PODCAST · arts

Curiosities of the Sky by Garrett P. Serviss

by Loyal Books

Is there intelligent life on Mars? Why are there starless gaps in the Milky Way? What creates the Aurora Borealis or the Northern Lights? These and more are the interesting questions that are asked and sought to be answered in the 1909 book, Curiosities of the Sky by Garrett P. Serviss.Garrett Putnam Serviss was an American astronomer and popular sci-fi writer. He believed that science should be understood and enjoyed by everyone, not just by scientists. Though he was trained as a lawyer, he went to work as a newspaper reporter with The New York Sun in 1867. Here he discovered that he had an innate talent for explaining and describing scientific matter in a way that made it accessible to the ordinary public. Andrew Carnegie was struck by the talent of the young reporter and invited him to deliver a series of lectures on different subjects like cosmology, geology, astronomy and other such topics. Carnegie funded a country wide lecture tour and supplied Serviss with magic lantern slid