Harold T. Wilkins
Harold Tom Wilkins (June 1891—1960) was a British journalist known for his pseudohistoric claims about Atlantis and South America.[1][2]
Biography
Brought up in Gloucester, the son of Albert Wilkins, an engine driver, and his wife Leah, Wilkins read English and history at Cambridge University and began a career in journalism. In the First World War he was imprisoned as a conscientious objector. He regularly reported on the early television experiments of John L. Baird, during the years 1926—1932.
Wilkins wrote a detailed description on the mystery of the Mary Celeste in his book Mysteries Solved and Unsolved.[3][4]
In the 1950s he published books claiming that UFOs are hostile.[2] Wilkins also wrote about White Gods, writing that a vanished white race had occupied the whole of South America in ancient times.[5] Wilkins was also an influence on the hollow earth theory, as he located the descendants of Atlantis to underground tunnels in South America especially in Brazil, he also discussed underground tunnels in other locations such as the Andes.[6][7]
Reception
The anthropologist John Alden Mason has described Wilkin's research as pseudohistory and noted that most of his statements capable of verification turned out to be incorrect.[1]
A review in Western Folklore claimed that Wilkin's Mysteries of Ancient South America reads like a science fiction book due to its pseudohistoric claims.[8]
Jason Colavito has noted that Wilkins was a plagiarist. In his book Secret Cities of Old South America he had taken material from Madame Blavatsky's Secret Doctrine.[9]
Books published
- Pirate treasure
- Hunting Hidden Treasures (1929)
- Modern Buried Treasure Hunters (1934)
- Pirate treasure (1934)
- Captain Kidd and his Skeleton Island (1937)
- Panorama of Pirate Treasure (1940)
- Mysteries and Monsters of the Deep (1948)
- The Mystery and Legend of Cocos Treasure Island (1948)
- Ancient astronaut and UFO
- Flying Saucers on the Attack (1954)
- Flying Saucers on the Moon (1954)
- Flying Saucers Uncensored (1955)
- South America
- Mysteries of Ancient South America (1945)
- Secret Cities of Old South America (1952)
- Other
- Strange Mysteries of Time and Space (1958)
- Mysteries Solved And Unsolved (1961)
Articles
- "Secrets of Ancient Torture Chambers" in Popular Mechanics Sep 1929 p.402[10]
References
- 1 2 Mason, John Alden. (1952). South America—Fact and Fancy. Archaeology. Vol. 5, No. 4. p. 254.
- 1 2 Clark, Jerome. (1990). The UFO Encyclopedia. Omnigraphics. p. 403. ISBN 0-7808-0097-4
- ↑ Spence, Lewis; Fodor, Nandor. (1991). Encyclopedia of Occultism & Parapsychology. Gale Research Company. p. 1035. ISBN 0-8103-4907-8 "The most complete survey is that of Harold T. Wilkins in his book Mysteries Solved and Unsolved (London, 1958; reissued in paperback as Mysteries, 1961)".
- ↑ Begg, Paul. Mary Celeste: The Greatest Mystery of the Sea. Pearson Education Limited. p. 101.
- ↑ The Pan American, Volume 7, Famous Features Syndicate, 1946, p. 11 "Harold T. Wilkins Legend of a Fabulous Empire" discusses Wilkins belief about a "strange white race living in lost cities, amidst the crumbling ruins of once splendid palaces and temples in South America"
- ↑ Pennick, Nigel. (1981). The Subterranean Kingdom: A Survey of Man-Made Structures Beneath the Earth. Turnstone Press. p. 82.
- ↑ Wilson, Colin. (1992). Unsolved Mysteries. BBS Publishing Corporation. p. 160.
- ↑ Kirtley, Bacil F. (1958). Irish Folk Ways by E. Estyn Evans; Folklore of Other Lands by Arthur M. Selvi; Lothar Kahn; Robert C. Soule; A Year-Book of Customs by Christine Chaundler; Mysteries of Ancient South America by Harold T. Wilkins. Western Folklore. Vol. 17, No. 4. pp. 296-298.
- ↑ Coloavito, Jason. (2014). "The Giants of Thera: A Case of Repeated Copying". Retrieved 2015-05-12.
- ↑ "Popular Mechanics". Google.com.