Dr. Paul Schliemann

How I Found the Lost Atlantis Dr. Paul Schliemann

On October 20th, 1912, readers of the New York American were regaled with a startling and perhaps history-making story in a lavish two-page spread. Paul Schliemann, grandson of Heinrich Schliemann, the famous archeologist who excavated Mycenae and the legendary city of Troy, revealed that his grandfather on his deathbed produced a mysterious bequest for any of his heirs willing to devote their life to proving the existence of Atlantis. He claimed that he had spent years following up on this and now was about to produce actual physical evidence of the reality of the fabled lost continent. Or was he.... The New York American was one of the newspapers started by William Randolph Hearst which spawned the term 'Yellow Journalism', the predecessor of such distinguished modern supermarket tabloids such as the National Enquirer. Hearst newspapers could be relied upon for banner headlines, sensational scoops, heart-tugging sob stories, and yarns which skirted the boundaries of good taste, if not logic. So in context, this article, which has occasionally been cited as an actual contribution to the study of Atlantis, can be appreciated as merely a diversion on the level of the Bat Boy or Aliens in the Oval Office.