Sullivan, Robert
Entry updated 26 October 2021. Tagged: Author.
(1953- ) US journalist and author, most of whose work has been nonfiction, much of it associated with Life magazine, where he served as a senior editor for many years. Of sf interest are two spoof "nonfiction" studies, both elaborately arrayed with confabulated documentary evidence about their subject matters. The first, The Flight of the Reindeer: The True Story of Santa Claus and his Christmas Mission (1996), is constructed in part around a narrative, complete with photographs, provided by Arctic explorer Will Steger's visit to the North Pole village. In a manner reminiscent of Peter Dickinson's The Flight of Dragons (1979), elaborate arguments are provided – in a tone evoking Steampunk demonstrations that the desired world is real after all – about reindeer locomotion. Sullivan's second work in this mode, Atlantis Rising: The True Story of a Submerged Land Yesterday and Today (1999), similarly recuperates Atlantis. Robert Sullivan should not be confused with Robert Sullivan (1958- ), also an American journalist and author. [JC]
Robert Sullivan
born 1953
works (highly selected)
- The Flight of the Reindeer: The True Story of Santa Claus and his Christmas Mission (New York: Macmillan, 1996) [illus/hb/Glenn Wolff]
- Atlantis Rising: The True Story of a Submerged Land Yesterday and Today (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1999) [illus/hb/Glenn Wolff]
links
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