LAURIE, Andre

   Pseudonym of Paschal Grousset (1845-1909), French politician and author. His first political novel, Le reve d'un irreconciliable ("Dream of a Diehard") (1869) and several political works were published under his real name, but thereafter he used the AL pseudonym. While living as a communard exile in London, AL wrote the original version of the book which was later published as The Begum's Fortune (1879) as by Jules VERNE. Laurie legally renounced title to the story, as he did with The Southern Star Mystery (1884), rewritten and published as by Verne. Both authors put their nameto L'epave du Cynthia (1885; trans as Salvage from the Cynthia 1958 UK). It was a strange collaboration, AL being politically a long way to theleft of Verne. Of AL's several sf novels, 5 have been translated into English. The best known is Les exiles de la Terre, Selene Company Limited(1887; trans anon as The Conquest of the Moon: A Story of the Bayouda 1889 UK), in which the MOON is drawn from its orbit to land in the Sahara desert. AL wrote of the discoveries of scientifically advanced societies in The Secret of the Magian, or The Mystery of Ecbatana (1890 France; trans 1891 UK) and Atlantis (1895; trans L.A. Smith as The Crystal City Under the Sea 1896 UK; vt The Crystal City 1896 US), and of atransatlantic tunnel in De New York a Brest en sept heures (1888; trans anon as New York to Brest in Seven Hours 1890 UK). His most critically acclaimed work, Spiridon le muet ("Spiridon the Mute") (1909 France), remains untranslated.

   JE/PN

   Other works: Axel Eberson, the Graduate of Upsala (1891 France; trans 1892 UK).

   See also: BOYS' PAPERS; NEAR FUTURE; UNDER THE SEA.