[Portis is] the least known great writer in America.Ron Rosenbaum, Esquire

Following the enthusiastically received reissues of Charles Portiss The Dog of the South and Norwood comes the republication of Masters of Atlantis, Portiss white comedy of secret societies, lost cities, and American dreamers.

This comic masterpiece centers on Lamar Jimmerson, the leader of the Gnomon Society, the international fraternal order dedicated to preserving the arcane wisdom of the lost city of Atlantis. Stationed in France in 1917, Jimmerson comes across a little book crammed with Atlantean puzzles, Egyptian riddles, and extended alchemical metaphors. Its the Codex Pappusthe sacred Gnomon text. Soon he is basking in the lore of lost Atlantis, convinced that his mission on earth is to administer to and extend the ranks of this noble brotherhood.

Taking us through the entire cycle of Gnomonismthrough the publication of Jimmersons own Gnomic texts, through the schism that rocks the Gnomic community, through Jimmersons disastrous bid to become the governor of Indiana, to the fateful gathering of the Gnomons in a mobile-home park in East TexasMasters of Atlantis is a cockeyed journey into an America of misfits and con-men, oddballs and innocents. It is quintessential Portis.