The Aztec Treasure-House, billed as "A Romance of Contemporaneous Antiquity," is a lost-race novel, as the narrator travels to Mexico and finds a lost tribe of Aztecs, hidden treasure, and gold. Thomas Allibone Janvier (1849-1913) was an American story-writer and historian, born in Philadelphia of Provencal descent. His father in law was Philadelphia businessman and poet Francis De Haes Janvier. He received a public school education, then worked in Philadelphia for newspapers from 1870-81. He became interested in the West and Mexico, and went on to pen several novels and non-fiction works on the subjects, including The Aztec Treasure House (1890), Stories of Old New Spain (1891), and Legends of the City of Mexico (1910).