Gears and God: Technocratic Fiction, Faith, and Empire in Mark Twain's America

221 Pages·2018·2.315 MB·English

by  Nathaniel Williams

GEARS
AND
GOD
studies in american literary realism and naturalism
series editor
Gary Scharnhorst
editorial board
Donna M. Campbell
John Crowley
Robert E. Fleming
Alan Gribben
Eric Haralson
Denise D. Knight
Joseph McElrath
George Monteiro
Brenda Murphy
James Nagel
Alice Hall Petry
Donald Pizer
Tom Quirk
Jeanne Campbell Reesman
Ken Roemer
GEARS
AND
GOD
TECHNOCRATIC
FICTION, FAITH,
AND EMPIRE IN
MARK TWAIN’S
AMERICA
NATHANIEL WILLIAMS
The University of Ala bama Press
Tuscaloosa
The University of Ala bama Press
Tuscaloosa, Ala bama 35487- 0380
uapress.ua.edu
Copyright © 2018 by the University of Ala bama Press
All rights reserved.
Inquiries about reproducing material from this work should be addressed to the
University of Ala bama Press.
Typeface: Minion and Futura
Cover image: From the cover of the dime novel “Over the Andes with Frank
Reade, Jr., in His New Airship, or Wild Adventures in Peru,” Frank Reade Weekly
Magazine, no. 28; (New York: Frank Tousey, May 8, 1903); courtesy of Digital
Collections, University of South Florida
Cover design: David Nees
Cataloging- in- Publication data is available from the Library of Congress.
ISBN: 978- 0- 8173- 1984- 7
E- ISBN: 978- 0- 8173- 9186- 7
For my family
with love and gratitude

Contents
List of Illustrations ix
Acknowledgments xi
Introduction: “This is Religious, and Totally Different” 1
PART I: GEARS
1. Inventing the Technocratic Exploration Tale: God, Gears, and Empire 13
2. Building Imperialists: The Steam Man, “Used Up” Man,
and Man in the Moon 28
3. Imagining Inventors: Frank Reade and Dime- Novel
Technocratic Exploration 45
PART II: GOD
4. Discovering Biblical Literalism: Frank Reade Redux 87
5. Confronting “Fol- de-R ol”: Mark Twain, Technocracy, and Religion 102
6. Reconstructing Biblical History: Technocratic Explorations,
1899–1910 131
Conclusion: Technocratic Exploration’s Legacy 158
Notes 163
Bibliography 183
Index 199

Illustrations
FIGURES
1. Beadle’s 1885 reprinting of Ellis’s The Steam Man of the Prairies, retitled The
Huge Hunter 80
2. The hero dons bulletproof armor for a pistol shootout on Lake Michigan in
one of Senarens’s earliest Frank Reade Jr. stories, 1884 81
3. Cover featuring Reade Jr.’s electric coach—part railroad car, part tank—in
one of several storylines featuring an Israelite lost city, 1891 82
4. One of many Frank Reade Jr. stories featuring a steam man or steam horse,
1892 83
5. Reade Jr.’s airship confronts a Spanish firing squad on cover of Frank
Reade, Jr., in Cuba’s origi nal serialization, 1896 84
TABLES
1. Locales and Dates of First Decade of Frank Reade Series (1876–1886) 52
2. Locales and Dates of New Frank Reade Library Stories Published in 1894 55
3. Dime Novels about Cuban Revolution Published by Tousey (1895–1897) 65
MAPS
1. Locations visited by Reade and Reade Jr. in stories between 1876 and 1886 57
2. Locations visited by Reade Jr. in stories from 1894 58