Tonight at dinner I was reading about Alexander Ramsey and Ignatius Donnelly.

Ramsey was the first territorial governor of Minnesota, appointed by Zachary Taylor in 1849, then he was the second governor, elected in 1859, and later Secretary of War under Rutherford B. Hayes from 1879-1881.

Donnelly was lieutenant governor under Ramsey and he was a bit of a queer bird.

He was a writer and amateur scientist and he had wild theories about Atlantis, catastrophism and Shakespearean authorship.

His first book was about Atlantis, and it was very popular, though it was also complete bullshit. It was he, though, who popularised the idea of Atlantis as an antediluvian civilisation. 

His second book detailed his theory that the Flood had been brought on by a near-collision of the earth with a comet or something.

His third book was called The Great Cryptogram, and it’s about his theory that Francis Bacon actually wrote the works of Shakspere.

After the publication of that one, he went to England to arrange for publication there, and he spoke at Oxford and Cambridge, but they weren’t having it and the book was a complete failure.

But the fun part is that I have a copy of that book. Given that it was a failure, I don’t imagine they reprinted it after the first printing, so maybe it’s rare. That’d be cool. I haven’t actually looked into its potential rarity yet.