From the Earth to the Moon

novel by Verne

Also known as: “De la Terre à la lune”, “The American Gun Club”, “The Baltimore Gun Club”

Written and fact-checked by The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica

Article History

From the Earth to the Moon, novel by Jules Verne, published as De la Terre à la Lune (1865) and also published as The Baltimore Gun Club and The American Gun Club. Although the novel was subtitled Trajet direct en 97 heures 20 minutes (“Direct Passage in Ninety-seven Hours and Twenty Minutes”), the actual journey to the Moon was depicted in the book’s sequel, Autour de la Lune (1870; Round the Moon).

From the Earth to the Moon concerns a group of obsessive American Civil War veterans, members of the Baltimore Gun Club, who conceive the idea of creating an enormous cannon in order to shoot a “space-bullet” to the Moon from a site in Florida.

This article was most recently revised and updated by Kathleen Kuiper.