POTTER, Robert

(1831-?)

   Australian author and clergyman; he died before 1912. His novel The Germ Growers: An Australian Story of Adventure and Mystery (1892; vt The Germ Growers: The Strange Adventures of Robert Easterley and John Wilbraham 1892 UK) was published in AUSTRALIA as by Robert Easterley and John Wilbraham, the names of the protagonists, but in the UK as "edited by" RP. A race of discarnate beings, denizens of the interplanetary "ether" capable of assuming human form, invades Earth and sets upbeachheads where they cultivate plague germs to be used on humanity; one beachhead is discovered in the Australian outback, with an ALIEN who calls himself Davelli in charge, and the adventures begin. At the end another space dweller called Leafar (i.e., Rafael) saves the day. This alien- INVASION story antedates H.G. WELLS's THE WAR OF THE WORLDS (1898) by 6years, but the element of Christian allegory (fallen angels confronted by a good angel) leaves its sf potential not fully realized. Nonetheless, the evil experiments in the chemical mutation of bacteria and the electric flying machines are early GENRE SF in style.

   PN