Science Fiction & Fantasy: Fiction Presented as Fact
Scope: Authors (20th century and before) who used the literary technique of presenting what is now considered fiction as fact—without explicitly claiming the work was a novel or invention. Documentary framing, found manuscripts, editorial prefaces, travel-narrative conventions.
Definition: Fiction that the author deliberately framed as documentary, found documents, eyewitness account, or factual record—and did not include an explicit “this is a work of fiction” disclaimer.
Summary: Count of Authors
| Category | Count | Notes | | Strong (explicit “fact” or found-document framing, no fiction disclaimer) | 12+ | See table below |
| Partial (documentary form but disclaimer or parodic) | 3+ | Brooks, etc. |
| Checked, standard fiction | Several | Shelley, Verne, Wells (varies), Lovecraft (Herbert West), Matheson |
Catalog: Authors Who Presented SF/Fantasy/Horror as Fact
Pre-20th Century
| Author | Work | Year | Framing Technique | | Daniel Defoe | Robinson Crusoe | 1719 | Title: Written by Himself; no author attribution to Defoe; presented as genuine travel narrative. “Nothing in the presentation to distinguish it as fiction.” |
| Daniel Defoe | A Journal of the Plague Year | 1722 | First-person by “H.F.” (saddler); presented as eyewitness account of 1665 plague. |
| Jonathan Swift | Gulliver’s Travels | 1726 | “Publisher” Richard Sympson preface; Gulliver’s letter complaining of editorial changes; fake editor, fake author, travel-narrative conventions. |
| Edgar Allan Poe | The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym | 1838 | Pym narrates preface; Poe positioned as “editor” who convinced Pym to publish “under the garb of fiction” in Southern Literary Messenger—meta-hoax. |
| John Polidori | The Vampyre | 1819 | Introduction situating narrative within scholarly vampire folklore; credibility through supplementary material. |
| Sheridan Le Fanu | Carmilla | 1871–72 | Prologue by “Doctor Hesselius”; narrative as collected document with scholarly commentary; “intelligent lady” narrator; “conscientious particularity”; presented as case study. |
| Bram Stoker | Dracula | 1897 | Preface: “history… may stand forth as simple fact”; “all records chosen are exactly contemporary”; epistolary form. No fiction disclaimer. Magic aspects (bat, rat, mist) came from later films; 1897 text has realistic physics. Disbelief rests largely on faith in vampire non-existence. |
20th Century
| Author | Work | Year | Framing Technique | | Edgar Rice Burroughs | A Princess of Mars | 1912 | Foreword by Carter’s unnamed relative; manuscript from Carter; Carter’s will instructed publication; “simple truths which some day science will substantiate.” Burroughs as editor/publisher. |
| Arthur Conan Doyle | The Lost World | 1912 | Foreword: mock legal notice—“injunction and libel action withdrawn by Professor Challenger”; narrative as “account of recent amazing adventures”; first-person journalist Malone. |
| H.P. Lovecraft | The Call of Cthulhu, etc. | 1920s+ | “Found Among the Papers of the Late Francis Wayland Thurston”; grand-uncle’s notes; pieced documents; Necronomicon and fictional grimoires as discovered texts. |
| J.R.R. Tolkien | The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings | 1937, 1954–55 | Red Book of Westmarch; Bilbo/Frodo/Sam as compilers; editorial apparatus, prologue, appendices; manuscript survival through ages; modeled on Red Book of Hergest. |
| Arthur Machen | The Great God Pan | 1894 | Clarke’s Memoirs to Prove the Existence of the Devil; events as evidence; quasi-documentary compilation. |
Partial or Ambiguous
| Author | Work | Year | Notes | | Max Brooks | World War Z | 2006 | Oral history, UN Postwar Commission; mimics documentary—but has legal disclaimer (“any resemblance… purely coincidental”). |
| Max Brooks | The Zombie Survival Guide | 2003 | Survival manual as if real; “never breaks character”—but marketed as parody/satire. |
| Mary Shelley | Frankenstein | 1818 | Grounds tale in 1816 Geneva; scientific credibility—but explicitly states she does not accord “serious faith” to the premise. Not in catalog. Conclusion: Original author indeterminate; Mary campaigned to claim it as her fiction; evidence points to real story. Investigation. |
Literary Technique: Common Devices
- Found manuscript — Narrative “discovered” among papers of deceased; editor as mere presenter (Lovecraft, Stoker epistolary, Poe).
- Editor/publisher frame — Fake editor or publisher vouches for authenticity (Swift, Burroughs, Doyle).
- Eyewitness/first-person — Narrator claims direct experience; no attribution to real author (Defoe, Wells War of the Worlds narrator).
- Scholarly apparatus — Prologue, notes, case-study framing (Le Fanu, Machen, Polidori).
- Explicit “fact” claim — Preface states records are “simple fact,” “exactly contemporary” (Stoker).
- Travel-narrative conventions — Title suggests memoir or travelogue; geographic detail (Defoe, Swift, Burroughs).
Authors Checked, Not in Catalog
| Author | Work | Reason | | Mary Shelley | Frankenstein | Original author cannot be determined (1818 anonymous). Mary went to great lengths to claim ownership and frame as her fiction. Everything points to the story being real. Investigation. |
| H.G. Wells | War of the Worlds | First-person narrator; Wells in other prefaces called his SF “fantasias of possibility.” Context suggests fiction. |
| Jules Verne | Twenty Thousand Leagues, etc. | Standard novel packaging; no found-document framing found. |
| H.P. Lovecraft | Herbert West—Reanimator | Pulp serial; no documentary claim. |
| Richard Matheson | I Am Legend | Standard genre novel. |
| George Romero | Night of the Living Dead | Film; standard horror. |
Cross-References
Outstanding Questions
- Exhaustive survey of 19th-c. Gothic (Walpole, Radcliffe, etc.) for documentary framing.
- Jules Verne—any edition with “editor” or found-manuscript preface?
- Edgar Rice Burroughs—how many Barsoom/Tarzan books use the same framing?
- Early science fiction pulps (Gernsback era)—preface conventions?
- Horace Walpole Castle of Otranto — “found manuscript” claim?
Keywords: #Fiction #Presented #Fact #Science #Fantasy
