Tucker, Beverley
Entry updated 12 September 2022. Tagged: Author.
(1784-1851) US lawyer, judge, politician, educator and author, who also wrote as by Edward William Sidney, the pseudonym he used for his Proto SF novel, The Partisan Leader: A Tale of the Future (1836 2vols) [for publishing details see Checklist below], where his states' rights convictions are vividly expressed; the novel was frequently printed during the nineteenth century, sometimes under the author's true name. In Near Future 1849, during the fourth term of Martin Van Buren (1782-1862) [in reality he served one term as American President, 1837-1841], the Southern States secede from the Union, leaving Virginia stranded; the complex tale traces a family history (based on Tucker's own eminent clan) as state freedom becomes inevitable. Those Black men and women visible in the text (see Race in SF) declare themselves ready to fight to the death to remain slaves.
Tucker's later novels are nonfantastic. [JC]
Nathaniel Beverley Tucker
born Chesterfield County, Virginia: 6 September 1784
died Winchester, Virginia: 26 August 1851
works (selected)
- The Partisan Leader: A Tale of the Future (Washington, District of Columbia: Duff Green, 1836) as by Edward William Sidney [book is given on title page as published by James Caxton in 1856: published in two volumes: hb/nonpictorial]
- The Partisan Leader: A Key to the Disunion Conspiracy (New York: Rudd and Carleton, 1861) [vt of the above: hb/]
- The Partisan Leader: A Novel and an Apocalypse of the Origin and Struggles of the Southern Confederacy (Richmond, Virginia: West and Johnston, 1862) [vt of the above: hb/]
links
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