[Ads-l] Has the Earliest Modern Usage of the Term "Science Fiction" Gotten Any Attention from Science Fiction Historians?

[Laurence Horn]

> On Jul 17, 2020, at 3:37 PM, Bill Mullins <amcombill at HOTMAIL.COM> wrote:
> 
> ----
> 
>> The Oxford English Dictionary has an entry for "scientific fiction"
>> which is one of the key precursors of "science fiction". The first OED
>> citation is dated 1876.
> 
>> The passage below is from a book review printed in 1862. . . .
> 
> 1851 Boston MA _Christian Freeman and Family Visiter [sic]_ 17 Oct 2/6 [genealogybank.com]
> "The work might be termed a book of scientific fiction."
> 
> The book being reviewed, Vol 3 of _Episodes of Insect Life_, is online here:
> https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc2.ark:/13960/t6251hj11&view=1up&seq=9
> 
> I believe the reviewer is saying that this book, which is scientific non-fiction, has the literary qualities of good fiction.

Either that, or it’s an early precursor of the "non-fiction novel".

LH
> 
> 
> 1860 _The Ladies' Repository_ Oct 634/2 [proquest]
> "We regret that a book otherwise so valuable should be blighted by a theory so false and gross as that great scientific fiction revived by Darwin -- [ital]the development theory[/ital]."
> 
> 
> 
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> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org