Garrett Putman Selvis

Garrett Putnam Serviss (1851–1929) was an American astronomer, popular science writer, and early science fiction author. Born in Sharon Springs, New York, he graduated from Cornell University in 1872 and later studied law at Columbia, though he never practiced. Instead, he joined The New York Sun as a journalist in 1876, writing about astronomy and eventually becoming the paper's science editor. His gift for explaining the heavens in accessible language made him one of the most widely read science popularizers of his era.

Serviss first gained fame with Astronomy with an Opera-Glass (1888), a guide to stargazing with simple binoculars that remained popular for decades. His other nonfiction works include Pleasures of the Telescope (1901) and Curiosities of the Sky (1909).

He is best remembered today as a pioneer of American science fiction. His 1898 serial Edison's Conquest of Mars, an unofficial sequel to H.G. Wells's The War of the Worlds, is considered one of the earliest space adventures and helped shape the "Edisonade" genre. He also wrote the novels The Moon Metal (1900) and A Columbus of Space (1909). Serviss died in 1929, leaving a legacy bridging popular astronomy and early speculative fiction.