The Man in the Moone

Francis Godwin (1562-1633) was an English divine, science fiction author, and historian. Born in Northamptonshire, he was the son of Thomas Godwin, Bishop of Bath and Wells. In 1583, he earned his master’s degree from Christ Church, Oxford and was appointed subdean of Exeter four years later. In 1590, he embarked on a tour of Wales with antiquarian William Camden. Godwin earned his Doctor of Divinity in 1595 and spent the next several decades working on such theological and historical tracts as Catalogue of the Bishops of England since the first planting of the Christian Religion in this Island (1601), which earned him an appointment as Bishop of the diocese of Llandaff. His posthumously published The Man in the Moone (1638) is considered an important early work of utopian science fiction that would influence generations of writers and political thinkers, including his grandnephew Jonathan Swift.