UK-born journalist, editor and customhouse official.
He is now universally regarded as author of the famous "Great Moon Hoax".
Beginning on 21 August 1835, several issues of the New York Sun carried articles purporting to describe the inhabitants of the Moon and their environs, culminating on 30 August with a description of the "Temple of the Moon", where lunar natives known as Man-bats were seen to congregate; all these observations were attributed to the distinguished astronomer Sir John Herschel (1792-1871), who had made them with the aid of a new, high-magnification telescope. The Sun published the articles in pamphlet form in September; title variations include Great Astronomical Discoveries Lately Made by Sir John Herschel at the Cape of Good Hope and A Complete Account of the Late Discoveries in the Moon.
