The Smoky God
Or, A Voyage to the Inner World
by Willis George Emerson 1856–1918
The book, and the century it came out of.
A Norwegian sailor and his father sail through an opening at the pole into a world inside the earth, lit by a smoky central sun, where the people stand twelve feet high — and the survivor tells it as a deathbed deposition. Emerson was an Iowa lawyer and mining promoter who founded a town in Wyoming; he presented this 1908 hoax as a true manuscript, and hollow-earth believers have quoted it as evidence ever since. Illustrated with 49 full-page plates — paintings by Cauvin, Aivazovsky and Isabey among them.
“He is the God who sits in the center, on the navel of the earth, and he is the interpreter of religion to all mankind.”—PLATO.
The Smoky God, by Willis George Emerson, complete and unabridged. Spelling and punctuation follow present-day American usage; the sentences, the paragraphs and the voice are the author’s, word for word.
It was written in another era and may carry attitudes a reader today will find dated. They are kept for the sake of the work and do not reflect the views of this house.
- Series
- Science Fiction
- Format
- Ebook
- Extent
- about 56 pages
- Reading time
- about an hour
- Illustrations
- Full-page plates, credited
- Text
- Complete, unabridged
- Language
- en
- This edition
- 2026
- ISBN
- 9785486196614
49 paintings are bound into this edition
Six of them are shown here, taken from the volume itself. Each is reproduced full page and named with its painter and year.
A page from this edition
Not a mock-up: this page is taken from the finished volume. The ornament above the chapter belongs to its shelf and to no other, the opening letter is set as a drop capital, and the plate below carries the name of the painter and the year.
Both photographed from the finished volume.
The Smoky God, first published 1908, issued in this edition by Aeneas Press in 2026 on the Science Fiction shelf. Newly set, with the ornament of its series above each chapter and a drop capital on the opening page. Illustrated with full-page plates, each named with its painter.
Published as an ebook and not issued in print by this house; it carries one ISBN, 9785486196614, and is supplied worldwide. This edition — its setting, its ornament, its cover art, and the selection and attribution of its plates — © 2026 Aeneas Press.
Questions readers ask
- Is this the whole of The Smoky God?
- Yes — complete and unabridged. Nothing is cut, condensed or paraphrased. This is the book, not a summary of it.
- What exactly did you change?
- The spelling and the punctuation follow present-day American usage. Willis George Emerson's sentences are untouched — same words, same order, same rhythm.
- Are the pictures really in the book?
- Yes. The edition carries full-page plates bound into the text, each one named with its painter and the year it was made. Six of them are shown on this page.
- How long is it?
- About 56 pages, which is roughly about an hour of reading.
- What do I actually get?
- An illustrated ebook with its own ISBN, sold worldwide. One file, yours to keep, readable on any device.
