Note on Gnarly Man, immortality and 1939

[Charles Packer]

The thread about "The Gnarly Man" -- and its year of publication,
1939 -- brought to mind another novel about immortality
published that year: "After Many a Summer" by Aldous Huxley.
In that story a couple of humans were discovered who had been
living underground since the 18th century and had reverted to
ape-like hairiness and behavior. They had acquired immortality
from eating sturgeon entrails.

The year 1939 brought forth another story about immortality.
A news story, that is:
https://www.newspapers.com/article/st-louis-post-dispatch/147351787/
Newspaper coverage of the affair was nationwide and continued
through 1941 and was also written up in Time magazine. The
"experiment" ended when the mother decided she wanted her baby
returned to her.

[Tony Nance]

Post by Charles Packer
The thread about "The Gnarly Man" -- and its year of publication,
1939 -- brought to mind another novel about immortality
published that year: "After Many a Summer" by Aldous Huxley.
In that story a couple of humans were discovered who had been
living underground since the 18th century and had reverted to
ape-like hairiness and behavior. They had acquired immortality
from eating sturgeon entrails.
The year 1939 brought forth another story about immortality.
https://www.newspapers.com/article/st-louis-post-dispatch/147351787/
Newspaper coverage of the affair was nationwide and continued
through 1941 and was also written up in Time magazine. The
"experiment" ended when the mother decided she wanted her baby
returned to her.

Interesting, thanks. I'm not at all well-versed on Huxley's works. I
don't know if any of the social/global upheaval of the time inspired a
spike in stories about immortality or not. Surely, immortality has/had
been around in literature for a long time.

Thanks,
Tony