The Travels and Adventures of Little Baron Trump

“…Little Baron Trump, like the great Munchhausen, has a passion for travel, a lust of adventure, a fever of imagination. He sees, says and does queer things. …We owe Ingersoll Lockwood thanks that he has given us simply a delightful example of the art of sustained fooling…”  —Boston Times, 1890

The Travels and Adventures of Little Baron Trump and His Wonderful Dog Bulger by INGERSOLL LOCKWOOD, with illustrations by George Wharton Edwards, is a mixture of travel adventure, science fiction, and fantasy. Published in 1890, it became one of Lockwood’s most popular works, together with his other children’s book Baron Trump’s Marvellous Underground Journey, published in 1893.  

In 2017, when almost all the news deals with the Trump presidency, The Travels and Adventures of Little Baron Trump drew attention due to its uncanny connections with President Trump and his family. The book’s main character, Baron Trump, is a wealthy boy with abnormal strength living in Castle Trump, and just like President Donald Trump, is of German heritage. What makes the story even more remarkable is that Baron Trump is guided by “the master of all masters,” a man named “Don,” to start his voyage to Russia. Even stranger, in Lockwood’s final novel, The Last President (1896), New York City fears the collapse of the republic in 1900 after the transition of presidential power and Americans protest a corrupt election process. Are these books a bizarre coincidence or are they prophetic? Let the reader decide.