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What would a teenage Benjamin Franklin do with an iPhone after he discovers porn? From Philip K. Dick Award winning author Meg Elison comes this ingenious satire of U.S. history and modern technocracy gone terribly, terribly wrong.
"Relentlessly, brutally, scathingly, funny. I'd expect nothing less from the one and only Meg Elison."
-Sarah Gailey, author of Spread Me
The trouble starts when a curious young man finds a smartphone in his privy. The problem is, it's supposed to be the year 1750.
The Antediluvian Society-a shadowy cabal of right-wing billionaires-is fed up with a country they cannot fully control or understand. So they have done what any reasonable American patriots would do: Clone the Founding Fathers and raise them in secrecy. The plan, unbeknownst to the boys, is for them to restore America to its "original glory."
Ben takes his technological discovery to his brothers, Thomas, John, and George. The boys have been raised on an isolated island plantation by Mary Libertas, a firm but kind woman, and Jeff Hancock, their de facto father. But the idyllic life is far too dull for young men. The boys have been chafing at the restrictions upon them (especially Tom, who has impregnated yet another of the servants). Hancock is complaining to the Society that it's well past the time to tell the boys where they come from and what they must do.
Unfortunately for their keepers, the young men now have a phone...and many other notions.
Seamlessly combining science fiction and history with sharp, witty commentary, Meg Elison has once again shown why she is one of speculative fiction's most exciting voices.
Meg Elison is the author of The Book of the Unnamed Midwife, winner of the 2014 Philip K. Dick Award. Her young adult novel, Find Layla, was named one of Vanity Fair's best books of the year. Her collection, Big Girl, contains the Locus Award-winning novelette The Pill. Elison has published dozens of science fiction, fantasy, and horror short stories in outlets including Uncanny, Fangoria, Nightmare, Clarkesworld, and Fantasy & Science Fiction, as well as in several anthologies for the best stories of the year. As an essayist and satirist, she has published nonfiction in McSweeney's, Electric Literature, Reactor, and Psychopomp. Elison is a high school dropout and a graduate of UC Berkeley. She has been a Clayton B. Ofstad endowed distinguished writer-in-residence, as well as a Fred and Lola Case Writer. Elison is married to the cartoonist Colin Lidston, and she lives in the Berkshires in Massachusetts.
• The Founding Fathers are not ready-or willing-to save America for the wealthy again. This satirical science-fiction novella is a thought-provoking juxtaposition of a cloning experiment with "patriotism" gone terribly wrong
• Meg Elison is the winner of the Philip K. Dick Award-winning novel The Book of Etta
• Promotion at major trade and genre conventions; book launch, NYC and national tour, readings, and signings; features, interviews, and reviews in historical, literary and genre venues; ARC galley distribution; co-op advertising available Den of Geek Most Anticipated Books of 2026
"Foundling Fathers is an American revelation. Meg Elison is a singular, incisive wit (at least until they clone her)."
-Charlie Jane Anders, author of Lessons in Magic and Disaster
"Audaciously funny and painfully accurate. Elison sends up our nation's flawed history and fervent mythologizing with creativity and wit."
-Samantha Mills, multiple award-winning author of The Wings Upon Her Back
"This is exactly the kind of preposterous shit I would expect if cloning became more widely available which is both sad and hilarious. This book absolutely hooked me in about two pages."
-Powder & Page
"Relentlessly, brutally, scathingly, funny. I'd expect nothing less from the one and only Meg Elison."
-Sarah Gailey, author of Spread Me
"Meg Elison delive
"Relentlessly, brutally, scathingly, funny. I'd expect nothing less from the one and only Meg Elison."
-Sarah Gailey, author of Spread Me
The trouble starts when a curious young man finds a smartphone in his privy. The problem is, it's supposed to be the year 1750.
The Antediluvian Society-a shadowy cabal of right-wing billionaires-is fed up with a country they cannot fully control or understand. So they have done what any reasonable American patriots would do: Clone the Founding Fathers and raise them in secrecy. The plan, unbeknownst to the boys, is for them to restore America to its "original glory."
Ben takes his technological discovery to his brothers, Thomas, John, and George. The boys have been raised on an isolated island plantation by Mary Libertas, a firm but kind woman, and Jeff Hancock, their de facto father. But the idyllic life is far too dull for young men. The boys have been chafing at the restrictions upon them (especially Tom, who has impregnated yet another of the servants). Hancock is complaining to the Society that it's well past the time to tell the boys where they come from and what they must do.
Unfortunately for their keepers, the young men now have a phone...and many other notions.
Seamlessly combining science fiction and history with sharp, witty commentary, Meg Elison has once again shown why she is one of speculative fiction's most exciting voices.
Meg Elison is the author of The Book of the Unnamed Midwife, winner of the 2014 Philip K. Dick Award. Her young adult novel, Find Layla, was named one of Vanity Fair's best books of the year. Her collection, Big Girl, contains the Locus Award-winning novelette The Pill. Elison has published dozens of science fiction, fantasy, and horror short stories in outlets including Uncanny, Fangoria, Nightmare, Clarkesworld, and Fantasy & Science Fiction, as well as in several anthologies for the best stories of the year. As an essayist and satirist, she has published nonfiction in McSweeney's, Electric Literature, Reactor, and Psychopomp. Elison is a high school dropout and a graduate of UC Berkeley. She has been a Clayton B. Ofstad endowed distinguished writer-in-residence, as well as a Fred and Lola Case Writer. Elison is married to the cartoonist Colin Lidston, and she lives in the Berkshires in Massachusetts.
• The Founding Fathers are not ready-or willing-to save America for the wealthy again. This satirical science-fiction novella is a thought-provoking juxtaposition of a cloning experiment with "patriotism" gone terribly wrong
• Meg Elison is the winner of the Philip K. Dick Award-winning novel The Book of Etta
• Promotion at major trade and genre conventions; book launch, NYC and national tour, readings, and signings; features, interviews, and reviews in historical, literary and genre venues; ARC galley distribution; co-op advertising available Den of Geek Most Anticipated Books of 2026
"Foundling Fathers is an American revelation. Meg Elison is a singular, incisive wit (at least until they clone her)."
-Charlie Jane Anders, author of Lessons in Magic and Disaster
"Audaciously funny and painfully accurate. Elison sends up our nation's flawed history and fervent mythologizing with creativity and wit."
-Samantha Mills, multiple award-winning author of The Wings Upon Her Back
"This is exactly the kind of preposterous shit I would expect if cloning became more widely available which is both sad and hilarious. This book absolutely hooked me in about two pages."
-Powder & Page
"Relentlessly, brutally, scathingly, funny. I'd expect nothing less from the one and only Meg Elison."
-Sarah Gailey, author of Spread Me
"Meg Elison delive