By Rocket To The Moon (1931)

 

To finish off my moon-laden July I have this one.

So this is an updated re-post of a book I blogged about in 2010. 

https://dreamsofspace.blogspot.com/2010/07/by-rocket-to-moon-19311949.html

I came across a less damaged copy of the book I took the opportunity to share this picture story. It is an early children's/young adult science fiction novel about a first trip to the moon. The author Otto Willi Gail was an early space flight thinker and writer.

The introduction to this children's book is very interesting about the author's conviction that this was a fictionalization of something that would happen some day.

The details of the story included a mysterious satellite from Atlantis orbiting the moon. An action packed story with stowaways, murders, and having to throw almost everything out of the ship to make it back to Earth. In the final scene they need to leave the ship to crash while they parachute down. The final line of the unbelievable story is below.

Exploring the Moon: A Space Trip Into the Future (1969)

 

Happy Moon Day!

This is the cover of the April 1969 issue of Children's Digest. They would publish short book excepts and articles for children. I thought I would celebrate this day by sharing an article about the coming landing written from the perspective of a couple of years before.

The cover artwork was by the famous space artist Robert McCall.

The article is excepted from a 1965 Book called "The Question and Answer Book of Space". I blogged about it back in 2009 here: https://dreamsofspace.blogspot.com/2009/06/question-and-answer-book-of-space-1965.html

So this is exactly the kind of thing I was reading at ages 7 and 8. It was lacking in many details but I knew what was coming by the time July 1969 arrived. So join me on a little throw-back to a far-away time.

This last little box in the article brings it all back to me....

Exploring Space (1960)

 

This is a Highlights Handbook. It is a collection of space articles from Highlights Magazine. It has a nice sequence of articles about the possibility of a Moon landing. This is the second in my postings leading up to July 20 Moon Day!

Even though the article is from 1958, you get the idea that this is going to be fact someday. While the ship on the Moon is very different, this article also points to the finish line without specifying how we get there. See you on Moon Day.

Tom Corbett: A Trip to The Moon (1953)

 

So welcome to Dreams of Space's celebration of the anniversary of the first Moon landing! I thought I would start off with a 1953 book about landing on the moon. This book was also published under the title of Tom Corbett's Wonder Book of Space.  Even though I keep the fiction load of this blog down, the painted illustrations in here make it one of the great inspirational books of the early 1950s. I figure the readers of this were about 18 or 19 when we landed on the Moon. Did they have any idea that fiction would become the future so fast?

Martin, Marcia. Illustrated by Frank Vaughn. Tom Corbett's wonder book of space / Tom Corbett: A Trip to the Moon. New York, Wonder Books. 18 p. 21 cm.

PLEASE CLICK ON THIS ILLUSTRATION ABOVE TO ENJOY IT ON YOUR SCREEN

It has one of my favorite quotes: Then let's go back. The Earth is much prettier than the Moon."

See you next week with more moon landing stuff

Igorek Controls the Lunokhod (1973)

 

This may be the second edition of a story book I blogged about on July 29, 2016 "Igorek on the Moon" (1962) 

https://dreamsofspace.blogspot.com/2016/07/igorek-on-moon-1962.html

They both are arranged in verse about helping a child dream of exploring the Moon. They seem very similar even with the different title both in style and because they are by the same author (as best as I can figure out). The style of art is very interesting so I hope you enjoy this.

Boris Mirotvortsev. Art by A. Semenov. Igorek controls the Lunokhod. Soviet Russia : Moscow. 12 p. 1973.