Counter-Earth in Early Sci-Fi: Edison Marshall’s Lost Classic

On this week’s Rocketeer Podcast, I dive into Edison Marshall’s “Who is Charles Avison?” (1916)—a long-overlooked gem of early science fiction. In this story, a man returns from a test flight in his antigravity ship only to find he’s no longer known in his hometown... and that he may have crossed over from a hidden twin Earth! It’s a striking use of the ancient “Counter-Earth” trope—Antichthon— that blends pulp adventure with cosmic mystery. This one’s got it all: lost time, doppelgangers, meteor flybys, and existential dread. Listen…

“Who is Charles Avison?” debuted in the April 1916 issue of Argosy.

Its second appearance was in the December 1939 issue of Famous Fantastic Mysteries

Its third appearance was in the collection “Shot in the Dark” (1950).