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Fraser, Joseph

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    Melbourne and Mars : my mysterious life on two planets : extracts from the diary of a Melbourne merchant
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Summary

Fraser was a professional phrenologist and physiognomist in the Melbourne suburb of Hawthorn during the 1880s. He produced a number of books and pamphlets, including Physiognomy Made Easy: The Art of Reading Faces (1889) and How to Read Men as Open Books, first published by A H Massina in the early 1890s with a new edition by E W Cole in 1911. In the late 1870s he toured New Zealand, visiting Parihaka where he examined the Maori spiritual leader Te Whiti, with the intention of giving lectures on his findings. His utopian novel, Melbourne and Mars: My Mysterious Life on Two Planets (1889) is regarded as one of the most significant works of early science fiction to be produced in colonial Australia.

Published resources

Books

  • Fraser, Joseph, Melbourne and Mars : my mysterious life on two planets : extracts from the diary of a Melbourne merchant , Pater & Knapton Print, Melbourne, 1889, 104 pp. Details

Rachael Weaver