How many Lost World connections can we make in this episode about turn-of-the-century ghost writers searching for extinct animals in South America? Dr Edward Guimont is at hand to tell the tale, bringing essential palaeontological and colonial context for South America in 1900. Hesketh Hesketh Pritchard, creator of Flaxman Low, was sent on this expedition for news mogul C Arthur Pearson. Featuring:
-a potted history of the Occult Detective genre
-Hesketh Pritchard himself as a product of Empire
-Hesketh Pritchar visits Haiti, cringe ensues
-Playing cricket with Arthur Conan Doyle and other literary links
-The theory of ‘American Degeneracy’
-A seemingly fresh Mylodon skin sample is brought to London, scientists astounded!
-A link to the Piltdown Man hoax
-Various expeditions to search for evidence of the Mylodon
-Politicians trafficking in paranormal ideas – some things don’t change!
-And euhemerism returns! (see last episode)
LINKS
On The Track Of Unknown Animals, Bernard Heuvelmans, 1955
The Terrible Occult Detectives, Grady Hendrix
The Chronological Bibliography of Early Occult Detectives, Brom Bones Books, Tim Prasil
Casting The Prunes: Flaxman Low Triumphant, Grey Dog Tales
Through The Heart of Patagonia, Hesketh Hesketh Pritchard, 1902
Flaxman Low, The Story of Baelbrow, Hesketh Hesketh Pritchard