George Tucker's Voyage to the Moon (Day Three)

With attempting to better sync up with Wikipedia's featured articles, I decided to just search the random articles for today's post.  Tomorrow the journey will return to its regularly planned programming.

First off, I have known of George Tucker (August 20, 1775 – April 10, 1861), the "United States attorney, author, educator, and politician," for a number of years now, yet lo and behold, Wikipedia provides the ever-unexpected and thus ever-surprising.

The standard narrative of Tucker's life runs, as such:

Tucker published the first comprehensive biography of Thomas Jefferson, as well as a history of the United States.... He was elected in 1816 to the Virginia House of Delegates for one term, and served in the United States House of Representatives from 1819 to 1825.... [U]pon completion of his Congressional term, he accepted an appointment extended by Thomas Jefferson, somewhat ironically, to serve as Professor of Moral Philosophy at the University of Virginia; he continued in that post until 1845. He then relocated to Philadelphia and continued to research and write on a variety of topics, including monetary policy and socio-economics.

Nevertheless, on to the unexpected I mentioned, who knew that this 18th Century conservative also authored "the first fiction of colonial life in Virginia and a second which is one of America's earliest science fictions"?

Regarding the latter, Wikipedia blurbs:

In 1827, using the pseudonym Joseph Atterley, he wrote the satire A Voyage to the Moon: With Some Account of the Manners and Customs, Science and Philosophy, of the People of Morosofia, and Other Lunarians. It is one of the earliest American works of science fiction, and was relatively successful, earning Tucker $100 from the sale of one thousand copies. It received positive reviews from the American Quarterly Review and the Western Monthly Review. Tucker uses The Voyage to ridicule the social manners, religion and professions of some of his colleagues and to criticize some erroneous scientific methods and results apparent to him at the time.

As fan of history, philosophy, and social commentary, as well as a frequent science fiction reader, I just added a new book to my 2015 reading list. Hope you have as well!