Wednesday, December 25, 2024

Santa and The Space Men

 

It has been a while but here is a strange Christmas post for you.  Something about Santa and Flying Saucers seems to go together like White wine and Cracker Jack. Sort of sweet and tangy and gets your attention.

Santa and the Space Men is a play for children about how Santa is universal. The only illustration is the cover but the contents show an interesting play, creative costume choices, and a Christmas song I think you missed out on.

Edith Quick and James Fluckey. Santa and The Space Men. Franklin, OH : Eldridge Pub Co. (56 p.) 1956.






And a great finale...


Friday, December 13, 2024

Distant Worlds (1932)

 



An early children's science fiction book about spaceflight. 

Borrowing from a book-seller description:

Friedrick Mader, "the German Jules Verne" according to Sam Moskowitz, was a popular author of fantastic romances in post-World War One Germany. DISTANT WORLDS is his only novel translated into English. WUNDERERWELTEN (1911) is a boys' book that "takes its spaceship crew to Mars and finally, at several times the speed of light, to Alpha Centauri, where they explore an Eden-like planet. Its content is quite advanced for 1911.' It was translated into English in 1932.

Google Books summarized it like this: 

"Professor Dr. Heinrich Schulze of Germany, Captain Munchausen of Australia, and Lord Flitmore of England, together with their wives and a company of associates travel around Mars and Saturn in an anti-matter powered space ship. They follow a comet through the asteroid belt and out of the solar system to Alpha Centauri, landing on a planet of that system."

While the illustrations are not really "space art" I have also included a bit of the text so you can get a feel for the technology used.

Mader, Friedrich. Illustrated by Graef, Robert A.  Translated by Shachtman, Max. Distant Worlds: The Story of a Voyage to the Planets. New York: Charles Scribner. (343 p.) 1932.