Donnelly, Ignatius; Atlantis: The Antediluvian World. First edition, Harper & Brothers, Franklin Square NY. 1882.

Donnelly, Ignatius; Atlantis: The Antediluvian World. First edition, Harper & Brothers, Franklin Square NY. 1882. Octavo, pp. x, 490, frontispiece, numerous woodcuts.

The work is complete and in the original green cloth with gilt titles and cover vignette. The binding is tight with light scuffing, the text is clean and bright with light toning. In very good condition.

Donnelly (1831-1901) was an American politician from Minnesota and Republican member of Congress. However he is best remembered for his two books; Atlantis the Antediluvian World and Ragarok. In the work Atlantis, Donnelly considers Plato's account of Atlantis as largely factual and attempts to establish that all known ancient civilizations were descended from Atlantis which was destroyed by a massive comet which came close to Earth 12,000 years ago. Much of Donnelly's thinking, especially with regard to Atlantis, was inspired by the publications of Charles Étienne Brasseur de Bourbourg and the fieldwork of Augustus Le Plongeon in the Yucatan. His work was avidly supported by publications of Helena Blavatsky and the Theosophical Society which she cofounded as well as by the Austrian philosopher Rudolf Steiner. Donnelly’s work was to influence the writings of the catastrophist Immanuel Velikovsky (1895-1979) who wrote the work “Worlds in Collision” in 1950.