Violet Books

Introduction & Acknowledgements for
the Lost Race Checklist

by Jessica Amanda Salmonson

Introduction

• This checklist is an ongoing project. If you download it for your personal use in questing for books, be sure to bookmark the location so you can get an updated copy now & then. Significant updates will be noted on the "What's New" page.
  
  
• For purposes of this checklist, a Lost Race is one that is discovered in some region of the Earth at a point in time after they (or their high culture) was believed to be extinct (hence the discovery in medieval times of a lingering Bronze Age culture would be included; or discovery in the future of ancient Atlanteans would be included). A Lost Race is also an evolved or devolved race of humans; a hidden alternate form of humanity, including those that have become hybridized with animals & possess a unique culture (but excluding Dr. Moreau type single-generation scientific creations). Included are previously unknown races, advanced or primitive, having any element beyond the strictly rational. A grey area is thoroughly nonfantastic aboriginal peoples encountered by Victorian explorers for whom such encounters were a very real commonplace. Only where imaginary elements intrude sufficiently are these included.
  
  
• There is not universal agreement as to what constitutes a Lost Race fantasy. Some readers might wish to include stories of individual survivors of extinct races found in suspended animation from a super-technological past, revived mummies, or thawed from ice. These are mostly excluded here with a few exceptions, such as when there are multiple members of the past race revived or there is some aspect of revival of culture as well. Members of ancient races who find their way into the present by reincarnation or mind transference or physical time travel are excluded. Likewise, tales of moderns who travel back in time by occult or scientific means to interact with extinct races or cultures are excluded. Fairies are excluded even though in many stories they are not cute elementals but human-like, powerful immortals. Even though traditional tales of the fairy folk as a kind of celtic super-race are undoubtedly connected to the development of the Lost Race genre, inclusion in a checklist of lost race tales per se would expand the list too massively into an only tangential area.
  
  
• Straightforward historicals are by & large excluded, such as tales of conquistodores interacting with the New World races whose high cultures they exterminated through warfare, oppression, disease, or absorbed through intermarriage. A few representative exceptions are labeled as marginal. Utopian societies have been included if their cultures have been hidden & of antique origin, but excluded if they are posited as modern experiments by current peoples who have consciously set themselves apart.
  
  
• Races of the Hollow Earth are included. For some critics, the Hollow Earth is restricted to elaborations on the Symmes Hole theory, whereas other types of subterranean settings are not Hollow Earth. I am unconcerned with this distinction & regard any substantial underground cavity that is not so finite as a cavern as evidence of the Hollow Earth in play. Mythological tales of underground trolls or religious tales of the underworld as an inhabited Hell are excluded unless refashioned into the lost race mode.
  
  
• Again, with a few representative exceptions, stories of the relics of lost races, with no actual member of the race encountered, are excluded. If the discoveries are sufficiently fantastical, the given tale might be noted as an archeological fantasy only. Old Earth races found surviving on other planets are excluded. Survival of prehistoric species of humanity such as CroMagnon, Neanderthal, or Missing Link are definitely included, but at the moment this does not extend to tales of Bigfoot or Yeti or the Abominable Snowman unless explicitly identified as a missing link & possessing an actual culture (I might add Yeti stories at a later time; I haven't yet decided).
  
  
• Annotations have been kept to a minimum, with little attempt to synopsize plots. Where the title or subtitle alone is insufficient to identify a region, I've attempted to name the geographical associations such as South America, Hollow Earth, Antarctic, volcanic crater, hidden valley, Oceanic & so on; and the racial types such as Neanderthal, Missing Link, Greek, Roman, Inca, Maya, Lost Tribes of Israel & so forth. If the lost race element is marginal or momentary, rather than central to the story, this has been noted. The annotations are by no means complete even for these minimal requirements, & more information is solicited from everyone.
  
  
• I'm trying to track down more information on modern "fantastic love stories" with lost race elements, a few of which have already been integrated into this list. The genre of fantastic love stories has very little in common with vintage adventure fiction; rather, it is an outgrowth of "ladies' gothics" "harlequin romances" & "historical bodice rippers," though Haggard is certainly a more distant root. Fantastic love stories usually appear as paperback originals & mix Harlequin Romance mode with vampires, werewolves, time travelers, ghosts, & other fantasy, horror & science fiction overlays, including quite often lost races in exotic locales. It's a relatively new genre hybrid of the 1980s and 1990s; as this area of the fantastic doesn't interest me very much & I've not found anyone else who is knowledgeable about these books, it's been very hit & miss what's included, & I welcome others' input.
  
  
• A list of three thousand Lost Race titles might or might not be complete, whereas the present list is not a long way past one-thousand. I hope everyone who finds their way to the checklist will be inspired to help fix errors of fact & omission. A very few question marks have been inserted where even publication information is thus far incomplete.
  
  
• Just about everyone who loves & seeks out lost race literature will stumble upon something unreported eventually, because there is so much out there. Any corrections & additions will be eagerly received, & all collectors who assist with this preliminary checklist are credited in the appended Acknowledgements. Get your name added by helping out!

Projected Value of the Checklist:

• I expect the Checklist to be used in assisting collectors & book scouts in finding their way through books that are often difficult to tell are fantastic by first appearence. As the used book trade goes through transformations imposed by the world wide web & by skyrocketing rents for storefronts, many copies of "old fiction" are being diverted into landfill. Walk-in book shops have smaller & smaller places for slow-moving forgotten writers. On-line book dealers avoid authors whose names are apt never to be typed into a search engine. I hope this checklist will help save interesting books from destruction.
  
  
• The checklist should also, by increasing awareness of this literature, help to insure that interest in vintage fantasy will never flag.
  
  
• A few specialists might be annoyed to see this privileged information shared so liberally. As a bookseller myself, I went through some small measure of angst knowing I'm creating my own competition by telling others exactly what to watch for! Mainly my fannish desire to share information beats down my grubby-bookseller desire to have an edge over everyone else. But we do all require at least one selfish reason for the things we do, & I am trusting that many book scouts in regions I will never be able to visit will keep my small company in mind when scouring their local bookshops for diamonds-amidst-junk. Quote me what you find. If it's in great shape & I am allowed room to reprice it profitably I will eagerly add your discoveries to stock.

Acknowledgements:

• Assistance, corrections, & additions for this checklist have come to me from the following helpful hands, listed alphabetically: David Anderson of Narnia Books in British Columbia periodically sends along discriptions of recently encountered lost race rarities; Andy Beauparlant went through his Jungle Tales collection describing the Lost Race elements in the Ki-Gor the jungle man series, citing the lost race elements for the Checklist; Victor A. Berch of Marlborough Massachusetts; Bob Brown, Bookmonger, of Seattle Washington; Kevin L. Cook of Bronxville New York; Brian Emerich of Fallbrook California; Martin McCrory bookseller & Lost Race collector in England; & John Ruyle of Berkeley California. Additional thanks to Gerry Conway & Alan Levine.
  
  
• Useful information has also been gleaned from articles by, or antiquarian book catalogs issued from, William Matthews, Bookseller in British Columbia; George Locke of Ferret Fantasy in London; & Stuart Tietler of Berkeley, who was responsible for scores of "lost race converts" over the years, an old run of his Kaleidoscope Book s catalogs (1970s-1980s) was quite informative. A huge number of reference books have been consulted, of which special mention is required mainly of Ev Bleiler's sundry critical & bibliographical works about vintage weird fiction, & George Locke's three-volume Spectrum of Fantasy.