Book Description
This digital document, covering the life and work of Ignatius Donnelly, is an entry from Contemporary Authors, a reference volume published by Thompson Gale. The length of the entry is 1870 words. The page length listed above is based on a typical 300-word page. Although the exact content of each entry from this volume can vary, typical entries include the following information:

• Place and date of birth and death (if deceased)
• Family members
• Education
• Professional associations and honors
• Employment
• Writings, including books and periodicals
• A description of the author's work
• References to further readings about the author

Book Description
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The most awful shrieks I ever heard broke from him; and the next moment his limbs seemed to lose their strength, and he fell in a heap on the floor; then he rolled over and over; mighty convulsions swept through him; he groaned, cried, shrieked, foamed at the mouth; there was a sudden snorting sound, and he stiffened out and was dead. ... Read more

Book Description
This book was converted from its physical edition to the digital format by a community of volunteers. You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery.Download Description
In the first place, there was no cause assigned for these waves, which must have been great enough to have swept over the tops of high mountains, for the evidences of the Drift age are found three thousand feet above the Baltic, four thousand feet high in the Grampians of Scotland, and six thousand feet high in New England. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

The Origin of Cataclysmic Legends
Ignatius Donnelly was born in 1831 Philadelphia and became a lawyer in 1852. Married in 1855, they moved to Minnesota. When Minnesota became a state in 1857 Donnelly was elected lieutenant governor. In 1862 he was elected to Congress for three terms. He campaigned for Greenback policies and served in the state senate. Donnelly wrote "Atlantis" and "Ragnarok" which became sensational best sellers and made him wealthy. "The Great Cryptogram" analyzed Shakespeare's plays to prove they were written by Francis Bacon. Two novels dealt with a fascist takeover of America "Caesar's Column", and racial intolerance "Dr. Huguet". In 1887 he became a founder of the Populist Party, and was nominated for Vice-President in 1898. He died in Minneapolis on 1/1/1901. His politics, oratory, and literature marked his originality and talents; his writings are now out of fashion.

Donnelly studied the legends and mythologies of Hindus, Persians, Britons, Chinese, Greeks, Scandinavians, the North, Central, and South American Indians, Arabians, Babylonians, and Egyptians that told of disaster by fire, hail, frost, darkness, changes in climates, and tales of dragons and other monsters. Donnelly claimed these reflected a visit from a giant comet, and the proof lay in The Drift of unstratified deposits which came from a cometic collision rather than glacial movement. Donnelly suggested a comet could have caused Old Testament events such as the destruction of the wicked cities, the sun standing still, and stones falling from the heavens. Ragnarok, the Twilight of the Gods (or Rain of Rocks), commanded the interest of general readers, and the admiration (if not credence) of the scientific world. Donnelly, a good lawyer, argued his case well with all the evidence available to him at the time. Decades later Immanuel Velikovsky would publish his version of this theory.

The surface of our planet consists of layers of sand, clay, and gravel (over stratified rock). It contains no trace of fossils. The pre-glacial world saw tropical plants growing near the Arctic Circle in Miocene times. Herds of elephants and other animals lived in Europe. Donnelly says a sudden cataclysm brought severe cold, and left deposits of sand, clay, and gravel; fissures were created in earth's crust. He explains why this was caused by a comet striking earth, the heat vaporizing the seas to create clouds, rain, and snow. Rocks on the surface would be smashed and crushed. This collision was preserved in the legends of mankind. The Great Lakes suggest points of impact. Vast clouds, and debris in the sky, would create a "nuclear winter".

Donnelly says myths and legends are ultimately based on some fact. Finding the same legends among different nations suggests a common experience in prehistoric times. These myths of a cataclysm imply the existence of mankind; they are in accord with the facts known to science and from deep excavations. The legends coincide in this: a monster in the air; the heat; the fire; the cave-life; the darkness; the return of light. Donnelly respectfully suggests the Book of Job is the oldest in the Bible, and gives a new viewpoint to the beginning of Genesis.

Donnelly answers objections in Part IV Chapter IV. The position of certain constellations in Job estimates this time as 30,000 years ago. Donnelly suggests the fire that seemed to drop out of the heavens and set a number of fires in Wisconsin, Michigan, and Illinois on October 8, 1871 was the result of Bielas' comet. There is a universal feeling that regards comets with fear; Revelation (chapter xii, v.3) is a symbol of a comet brushing the earth. Why would God permit such a calamity? Perhaps what was destroyed was not worth preserving? It could be God's plan to punish the wicked of this world, says Donnelly.

The Origin of Cataclysmic Legends
Ignatius Donnelly was born in 1831 Philadelphia and became a lawyer in 1852. Married in 1855, they moved to Minnesota. When Minnesota became a state in 1857 Donnelly was elected lieutenant governor. In 1862 he was elected to Congress for three terms. He campaigned for Greenback policies and served in the state senate. Donnelly wrote "Atlantis" and "Ragnarok" which became sensational best sellers and made him wealthy. "The Great Cryptogram" analyzed Shakespeare's plays to prove they were written by Francis Bacon. Two novels dealt with a fascist takeover of America "Caesar's Column", and racial intolerance "Dr. Huguet". In 1887 he became a founder of the Populist Party, and was nominated for Vice-President in 1898. He died in Minneapolis on 1/1/1901. His politics, oratory, and literature marked his originality and talents; his writings are now out of fashion.

Donnelly studied the legends and mythologies of Hindus, Persians, Britons, Chinese, Greeks, Scandinavians, the North, Central, and South American Indians, Arabians, Babylonians, and Egyptians that told of disaster by fire, hail, frost, darkness, changes in climates, and tales of dragons and other monsters. Donnelly claimed these reflected a visit from a giant comet, and the proof lay in The Drift of unstratified deposits which came from a cometic collision rather than glacial movement. Donnelly suggested a comet could have caused Old Testament events such as the destruction of the wicked cities, the sun standing still, and stones falling from the heavens. Ragnarok, the Twilight of the Gods (or Rain of Rocks), commanded the interest of general readers, and the admiration (if not credence) of the scientific world. Donnelly, a good lawyer, argued his case well with all the evidence available to him at the time. Decades later Immanuel Velikovsky would publish his version of this theory.

The surface of our planet consists of layers of sand, clay, and gravel (over stratified rock). It contains no trace of fossils. The pre-glacial world saw tropical plants growing near the Arctic Circle in Miocene times. Herds of elephants and other animals lived in Europe. Donnelly says a sudden cataclysm brought severe cold, and left deposits of sand, clay, and gravel; fissures were created in earth's crust. He explains why this was caused by a comet striking earth, the heat vaporizing the seas to create clouds, rain, and snow. Rocks on the surface would be smashed and crushed. This collision was preserved in the legends of mankind. The Great Lakes suggest points of impact. Vast clouds, and debris in the sky, would create a "nuclear winter".

Donnelly says myths and legends are ultimately based on some fact. Finding the same legends among different nations suggests a common experience in prehistoric times. These myths of a cataclysm imply the existence of mankind; they are in accord with the facts known to science and from deep excavations. The legends coincide in this: a monster in the air; the heat; the fire; the cave-life; the darkness; the return of light. Donnelly respectfully suggests the Book of Job is the oldest in the Bible, and gives a new viewpoint to the beginning of Genesis.

Donnelly answers objections in Part IV Chapter IV. The position of certain constellations in Job estimates this time as 30,000 years ago. Donnelly suggests the fire that seemed to drop out of the heavens and set a number of fires in Wisconsin, Michigan, and Illinois on October 8, 1871 was the result of Bielas' comet. There is a universal feeling that regards comets with fear; Revelation (chapter xii, v.3) is a symbol of a comet brushing the earth. Why would God permit such a calamity? Perhaps what was destroyed was not worth preserving? It could be God's plan to punish the wicked of this world, says Donnelly.

How much do we realy know?
Ignatius Donnelly was a 19th century populist and freethinker whose books on Atlantis were groundbreakers--in fact the first serious look at the possibility of an antideluvian continent of high culture that existed in the mid-Atlantic.

Despite some flaws not fully proven Donnelly does manage to bring up a number of questions of the revisionist variety that later researchers have used in research in the ensuing 100 years.

Ragnarok also avoids a lot of the "channelling" and new age gobbledegook so familiar with fans of the genre. Highly recommended as an introduction. ... Read more

Book Description
The only full-length biography of one of the Midwest's most important, 19th-century political and intellectual leaders. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Misinformation about Governor Davis H. Waite
This work is very good about Ignatius and the people in his world. Probably the most complete works on Donnelly to date.

The informationabout Governor Waite's Bloody Bridle Speech is distorted and incorrect.Infact this page # 323 isn't even footnoted in theWaite index. To get acorrect copy of this speech, feel free to E-mail me. Frank S. Waite ... Read more