Abstract
The previous chapter investigated references to astronomical phenomena in the poems, tales, and plays of Omar Khayyam, Geoffrey Chaucer, William Shakespeare, and William Blake, with all of those literary works created prior to the year 1800. The three astronomical passages in this chapter come from more recent novels and poems. The examples range from the moonlight shining on Mary Shelley’s window, as she conceived of the idea for Frankenstein, and a spectacular meteor procession observed by Walt Whitman, to a meteor that dropped from the sky over James Joyce’s Dublin.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsReferences
Beaver, Joseph (1951) Walt Whitman—Poet of Science. New York: King’s Crown Press.
Blodgett, Harold William, and Sculley Bradley (1965) Leaves of Grass: Comprehensive Reader’s Edition. New York: New York University Press.
Carr, Gerald L. (2000) In Search of the Promised Land. New York: Berry-Hill Galleries.
Chant, Clarence Augustus (1913) An Extraordinary Meteoric Display. Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada 7(3), 145–215.
Coffin, James H. (1870) The Orbit and Phenomena of a Meteoric Fire-ball, Seen July 20, 1860. Smithsonian Contributions to Knowledge 16(Article 6), 1–50.
Dvorak, Stan (1966) Unexpected Meteor Shower from Lyra. Sky & Telescope 32(4) October, 237.
Ellman, Richard (1972) Ulysses on the Liffey. New York: Oxford University Press.
Feldman, Paula R. and Diana Scott-Kilvert, eds. (1987) The Journals of Mary Shelley 1814–1844. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
Gifford, Don, and Robert J. Seidman (1988) Ulysses Annotated: Notes for James Joyce’s Ulysses. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Gilbert, Stuart (1930) James Joyce’s Ulysses: A Study. New York: Alfred A. Knopf.
Häusermann, Hans Walter (1952) The Genevese Background. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.
Holmes, Richard (1975) Shelley: The Pursuit. New York: E. P. Dutton.
Hoobler, Dorothy, and Thomas Hoobler (2006) The Monsters: Mary Shelley and the Curse of Frankenstein. New York: Little, Brown and Company.
Joyce, James (1934) Ulysses (first American edition). New York: Random House.
Kaplan, Justin (1980) Walt Whitman, A Life. New York: Simon and Schuster.
Ljungquist, Kent (1989) Meteor of the War: Melville, Thoreau, and Whitman Respond to John Brown. American Literature 61(4), 674–680.
Mellor, Anne K. (1988) Mary Shelley: Her Life, Her Fiction, Her Monsters. New York: Methuen.
Mitchel, Ormsby McKnight (1860) The Meteor. Harper’s Weekly 4(No. 188), August 4, 1860, 481–482.
Moskal, Jeanne, ed. (1996) The Novels and Selected Works of Mary Shelley, Volume 8, Travel Writing. London: Pickering & Chatto.
Olson, Donald W., and Marilynn S. Olson (2004) The June Lyrids and James Joyce’s Ulysses. Sky & Telescope 108(1), July, 76–77.
Olson, Donald W., Marilynn S. Olson, Russell L. Doescher, and Ava G. Pope (2010) Walt Whitman’s “Year of Meteors.” Sky & Telescope 120(1), July, 28–33.
Olson, Donald W., Marilynn S. Olson, Russell L. Doescher, Ava G. Pope, and Kelly D. Schnarr (2011) The Moon and the Origin of Frankenstein. Sky & Telescope 122(5), November, 68–74.
Olson, Donald W., Marilynn S. Olson, Russell L. Doescher, Ava G. Pope, Kelly D. Schnarr, and Jayme L. Blaschke (2012) Frankenstein’s Moon. New York Public Library, Biblion web site. (http://exhibitions.nypl.org/biblion/outsiders/frankenstein/essay/essayfrankensteinsmoon)
Olson, Donald W., and Steve Hutcheon (2013) The Great Meteor Procession of 1913. Sky & Telescope 125(2), February, 32–34.
Pollin, Burton R. (1965) Philosophical and Literary Sources of Frankenstein. Comparative Literature 17(2), 97–108.
Rossetti, William Michael, ed. (1911) The Diary of Dr. John William Polidori. London: Elkin Matthews.
Rieger, James (1963) Dr. Polidori and the Genesis of Frankenstein. Studies in English Literature 3(4), 461–472.
Robinson, Charles E. (1996) The Frankenstein Notebooks, Volume 9, Part 1. New York: Garland Publishing.
Rosenberg, Samuel (1968) Happy Sesquicentennial, Dear Monster. Life 64(11), March 15, 1968, 74–84.
Seymour, Miranda (2000) Mary Shelley. New York: Grove Press.
Shelley, Mary Wollstonecraft (1817) History of a Six Weeks’ Tour. London: T. Hookham, Jun., and C. and J. Ollier.
Shelley, Mary Wollstonecraft (1818) Frankenstein; or, the Modern Prometheus. London: Lackington, Hughes, Harding, Mavor, & Jones.
Shelley, Mary Wollstonecraft (1831) Frankenstein. London: Colburn and Bentley.
Sunstein, Emily W. (1989) Mary Shelley: Romance and Reality. Boston: Little, Brown and Company.
Thom, Alexander, and Company (1904) Thom’s Official Directory of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland for the Year 1904. Dublin: Alex. Thom & Co.
Whitman, Walt (1865) “Year of Meteors. (1859–60.)” in Drum-Taps. New York: s.n., 51–52.
Whitman, Walt (1867) “Year of Meteors. (1859–60.)” in Leaves of Grass. New York: s.n., 51–52.
Wolfson, Susan J., and Ronald Levao (2012) The Annotated Frankenstein. Cambridge: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.
Ziff, Larzer (1984) Whitman and the Crowd. Critical Inquiry 10(4), 579–591.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2014 Springer Science+Business Media New York
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Olson, D.W. (2014). Literary Skies After 1800. In: Celestial Sleuth. Springer Praxis Books(). Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-8403-5_9
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-8403-5_9
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY
Print ISBN: 978-1-4614-8402-8
Online ISBN: 978-1-4614-8403-5
eBook Packages: Physics and AstronomyPhysics and Astronomy (R0)