The Boston Globe has an interesting article about Percival Lowell, "The man who invented Mars." Ok, so Mars existed before Lowell ever peered through his telescope. But, the 19th Century Boston native contributed greatly to the public perception of the Red Planet. Lowell was obsessed with proving that there was intelligent life on Mars and was a great popularizer of his ideas, much to the dismay of the rest of the scientific community. His ideas and their future incarnations in Science Fiction carries influence into the modern world and NASA's history of Mars probes.
Worth the read:
http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/magazine/articles/2008/04/27/the_man_who_invented_mars/?page=full
