In the Zachary Taylor Branch of the Tarsan Worlds, a book entitled “The Later Works of Arthur Gordon Pym was published in 1883.  Here is what we know of it so far.

Preface

My name is Arthur Gordon Pym.  Most readers will be familiar with Dr. Poe’s early fictional accounts of my travels, and with all due respect, they are confused and ill-constructed.  In those early days, our contact was minimal, and the Good Doctor could only interpret accounts of my travels in terms that he understood, the mystery of the maelstrom, or the possibility of other worlds within the shell of a Hollow Earth.  In later years, after his nearly tragic misadventures in Baltimore of 1849, we were able to communicate more regularly, and he was able to write more coherent, and frankly accurate, accounts of my journeys.  Most notable was his second novel, “The Lost Chapters of Arthur Gordon Pym,” in which we were finally able to provide an account of my first journey away the world of my birth.  He wrote a great deal more of these adventure tales, using the literary convention of me as the author and he as my mentor and editor.  But these early works about Arthur Gordon Pym are Dr. Poe’s writing, and most certainly not mine.

Later, we wrote and spoke extensively on the new literary genre of uchronia, one of Dr. Poe’s signal inventions, a synthesis of history and politics and speculative fiction that allowed us to explore the possibilities of worlds that might have been.  Many of you may have had the privilege of attending one of our joint lectures, while others of you may be of a mind that I am merely an elaborate hoax, a creation of Dr. Poe’s to attract publicity and controversy, to sell books and lecture tickets.  I must assure you that this position is utterly false, and I can only prevail upon you to study the volumes of documentary evidence of my work and appearances in the 1860’s and 1870’s to convince you that I am not Dr. Poe in disguise, or some well-trained actor/impersonator.

But time catches up with all men, and by the early 1880’s, Dr. Poe was reaching the end of his creative powers, but only after a career that is the envy of writers everywhere.  Early on, a poet, editor, novelist, political agitator.  Many forget that he was one of President’s Taylor’s staunchest allies in the war to save the Union form Southern secession, and that in the year’s prior to the Great Western War with Britain, he was a leading voice for the Great Experiment and defender of United States expansion overseas.  He was rightfully known as the Thomas Paine of our times.  Later on, Dr. Poe virtually created the genres of the gothic tale, the detective story, speculative fiction and uchronia.  I was glad to assist him in these endeavors, and even more grateful to have provided him some ease and comfort in his later years.  But at last, I wish to write in my own voice, and tell stories of other worlds that Dr. Poe could never tell himself.  These later works, compiled in this slim volume, are mine own.

Table of Contents:

•      Chapter 1: The Expansion of the Spheres
•      Chapter 2: Consciousness and Reality
•      Chapter 3: The Secrets of the Myrrh-Bearers
•      Chapter 4: The Death of Paul of Tarsus
•      Chapter 5: The Myrrhian Fire
•      Chapter 6: The Discovery of Animate Matter
•      Chapter 7: The Gifts of Simon Magus
•      Chapter 8: The Birth of Congress
•      Chapter 9: Cities in the Air
•      Chapter 10: A Flowering of Scholarship and Discovery
•      Chapter 11: Resolution of the Problem of Theodicy
•      Chapter 12: Studies in Creative Writing
•      Chapter 13: The Last Testament of Edgar Allen Poe