First 'Time Travel' Book...

[mosaix]

There's an interesting article in this month's Analog about time travel.

It poses the question 'What was the first book where time travel was an essential theme in the story?'

The answer is surprising but, on reflection, obvious.

Guesses please:

1) Title
2) Author
3) Date Written

Answer, if no-one guesses, in a while.

Analog readers not permitted to post.

 

[Parson]

Trick Question... No one really knows.

Contenders:

• 700s BCE to 300s CE - Mahabharath
• 200s to 400s CE - Talmud
• 720 CE - "Urashima Tarō"
• 1733 - Samuel Madden’s Memoirs of the Twentieth Century

Source: Wikipedia

 

[mosaix]

It's a very well know story, that everyone will have heard of.

 

[Dave]

Is it something from the Bible?

Otherwise, "Rip Van Winkle" or "A Christmas Carol".

 

[mosaix]

Is it something from the Bible?

Otherwise, "Rip Van Winkle" or "A Christmas Carol".

Well done Dave:

1) Christmas Carol
2) Charles Dickens
3) 1843

 

[Dave]

So, which was the first book to feature an actual 'Time Machine' as opposed to some supernatural reason? (It's not a quiz, I don't know the answer!)

HG Wells wrote a short story about time travellers before he wrote 'The Time Machine'; 'The Chronic Argonauts' but apparently there were several other precedents.

 

[mosaix]

So, which was the first book to feature an actual 'Time Machine' as opposed to some supernatural reason? (It's not a quiz, I don't know the answer!)

HG Wells wrote a short story about time travellers before he wrote 'The Time Machine'; 'The Chronic Argonauts' but apparently there were several other precedents.

According to Analog:

The Clock That Went Backwards by Edward Page Mitchell, 1881.