Description
Autograph Letter Signed ‘H.Parville’, to ‘Cher monsieur’ [Pierre Hippolyte Boutigny, professor of chemistry, in Evreux], discussing the specifications of “la machine pneumatique”, incorporating three carefully drawn diagrams. In French, 2 pp. 8 x 5 inches, with the diagrams on the third page, in fine condition, mounted along one edge on part of an old album page. Paris, 28 September 1860. The uncommon autograph of Henri de Parville (1838-1909), scientific journalist, author of An Inhabitant Of The Planet Mars (1864), a hoax report in which a meteorite dug up by a Colorado oil prospector contains a mummified body believed to originate on Mars. This early theory of extraterrestrial life caught the attention of Jules Verne’s publisher who released the work in an expanded version.