THE MEN WHO RAISED THE MOON
By:
October 18, 2026
A series dedicated to poems, published c. 1900–1935, the Radium Age sf-adjacent themes of which include: dystopia and utopia, far-out mathematics and the fourth dimension, Afro-futurism, catastrophe, future war, new technologies, scientific breakthrough, dehumanization, cosmic awe, disenchantment and unseen forces, unknowable aliens and singularity. Research and selection by Joshua Glenn; thematic index here.
Late one evening I was leaning on a bench in the park when I heard some voices in the trees behind me
“You’re late”
“Let’s do this as quick as we can”
I heard the clank-clank of a pulley and a reddish moon rose in the east
“OK!”
And with that the moon stopped I heard the sound of gears turning and the moon began to slowly move I dashed into the trees but the only thing on the sandy path was the falling moonlight and the only sound was that of the treetops stirring in the nighttime breeze
— From the author’s 1001 Second Stories, all written in the early 1920s. English translation by Jeffrey Angles.
Since its publication by Kinseido in 1923, this book has been published by several publishers in various bindings. Shown here is a 2022 “jewel box” edition that contains just a few stories.
RADIUM AGE PROTO-SF POETRY: Stephen Spender’s THE PYLONS | George Sterling’s THE TESTIMONY OF THE SUNS | Archibald MacLeish’s EINSTEIN | Thomas Thornely’s THE ATOM | C.S. Lewis’s DYMER | Stephen Vincent Benét’s METROPOLITAN NIGHTMARE | Robert Frost’s FIRE AND ICE | Aldous Huxley’s FIFTH PHILOSOPHER’S SONG | Sara Teasdale’s “THERE WILL COME SOFT RAINS” | Edith Södergran’s ON FOOT I HAD TO… | Robert Graves’s WELSH INCIDENT | Nancy Cunard’s ZEPPELINS | D.H. Lawrence’s WELLSIAN FUTURES | & many more.