Hollow Earth: The Long and Curious History of Imagining Strange Lands, Fantastical Creatures, Advanced Civilizations, and Marvelous Machines Below the Earth's Surface

by David Standish

Beliefs in mysterious underworlds are as old as humanity. But the idea that the earth has a hollow interior was first proposed as a scientific theory in 1691 by Sir Edmond Halley (of comet fame), who suggested that there might be life down there as well. Hollow Earth traces the surprising, marvelous, and just plain weird permutations his ideas have taken over the centuries. From science fiction to utopian societies and even religions, Hollow Earth travels through centuries and cultures, exploring how each era's relationship to the idea of a hollow earth mirrored its hopes, fears, and values. Illustrated with everything from seventeenth-century maps to 1950s pulp art to movie posters and more, Hollow Earth is for anyone interested in the history of strange ideas that just won't go away.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Science, Mystery, Mythology, Paranormal, Anthropology

304 pages, Paperback

First published July 10, 2006

Reviews

[Donna · Rating 2 out of 5]

It's a fascinating subject, but somehow the tone managed to be both too dry and too flip at the same time. The author buried interesting concepts under heaps of unnecessary detail, and attempts to break up all that plodding dullness with things like "longitude was a bitch" really put me off.

I love both wacky historical beliefs and hollow earth adventure lit, but I realized pretty quickly that this book and I just aren't compatible. Eventually I flipped straight to the Edgar Rice Burroughs chapter, which mostly just summarizes Pellucidar books and (justifiably) calls out some of Burroughs's sexist bullshit.

I doubt I'll read much more before returning it to the library.

[Ian Tregillis · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was optimistic when I said this was a little dry. And I'll say up front that I'm being unfair, because I'd picked this up in the hopes of finding a reading experience similar to that offered by In the Land of Invented Languages: Esperanto Rock Stars, Klingon Poets, Loglan Lovers, and The Mad Dreamers Who Tried to Build A Perfect Language, which is setting the bar pretty damn high.

I have a soft spot for books about quirky real-life topics, and a fascination with the personalities behind paranoid, kooky Fringe Science or other "academic(al)" pursuits. So, this history of the notion that our planet is hollow should have been right up my alley: it stars self-proclaimed prophets, disaffected 1812 War vets, Edgar Allen Poe, and Jules Verne, with special guest appearances by Sir Edmund Halley (of comet fame) and Hitler (of World War II fame). And, as it must, it touches on UFOs and other batty topics. Should have been a slam-dunk for entertaining reading during my daily commute.

Maybe I came in to the subject already too familiar with its more entertaining aspects, and expecting an elaboration of these mind-shattering truths. For instance, I already knew that the hollow earth is the secret home of our shape-changing lizard overlords, and that the Luftwaffe sent a squadron into the hollow earth in 1945 to obtain the lizards' UFO technology, and that because time runs more slowly inside the earth the Luftwaffe UFOs are going to emerge from the South Pole and wipe us out any day now. Doesn't everybody? And yet the book never even mentions this.

What I'd hoped to get was a deeper understanding of these important and totally-not-made-up-by-insane-people truths. And to a limited extent, I did. For instance, I'd had no idea that Edmund Halley was a big proponent of the Hollow Earth. Interesting.

Unfortunately for me, the book spends much of its time rehashing -- in brutally agonizing detail -- the plots of stories, novels, and movies that somehow involve the notion of a hollow earth. On one hand, this made for some deeply irritating reading as the subject matter continually veered away from the topic of interest; on the other hand, it made it possible to skip over long passages where the author needlessly included long excerpts from the works in question. So that's something. For this reader, the additional crumbs of insight gleaned from the historical context of a Poe story I already knew didn't redeem the slog through the plot synopsis. And while the discussion of the debate between progressivism and directionalism in 19th century geology was interesting, the subsequent rehash of the most boring parts of Journey to the Centre of the Earth was not. There's a reason I tend to skim whenever Verne kicks into encyclopedia mode. (Which he does from time to time. But that's a different review.)

I have to give the book credit for taking a careful look at the evolution of the hollow earth mythos. It tackles the subject in chronological order, beginning with Edmund Halley in the late 17th century, and is organized into sections that reflect the prevailing motivations and attitudes during different "eras" of hollow earth belief. (This makes for some interesting insights, particularly in the era immediately following the American Civil War, which (apparently) saw utopian novels proliferate in the United States.)

This organizational scheme was one of the selling points when I found this book in the store-- the organization is much like that of Arika Okrent's absolutely marvelous and disappointingly short In the Land of Invented Languages: Esperanto Rock Stars, Klingon Poets, Loglan Lovers, and The Mad Dreamers Who Tried to Build A Perfect Language Only too late did I realize the false comparison. The latter book has the additional benefit of having been written by Arika Okrent. This book, alas, was not.

So, where Okrent's book is infused with just the right mixture of wit, sly humor, and compassion for the misguided souls behind their frequently strange beliefs, Standish's approach to similarly misguided souls is one of self-conscious elbow-ribbing. I don't mind when authors insert themselves into a discussion of strange ideas, but when they do, I prefer a more subtle tone. But that's just me being unfair.

The text is sloppy; it's repetitive in several places, and contradicts itself in several others. I didn't note any major gaffes, but several small and insidious errors that ought to have been trivial to avoid, and which continually undermined my belief in the author's authority.(It's important to maintain that illusion of authority, even (especially?) when writing about crackpottery. In my not so humble opinion.) For example, it misquotes the inscription on a tombstone which is visible in a photograph on the facing page. The difference is slight, but glaring, and disappointing when the evidence of sloppiness is staring me in the face. This is probably unfair of me, again, but my patience with this book has run a bit thin.

Speaking of Cyrus Teed, the chapter on Koreshanity embodies my disappointment with this book. It begins promisingly enough, but veers away from the subject at hand. It devotes disappointingly little time to the relevant tenets of the faith (i.e., that we live on the inside of a hollow earth) to devote many pages to the history -- birth, brief rise, political machinations, and lingering decline -- of the Koreshan community in Estero, Florida. Rather than using these details as a world-building backdrop to an important chapter in the hollow earth mythos, the book relegates the hollow earth belief to a minor side note in the story of the Koreshan community. Which misses the entire point of the book, as stated on the front cover, back cover, and in the introduction. That the Koreshans carried out their own experiment in geodesy (and apparently proved to their own satisfaction that the surface of the earth is concave) seems almost irrelevant to the chapter. The author never brings the larger discussion of Teed and Koreshanity full circle (har, har) to the hollow earth. It isn't used to shed light on this belief.

The author does include a surprisingly long bibliography, and appears to have gone to considerable effort to track down primary sources. I salute and respect that work: it must have been a thankless job, considering that some of the sources were mimeographed pamphlets.

All in all, I think the fairest thing I can say is that this book committed the sin of not being the book I wanted it to be. Which isn't a sin at all. But it didn't entertain me during a traffic jam, and this is a sin for which I am less forgiving.

[Joseph Teller · Rating 3 out of 5]

When Edmond Halley, the namesake of Halley's comet, stood before the London Royal Society in 1691 and announced that the World was Hollow, he could not have begun to realize the ramifications of what his scientific proposal would mean to history or literature.

The Hollow Earth is a volume about this scientific misstep that would take centuries to disprove (and to a die hard few will never be accepted as an error).

But if Halley hadn't made his mistakes (and successes in related theories), we may have not learned as much as we have about geology, magnetics, planetary development etc as generation after generation took to exploring things to prove or disprove the Hollow Earth Theory.

Add in such figures as Admiral Byrd and the Secret Nazi Polar Expeditions, not to mention flying saucers, and you have some rather interesting material on the history of the Hollow Earth.

It also examines, in it's second half, the entire genre of fiction that rose up from this theory, from serious works to Pulp Adventures to children's literature.

This book is probably the only one out there on the subject, and that makes it the definitive work until someone writes a more detailed or concise one. It definitely is worth examining, for those interested in Science History or Historic Literature. It can also be useful for folks working with or desiring interesting roleplaying or writing venues (what is a Dyson Sphere except a really big hollow earth?)

The author isn't dry and boring, and does have a touch of the 'Amused Enlightened Modern Man' to his approach of the material.

This one is going to be on my reference shelf for some time to come.

[Tom · Rating 1 out of 5]

Meh. Great idea, bad execution. There's some fascinating stuff in the book but for some reason the author decided to take a tone of "can you believe these guys? only a fucking idiot would think there is a civilization at the center of the earth" instead of looking at them as products of their time. I'm not looking for some scholarly monograph, but often the author was a little too glib (the main problem is that he slides between serious, scholarly tone and a lazy blog-like tone, often in the same paragraph). Also, sometimes he would end paragraphs with something along the lines of "well, it's too complicated and I won't go over this idea here." Hey pal, you're the author, I'm the reader. Do your job.

[Chris Browning · Rating 3 out of 5]

Frustratingly stilted for what should be an absolutely perfect opportunity for a good popular science/ history book. Instead it feels a bit like the writer isn’t ever fully committed to the madness of the topic at hand. It’s not bad but was harder work than I was expecting

[Adam Mele · Rating 3 out of 5]

A few too many plot synopses of adventure stories, but has enough history about odd ideas and biographical information on the people who propagated them to keep it interesting.

[Ronald · Rating 3 out of 5]

_Hollow Earth_ by David Standish is a history of the hollow Earth idea.

The scientist Edmund Halley, of Halley's comet fame, was a proponent of the idea. A second strain of imagining about the hollow Earth was in fantastic fiction; the idea appeared in the works of famous genre writers such as Poe, Verne, and Edgar Rice Burroughs.

Also, the time--roughly-- from 1865 to 1910, saw an increase in the number of hollow Earth novels in the US. The writers of these novels used the idea of a hollow Earth as a canvass to present their vision of a utopian society. Hollow earth fiction declined in the 20th century, though did not entirely disappear; for example the (mediocre) science fiction stories of Richard Shaver; and tongue-in-cheek novels by Rudy Rucker and Richard Lupoff.

A third strain of imagining about the hollow Earth is by fringe writers. Walter Siegmeister in his book _The Hollow Earth_, claimed that a benevolent race lives in the Hollow Earth, and UFOS flew into and out of portholes at the North and South Pole.

A major fault of the book is that the author takes an unserious tone, for example lame attempts at humor. Also parts of the book were tedious. I wish the author would have taken the approach of another book I reviewed, _The Lost Land of Lemuria_, an elegantly written socio-cultural analysis of belief in a lost land.

[Kirsten · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a fascinating and fun history of the idea of a Hollow Earth -- that is, the idea that inside the Earth is another world, possibly one with utopian civilizations and riches beyond humankind's wildest dreams. The author tackles the subject matter with considerable humor, and is at his best when describing and commenting on the various Hollow Earth narratives that have been written throughout the years, from Journey to the Center of the Earth to Tarzan at the Earth's Core and beyond. The chapter on modern-day Hollow Earthers falls a little short, and I'm still sort of surprised that there was really no introductory or concluding chapters as such -- he just sort of starts at the beginning and when he gets to the present day, he stops, with very little analysis. It's still a very entertaining and interesting book, however.

[Steve Wiggins · Rating 4 out of 5]

In the history of weird ideas, the hollow earth has an amazing longevity. Standish does a good idea of showing how the concept revives from time to time, but never really dies out. This is an interesting look from several points of view, including those of fiction and science, as well as religion. For more thoughts about the book see: Sects and Violence in the Ancient World.

[Michael P Glasgow · Rating 4 out of 5]

Standish's book gives a thorough and lightly skeptical review of the Hollow Earth phenomena. This is a good way to discover what most Hollow Earth novels are about without reading them. In depth biographies of the major lecturers and authors gives a complete picture however it does not thoroughly address the Buddhist Hollow Earth theory of Aghartha.

[Jack Lindgren · Rating 3 out of 5]

I bought this because I wanted to read about the Koreshan Unity hollow earth cult and didn’t realize there was already a full book about them (The Allure of Immortality: An American Cult, a Florida Swamp, and a Renegade Prophet).

The first three chapters, on early theories and the early-19th century “polar gothic” were all interesting and worth reading, as was the chapter on Koreshan Unity. Unfortunately most of the rest consists of book summaries. I found the chapters on Jules Verne and Edgar Rice Burroughs especially tedious. The more general book review chapter about lesser-known late-19th century hollow earth novels was interesting for providing information about works I wouldn’t have found otherwise, but it was otherwise dull. The final chapter felt abrupt - there has to be more to say about 20th century hollow earth conspiracy theories than the author presented here, but maybe it’s just as well.

The writing is mediocre and distractingly informal, but it was a quick read for me and worth it for the four decent chapters. I didn’t find it painful to read or regret it afterwards, so three stars.

[Qristy · Rating 3 out of 5]

This felt a bit like an academic paper: here is the history of the Hollow Earth in media since its suggestion by Halley, including lengthy plot summaries of every novel and film. If this sounds boring, well... yeah. Chapters 5 and 8 are worth your time. Not gonna lie, that Florida utopian cult city sounded pretty nice actually. All I gotta do is believe we're living on the inside of an earth-egg, and I can just hang around in gardens and play in an orchestra all day? Fine, sign me up!

[Herb · Rating 4 out of 5]

A lively and intriguing look at the belief that the Earth is hollow and that there are people living down there, perhaps millions. And believe it or not, there are such functioning people around. Standish also goes into great lengths to describe fictional accounts of this fantasy, from Jules Verne to 1950's "Superman" episodes and beyond. A little long in spots, but the author's tongue-in-cheek style makes for a fun and interesting escapade.

[Ted · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting overview, but spoiled (particularly in the second half) by a cynical, "gosh-look-at-all-these-crazy-people-and-childish-pulp-writers" tone. Also spends way too much time on the ins and outs of an obscure 19th century Florida utopian cult, on the grounds that the Hollow Earth was one of their doctrines even though it seemed to have very little effect on their activities.

[Eli · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is based on an excellent and interesting premise, the persistent and not-so-long-ago idea that the earth is hollow and there is a utopia/dystopia inside that mirrors our civilization, but the prose gets bogged down with tedious details and uninteresting reflections altogether too much to merit that much of a glowing review.

[H. Givens · Rating 4 out of 5]

A short, readable history of a cool fringe topic. Lots of book excerpts -- super liked the way it mixed history of fiction and science, they're always mixed but this is a particularly clear connection.

[KJ · Rating 4 out of 5]

I admit to skimming as I read, but it was nevertheless a fascinating review of early science building into science fiction. What I enjoyed most were the links between different authors and thinkers I would not have expected. It certainly changes how I view some of them!

[EC · Rating 3 out of 5]

The earth is kinda hollow, kinda cavernous....solid but with giant caves or caverns hundreds of miles wide and tall. Big Luxurious Mansions-BLM-undergeound....under the Himalayan mountains...Shambala...This is real. Real speculation.

[Joe · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very well written and fascinating look at a little discussed genre of both literary and "scientific" history. Definitely a product of their times and with no small amount of imagination. Worth looking into for students of science fiction and geological progression alike. 9/10

[Maude · Rating 5 out of 5]

Super interesting read about a bizarre theory that in some ways invented science fiction. Loved how informative this book was, but also the author's fun writing that made it feel like I was just hearing all this info from a smart funny friend.

[Everson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Intriguing...

[syd · Rating 3 out of 5]

a little dry but really interesting to think about

[محمد الغولي]

M

[Carolyn Rose · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating tales of weird "science" and religious zeal

[Andrew · Rating 3 out of 5]

[my review from the September 2006 issue of FATE magazine]

Last month, FATE featured a reprinted article on the Koreshans of Estero, Florida, an early-20th-century cult distinguished mainly by their belief that the Earth was a hollow sphere upon whose inner concave surface we all live. An odd cosmology, to be sure, but these followers of the former Cyrus Teed were hardly the first believers in a hollow earth. Journalist David Standish presents a history of the subterranean theme in science, pseudoscience, and literature in his new book Hollow Earth.

Standish’s survey begins with the noted astronomer Sir Edmond Halley, who theorized before the London Royal Society in 1691 that the interior of the Earth was formed by a series of concentric spheres, with open space in between. Navigators of Halley’s time were much perplexed by the inconsistency of compass readings across different areas of the globe. If the Earth was a giant, solid magnet, why were there local magnetic variations, and why did the poles seem to move over time? Halley’s model answered this scientific puzzle by noting that each of the inner-earth spheres he proposed would have its own polarity. The interactions of these different poles created the observed variations on surface-level compasses.

Given the theology of the time, it was unthinkable that potentially habitable places such as the inner spheres could be devoid of life. In light of God’s “Abundant Providence,” Halley argued that each of the inner globes, if they existed at all, had to be illuminated and occupied by all manner of living creatures.

In 1818, Halley’s theories and others inspired John Cleves Symmes, a trader and former army captain living in the then-frontier town of St. Louis, Missouri, to campaign for an expedition to the unconquered territories of the inner earth, which he believed could be reached through enormous openings at each pole. Symmes lectured on this topic widely and unsuccessfully until his death in 1829. Though Symmes never pulled together a real-world expedition, his theories inspired fictional explorations of the hollow earth by no lesser writers than Edgar Allan Poe (The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym) and Jules Verne (Journey to the Center of the Earth).

The hollow earth theme was kept alive by a number of lesser writers in the late 19th century (Standish lists nearly three dozen “hollow earth novels” published between 1880 and 1915, and summarizes a few representative examples), and Edgar Rice Burroughs kept the genre going into the 1940s with his tales of Pellucidar. In the late 1940s, the hollow earth was linked to the emerging UFO mythos through the stories of Richard Shaver in the Ray Palmer edited Amazing Stories.

Standish describes his book as an exploration of “the cultural history of an idea that was wrong and changed nothing — but which has nevertheless had an ongoing appeal.” Indeed it does, as numerous hollow earth websites bear witness. Standish’s review of contemporary, post-Shaver theories is a bit thin, but his rich presentation of the hollow earth background makes this essential reading for any fan of offbeat ideas.

[Justin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Heading into this, I was expecting there to be more about the crackpot theories of a hollow Earth, that have survived into the present day. While this is touched upon, it's very brief: really, only the last four pages of the book.

The rest of Hollow Earth is spent examining central figures throughout history who've held to the belief that there's another world beneath the Earth's crust. There's mini-biographies on Symmes, Teed, and others who truly believed in this stuff, as well as examinations of the lives and works of Poe, Burroughs, Baum, and others writers who used the motif in their literature. While this is all interesting to varying degrees, large swaths of Hollow Earth read as little more than book reviews of 19th and early 20th century adventure novels, set in the inner recesses of the globe. This is likewise (generally) entertaining, but not exactly what I signed up for.

Furthermore, the ending is rather...abrupt. I can tell it's Standish trying to poke fun at the people who still believe the Earth is hollow, but it doesn't really work--likely because he spends so little time examining the current hollow Earth crowd.

If you're looking for a nice overview of old-timey hollow Earth sci-fi/adventure literature, this book is a pretty valuable resource. On the other hand, if you're hoping for an in-depth and focused look at hollow Earth theories into the present day, expect to be sidetracked by the life histories of various figures, and lengthy explorations of century-old novels.

[Laylah Hunter · Rating 3 out of 5]

Does what it says on the tin! This is pretty much a survey of the literature, discussing the history of the hollow earth idea from Halley (of comet fame) through contemporary fringe websites. Along the way, Standish points out how the hollow earth idea has been a convenient blank space for people who wanted to project their thoughts about what was wrong (or right) with society at the time, and how the content of a hollow earth narrative changed as scientific understanding did likewise. Interesting bits, but the whole wound up a bit dry.

Personally, I found my interest captured most thoroughly by the chapter on Cyrus Teed and his Koreshanity...society? cult? (No relation to the Waco, TX cult a hundred years later.) Relatively little of the chapter was about Teed's hollow earth theories; a lot of it talked about his attempts to build a society with his followers and create their own promised land. Possibly what I really wanted to be reading is a history of utopian movements! Off to see if I can turn up one of those with some searching.

[Jonathan Abbott · Rating 2 out of 5]

Finally finished this book after like 3 months of off and on reading it. It partly took so long because I was reading a RPG book at the same time.

I found this book to be too dry and scholarly. I know, it is a non-fiction book that should give me that impression just by looking at it. But I was really hoping for a bunch of crazy stuff and crackpot theories and Nazis and dinosaurs. There was some of this, but not until the last chapter.

The majority of the book looks at the various intellectuals, explorers, writers, and the like that seriously considered the world to be hollow. I was entranced by the breadth of knowledge attributed to the various intellectuals of yesteryear. It is quite impressive to think of someone that knew pretty much all there was to know on all sorts of sciences, literature, math, history, crafts, etc.

The stuff about the various writers in the romantic period was slow and hard to get through. But I finally made it. I got a decent amount of ideas and inspiration from select parts and I guess that makes it worth it.

[Alan Loewen · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you are a true believer in the existence of a vast hollow interior of the planet on which we live, you will be very disappointed in this book. David Standish is not a believer and many times he breaks the fourth wall as an author to drive that point home.

However, if you are interested in how the theory of a hollow Earth came about and, most importantly, are interested in how that belief saw itself worked out in literature throughout the ages, then you will enjoy this book very much.

Highly opinionated, snarky, and many times quite amusing, Standish has done his homework (and the bibliography in the back of the book is nothing short of astounding) and he can speak with authority on the subject as he not only reviews the personalities and the history of true believers, but the works of those who chose the theme of the hollow Earth as the focus of their books, novels, films, and philosophies.

[Scotch · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty thoroughly research, and I definitely appreciated Standish's wit and personality (because – really – it's a pleasure to read an author say someone is "just dumb" and call it like it is). I learned some wonky bits of US history that I likely would have never stumbled upon otherwise, and found an addendum to my minivan's name (once Spaceship Betty; now Spaceship Betty, Glorious Annihilator of Time and Space, Lord of Distance, Imperial Courier). The book drags a bit towards the end, drifting off on less related but still fascinating stories, and lost me a bit in summarizing some five or six sci-fi/fantasy novels (yawn). The ending about the new agers around Mt Shasta felt a little scathing and mostly mean in ways that Standish wasn't towards equally looney Hollow Earthers of previous generations. But, again, it was still worth the short, fun read.