Books with title In Search of the Unknown: Classic literature

Because it all seems so improbable—so horribly impossible to me now, sitting here safe and sane in my own library—I hesitate to record an episode which already appears to me less horrible than grotesque. Yet, unless this story is written now, I know I shall never have the courage to tell the truth about the matter—not from fear of ridicule, but because I myself shall soon cease to credit what I now know to be true. Yet scarcely a month has elapsed since I heard the stealthy purring of what I believed to be the shoaling undertow—scarcely a month ago, with my own eyes, I saw that which, even now, I am beginning to believe never existed. As for the harbor-master—and the blow I am now striking at the old order of things—But of that I shall not speak now, or later; I shall try to tell the story simply and truthfully, and let my friends testify as to my probity and the publishers of this book corroborate them.

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TO MY FRIEND E. LE GRAND BEERS MY DEAR LE GRAND,-You and I were early drawn together by a common love of nature. Your researches into the natural history of the tree-toad, your observations upon the mud-turtles of Providence Township, your experiments with the fresh-water lobster, all stimulated my enthusiasm in a scientific direction, which has crystallized in this helpful little book, dedicated to you.

Because it all seems so improbable-so horribly impossible to me now, sitting here safe and sane in my own library-I hesitate to record an episode which already appears to me less horrible than grotesque. Yet, unless this story is written now, I know I shall never have the courage to tell the truth about the matter-not from fear of ridicule, but because I myself shall soon cease to credit what I now know to be true. Yet scarcely a month has elapsed since I heard the stealthy purring of what I believed to be the shoaling undertow-scarcely a month ago, with my own eyes, I saw that which, even now, I am beginning to believe never existed.

Chambers' early novel explores the mysteries of the unknown. "Very genuine, though not without the typical mannered extravagance of the eighteen-nineties, is the strain of horror in the early work of Robert W. Chambers . . . One cannot help regretting that he did not further develop a vein in which he could so easily have become a recognised master." -- H.P. Lovecraft

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An ornithologist seeking prehistoric creatures also discovers modern romance in these strange and satiric short stories by Robert W. Chambers, an early master of supernatural fiction and the author of the cult classic The King in Yellow. Originally published in periodicals of the early twentieth century, these six interconnected tales recount a madcap series of international romps. The hero, working under the auspices of the Bronx Zoo, scours the globe in search of extinct and legendary species, including the great auk, invisible swamp-dwelling predators, and "harbor masters," half-men, half-amphibians. Guided by his implacable self-confidence, the bumbling scientist faces down a world of dangers as well as the distractions posed by a series of beguiling women.