I’m so excited I can hardly contain the words. I’ve discovered a story in Trove that is of immense interest to me for two reasons. The first is, of course, that it is another space opera from 1909. The second is that it is a previously unknown story from a well-known Australian author.
An Aerial Adventure, or The Secret of a Scientist by Victor D. A. Courtney was first published in the Daily News (Perth) 1909-1910. Initially described as being by a 13 year old, it was later updated to show 15. I would assume that, with so many parts printed across 48 weeks that the first was his submission age and the final chapter was the age he was when he presented it.
Victor D. A. Courtney is Victor Desmond Courtney 1894-1970, a well-known journalist and author whose works also came to the attention of politicians in the 1950s. He was also a good friend of John Curtin. You can read more about him at the Australian Dictionary of Biology here: Victor Courtney
According to the records in Trove, his first published article was in The Lone Hand in 1910 here: A Westralian Boy’s Impressions of the Eastern States.
Thanks to the discovery of An Aerial Adventure, the date for his first publication can be shown as being in The Daily News in February 1909. You can see a scan of the original here: Preface
This is a great discovery and can update the biography of Victor Courtney further. Who’d have thought he had written a space opera?
Due to copyright in Australia not expiring until 70 years after the death of the author, this story is still copyright until 2040. Then again, if he sold all rights to the Perth newspaper, perhaps the copyright expires a little earlier – 2025. I’ll need to do some research on that. In the meantime, a couple of chapters are available via the To Be Continued database here.
(I hope to find all the parts to the story and create a summary for you in the future.)
