Introduction

Friend Island is one of those peculiar gems that slipped through the cracks of literary history. Published in 1918 in All-Story Weekly, it's a prime example of early speculative fiction—written by Francis Stevens, the pen name of Gertrude Barrows Bennett, often credited as the first American woman to publish science fiction under her own name. Her work prefigured the likes of Ursula K. Le Guin and Margaret Atwood, carving space for women in a genre long dominated by men.

In this surreal tale, a tough female sailor recounts her visit to an island that seems...alive. The story is filtered through layered narration, with a male interlocutor relaying her account—casting doubt, curiosity, and a pinch of disbelief. There’s flight, there’s isolation, there’s a cheeky monkey, and there’s a landscape that responds emotionally to its visitors.

While the prose bears the flavor of the early 1900s—odd phrasing, whimsical vocabulary—it adds to the charm. Readers might find the narrative voice quaint, even alien at times, but it’s precisely that strangeness that makes Friend Island memorable. Is it fantasy? Magical realism? Feminist parable? It defies classification, much like the island itself.

Take it as an adventure, a literary time capsule, or just a weird little story that might linger in the back of your mind longer than you expect.