal in literature, a forerunner of H.G.WELLS's Cavorite (ANTIGRAVITY). The book is true sf, including much scientific speculation. It was reprinted in 1975 - including a review of 1828 and an introduction by David G.HARTWELL - as by George Tucker. Another sf work, dealing with OVERPOPULATION, was A Century Hence, or A Romance of 1941 (1977), as by George Tucker, ed from his manuscript.

   See also: FANTASTIC VOYAGES; HISTORY OF SF; MOON.