SHEA, Cornelius

(1863-1920)

   US writer of dime novels (DIME-NOVEL SF), prolific in many categories but best remembered for marvel stories using a fairly consistent "mythology" of dwarfs, subterranean eruptions, and stage illusion masquerading as supernatural magic. Van Vincent's Vow (1892) offers African adventures, sex-exploiting Amazons, and a socialist UTOPIA founded by Egyptians who possess superscience. The Enchanted Diamond (1894) is a lost-race tale (LOST WORLDS) featuring a passage undergroundbetween Alaska and Asia and a magical monarch. The Hidden Island (1898) describes a vicious She-like femme fatale (H. Rider HAGGARD), who claims to be of Jovian descent, and a sinking island. In The Wonderful Electric Man (1899), to prevent OVERPOPULATION couples are put to death after thebirth of their first child; if they have no children, they are put to death anyway. Probably by CS, The Enchanted Emerald (1902) as by P.T. Raymond describes an emerald with seemingly magical powers, plus lostcivilizations and another She-like queen in Africa. CS's work was widely reprinted, often pseudonymously as "By the Author of 'The Wreck of the Glaucus'".

   EFB