The Gates Of Chance By Van Tassel Sutphen Science Fiction Literary

Sutphen is an enormously lucid and engaging writer who lived from 1861 to 1945. He wrote golf stories, and a 1906 post holocaust novel, "The Doomsman." This is one of his lesser known works.

In Mr. Stone's hand he carried a flat, square parcel which he proceeded to unwrap. I uttered an involuntary cry, for it was nothing less than a replica of the famous portrait of the "Red Duchess." A replica, indeed!-it would take an expert to decide which of the two was the copy; they were absolutely alike, even to the detail of the rough edges.

William Gilbert van Tassel Sutphen (1861-1945) was an American playwright, librettist, novelist, and editor, an authority and author of publications on golf, and, eventually, an Episcopalian minister. Sutphen was born in Philadelphia on 11 May 1861. His parents were the Rev. Morris Crater Sutphen and Eleanor (Brush) Sutphen. He went to Princeton University and graduated in 1882. Sutphen wrote several novels, the most famous of which was The Doomsman, a science fiction novel in the post-apocalyptic subgenre. The scholar Mike Davis has suggested that Sutphen "purloined" ideas and scenes for this book from an earlier post-apocalyptic novel, After London, by the English writer Richard Jeffries.

The Gates of Chance Van Tassel Sutphen

We like Van Tassel Sutphen's work a lot -- open up and read a bit to see why; he's an enormously lucid and engaging writer -- but, try as we might, we've had a hard time finding much out about him. Oh, there are a few lines in the Science Fiction encyclopedia to the effect that he was an American writer who lived from 1861 to 1945; that he wrote a bunch of golf stories and a terse description of his 1906 postholocaust novel, The Doomsman. (Yes, 1906 -- bet you thought all this end-of-the-world thinking came out of the inventionn of the A Bomb, but no, Sutphen just barely lived to see that.) The Tuck encyclopedia adds his place of birth (Philadelphia) and lists a bunch of indivivual stories. But we'd love to know more and can't imagine how we'd learn it. Sigh. At least the work's still available to read: enjoy it; he really was a fine writer.

We are delighted to publish this classic book as part of our extensive Classic Library collection. Many of the books in our collection have been out of print for decades, and therefore have not been accessible to the general public. The aim of our publishing program is to facilitate rapid access to this vast reservoir of literature, and our view is that this is a significant literary work, which deserves to be brought back into print after many decades in its original form. The contents of the vast majority of titles in the Classic Library have been scanned from the original works. To ensure a high quality product, each title has been meticulously hand curated by our staff. Our philosophy has been guided by a desire to provide the reader with a book that is as close as possible to ownership of the original work. We hope that you will enjoy this wonderful classic work, and that for you it becomes an enriching experience.

William Gilbert Van Tassel Sutphen (1861-1945) was the author of: The Golficide and Other Tales of the Fair Green (1898), The Cardinal's Rose (1900), The Gates of Chance (1904), The Doomsman (1905), The Sutphen Family (1926) and The Sermon on the Cross (1927).

The Doomsman The Gates of Chance

"The Gates of Chance" is a classic American mystery novel. It is filled with unexpected twists and intriguing characters. The wonderfully depicted plot will make it an entertaining read for fans of detective stories.

Reproduction of the original.