The Moon by Garrett Serviss
Before I leap into this, a little background. I'm a fan of Garrett Serviss' "observing type" books. The first one I read was his 1908 book "Astronomy With the Naked Eye" since this is an area I'm interested in. I was less than impressed. Rather dry, and heavily focused on mythology. Nothing really wrong with this, but not what the title implies. I let him slide a few years. Then, I read his 1888 book, "Astronomy With An Opera-Glass," and LOVED it! Full of simple observations with minimal optical aid, captivating woodcuts, and the gentle charm of another time... STILL one of my favorite books! Later, I read and enjoyed his 1901 "Pleasures Of The Telescope" and his 1910 "Round the Year With the Stars." This last book fit the title of "Astronomy With the Naked Eye" better than the 1908 book, and I savored every word of it. These books are not only a pleasant read for people who love the night sky, but they're filled with the pleasant "genteel charm" of another day long gone.
A year or two ago, I became aware of another "observing type" book Serviss had written... "The Moon: A Popular Treatise" from 1907. I've never been much of a lunar observer, having only learned the major maria and nine or ten of the most prominent features. I'd get lost in the highlands, and never really developed much enthusiasm. Serviss though, rekindled my interest a bit with some of his simple observations in the previously mentioned books. I already had a few decent moon books, but picked up Rukl's atlas which helped me identify a little more of what I was seeing in all the jumble. I wanted Serviss' "The Moon" partly to see what an amateur lunar observer might have been doing early in the last century, and partly to fill out my little collection of Garrett Serviss books. This turned out to require a little patience. All of the previously mentioned books are commonly available through the usual used book sources for very little financial outlay... I had more trouble finding a copy of "The Moon." It evidently wasn't a real popular book. There it sat for some time until running down my "stuff I want" list one night, I found a copy listed at $69.99... Kinda stiff, but I'd wanted it for quite awhile, so I gritted my teeth and hit the button. I'm glad I did.
"The Moon: A Popular Treatise" by Garrett P. Serviss, 1907, turned out to be an interesting book on a number of levels. An observing book, a scientific technological postcard from another time, an interesting physical volume, and a peculiar choice of writing style. Allow me to bore you with a self-indulgent, wandering ramble.
The first thing I noticed when reading this book was the peculiar "conversation with a lady friend" style of writing. None of Serviss' other books take this literary tack. At first, I figured he was doing it out of some type of nostalgia for another time himself, much like I read HIS books. Earlier in the 1800's, it was fairly common to use a "conversation with a lady," or "letters to a lady" style to imply "I'm making this so simple that even a woman can understand it." (Sorry, not me, it was another time.) But reading further, I came to decide that Serviss used this device more specifically to have a somewhat "romantic," scientifically ungrounded, companion to allow him to discuss some of the possible theories of life existing on the moon. By 1907, there was a heavy dose of skepticism about anything living on the moon, but Serviss was able to politely discuss the possibilities with the lady, who very much wanted to believe in such things.
The main body of the book is a series of 21 photographs taken with the 12 inch Yerkes refractor showing an entire lunation of the moon. These are all dated, giving a bit of a sense of time travel. This is followed by a half dozen lunar photographs shot through the great 40 inch Yerkes refractor. This isn't an unusual plan, having been done before and since, but he pulls it off quite well. Reading it, I at least doubled my knowledge of the lunar landscape, and I'm sure I'll go farther in the future. Reading a number of his descriptions, I got that "hey, I gotta see that" feeling. The conversational flow relieves some of the dryness of reading names of craters you know you won't remember. If there's a shortcoming, it's that the pictures aren't labeled, and occasionally it can be difficult to be certain just which crater or ringed plain he's describing. I got around this by keeping a copy of Menzel's old "Field Guide" handy... a more modern book with a surprisingly good lunar atlas for it's size.
The science, of course, is WAY out of date. It's good to see what was considered the up-to-date science of the day... It sometimes helps to appreciate where we are to be able to see where we've been. A little of this can go a long way, though. On Garrett Serviss' 1907 moon, all the craters and ring plains are volcanic. At one point, he mentions a theory about them being craters left by large impacting objects, possibly from a ring that the Earth might once have had, but pretty much dismisses it. The "seas" may once have actually held water. And, there is evidence for some form of vegetation, possibly something like grass, from the way light reflects from some of the darker areas. Professor William Pickering is cited as an authority on this point. While Serviss does maintain a level of skepticism here, his lady friend strongly favors intelligent life, if not now, in the past, sailing ships (but NOT the then modern steam ships, which evidently wouldn't have the romantic look of sails) across the lunar seas. Also, evidently in Serviss' opinion, if there ARE lunar inhabitants, they'd probably be giants, due to the weak gravity, just as the volcanoes are enormous by our earthly standards. (This "giants on the moon" idea also pops up in his science fiction "Edison's Conquest of Mars" 1898.) In his 1888 "Opera-Glass" book, Serviss contemplated what it would be like to visit the Sea of Tranquility (!), or the Lake of Dreams. By 1907, though, in "The Moon," he tells his lady friend that "there is not the slightest prospect that we shall ever be able to go from the Earth to the moon."
Even as a physical "book" the book is rather interesting. As a five by eight inch (8 vo?) book, it is hard cover, although rather cheaply bound. The text is printed on inexpensive paper, but the photographs are printed on much nicer, smoother, heavier, paper to make the printed lunar photographs quite good, especially for a mass produced book early in the last century. The photo pages seem to be glued in by one edge to the page behind them. It works, and probably inadvertently makes them easier to find while flipping through the text reading their descriptions.
Serviss describes his series of lunar photographs to his lady friend under an elm in a park, although when the light fades in the evening they retreat into the parlor to view them under the light of the "electric chandelier." I'm a sucker for "charm..." I'll let Garrett Serviss finish this thing off with the first few lines from his introduction. Transport yourself back to a pleasant evening in the Summer of 1907...
ONE serene evening, when the full moon.
rising slowly above the tree tops, began
to spread over the landscape that pecul-
iar radiance which, by half revealing and half
concealing, by softening all outlines, and by im-
parting a certain mystery to the most familiar
objects, fascinates at once the eye and the imagi-
nation, I was walking with a friend, a lady of
charming intelligence, in a private park adjoining
an old mansion in one of the most beautiful dis-
tricts of central New York. For a long time we
both remained silent, admiring the scene before
us, so different in every aspect from its appear-
ance in the glare of daylight-each occupied with
the thoughts that such a spectacle suggests.