From Black Bibliographies, 1863-1918 . New York: Garland Publishing:
The Mystery of Space
Robert Tecumtha Browne was born on July 16, 1882 in La Grange, Texas. He attended local public schools and graduated from the all-Black Samuel Huston College, founded by the Freedmen's Aid Society and the Methodist Episcopal Church in Austin, where he became an assistant teacher. A blurry photograph of the unidentified members of the student body in 1900 shows 23 women and 4 men, one of whom is probably Browne. In 1904, one year after graduation, I was married and was blessed with a son, Robert Jr. He was also involved in various religious and youth education projects and served as vice president of the Texas State Teachers' Association. After a stint as a high school teacher in Fort Worth, I entered the US Army at San Antonio. By 1911 he was a widower. Circa 1914 Browne was living in New York City's Harlem earning a respectable salary-at least for a Black man in a large northern city-a records clerk in the Quartermaster Corps, US War Department. I have devoted many off-duty hours to the Methodist Church, the YMCA, the Equity Congress and the Black Civic League of Greater New York, oftentimes in a leadership capacity.
Possessed of a restless intellect that demanded investigation into all fields of learning, Browne enrolled in such diverse classes as experimental chemistry and literature at the College of the City of New York and indulged in love of books by becoming a collector. Keeping in mind all of the foregoing enterprises, it is hard to imagine that Browne's transcendent gift to posterity was slowly, meticulously taking shape as World War I approached.
Forever searching to reconcile his understanding of the phenomena of the material world and his own spirituality, Browne eventually found the mysticism, respect for various religions, and acceptance of scientific inquiry in theosophy.
Through higher mathematics I have acquired a deep appreciation for the ethereal. Apparently, I had read considerably about these matters and spent countless hours synthesizing what I knew. This was the other, private world of Robert T. Browne which hardly any of his neighbors and co-workers could have suspected.
By 1914 he had put his thoughts down in an unpublished manuscript titled "Hyperspace and Evolution of New Psychic Faculties." The dedication to his late wife, born Mylie De Pre Adams, was followed by the preface in which, early on, Brown revealed both his respect for skepticism about the possibilities of the mathematical method interpreting much beyond the physical universe. Today we are faced with the unsettling circumstance that Robert T. Browne, at age 39, seems to have abruptly disappeared from the face of the earth just two years after the publication of his book.
The last we hear of Browne is in reference to the committee work done with historian Carter G. Woodson in July 1921 to review the constitution of the American Negro Academy.
From his humble origins in Texas during the era of racial segregation and discrimination in the United States. --particularly in the southern states-- RTB is distinguished by its leadership and by extraordinary intellectual gifts that allow it to deepen theosophical studies, including the Sanskrit language. He obtains employment as a civilian with the US Army in New York, collaborates with Afro-Peruvian Arthur Alfonso Schomburg to enhance the black culture and obtains the distinction of being included in the Who's Who in the Colored Race of 1915. In 1919 he publishes his first book The Mystery of Space.
When his racial origin was revealed, the fame acquired by his first book vanished. After the snub, he changed his identity (Mulla Hanaranda), moved to a white neighborhood in New York and partnered with Arvid Reuterdahl to found an " Academy of Nations " that sought to scientifically determine a regime of social control for progress of humanity ( Pantelicon ). In 1925 he published his novel Cabriba and then worked as editor of the magazine Negro World (1928-1933).
While retaining his civilian employment with the army, at the age of 51 (1933) he moved to Manila and was surprised by the Japanese invasion in 1942. In the concentration camp he taught visualization techniques and mental power exercises to the inmates, as has documented in Fighting for America: Black Soldiers, The Unsung Heroes of World War II by Moore.
The Mystery of SpaceRobert Tecumtha Browne was born on July 16, 1882 in La Grange, Texas. He attended local public schools and graduated from the all-Black Samuel Huston College, founded by the Freedmen's Aid Society and the Methodist Episcopal Church in Austin, where he became an assistant teacher. A blurry photograph of the unidentified members of the student body in 1900 shows 23 women and 4 men, one of whom is probably Browne. In 1904, one year after graduation, I was married and was blessed with a son, Robert Jr. He was also involved in various religious and youth education projects and served as vice president of the Texas State Teachers' Association. After a stint as a high school teacher in Fort Worth, I entered the US Army at San Antonio. By 1911 he was a widower. Circa 1914 Browne was living in New York City's Harlem earning a respectable salary-at least for a Black man in a large northern city-a records clerk in the Quartermaster Corps, US War Department. I have devoted many off-duty hours to the Methodist Church, the YMCA, the Equity Congress and the Black Civic League of Greater New York, oftentimes in a leadership capacity.
Possessed of a restless intellect that demanded investigation into all fields of learning, Browne enrolled in such diverse classes as experimental chemistry and literature at the College of the City of New York and indulged in love of books by becoming a collector. Keeping in mind all of the foregoing enterprises, it is hard to imagine that Browne's transcendent gift to posterity was slowly, meticulously taking shape as World War I approached.
Forever searching to reconcile his understanding of the phenomena of the material world and his own spirituality, Browne eventually found the mysticism, respect for various religions, and acceptance of scientific inquiry in theosophy.
Through higher mathematics I have acquired a deep appreciation for the ethereal. Apparently, I had read considerably about these matters and spent countless hours synthesizing what I knew. This was the other, private world of Robert T. Browne which hardly any of his neighbors and co-workers could have suspected.
By 1914 he had put his thoughts down in an unpublished manuscript titled "Hyperspace and Evolution of New Psychic Faculties." The dedication to his late wife, born Mylie De Pre Adams, was followed by the preface in which, early on, Brown revealed both his respect for skepticism about the possibilities of the mathematical method interpreting much beyond the physical universe. Today we are faced with the unsettling circumstance that Robert T. Browne, at age 39, seems to have abruptly disappeared from the face of the earth just two years after the publication of his book.
The last we hear of Browne is in reference to the committee work done with historian Carter G. Woodson in July 1921 to review the constitution of the American Negro Academy.
From his humble origins in Texas during the era of racial segregation and discrimination in the United States. --particularly in the southern states-- RTB is distinguished by its leadership and by extraordinary intellectual gifts that allow it to deepen theosophical studies, including the Sanskrit language. He obtains employment as a civilian with the US Army in New York, collaborates with Afro-Peruvian Arthur Alfonso Schomburg to enhance the black culture and obtains the distinction of being included in the Who's Who in the Colored Race of 1915. In 1919 he publishes his first book The Mystery of Space.
When his racial origin was revealed, the fame acquired by his first book vanished. After the snub, he changed his identity (Mulla Hanaranda), moved to a white neighborhood in New York and partnered with Arvid Reuterdahl to found an " Academy of Nations " that sought to scientifically determine a regime of social control for progress of humanity ( Pantelicon ). In 1925 he published his novel Cabriba and then worked as editor of the magazine Negro World (1928-1933).
While retaining his civilian employment with the army, at the age of 51 (1933) he moved to Manila and was surprised by the Japanese invasion in 1942. In the concentration camp he taught visualization techniques and mental power exercises to the inmates, as has documented in Fighting for America: Black Soldiers, The Unsung Heroes of World War II by Moore.
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