Happy Journeys (1961)

 

Here is wishing you Happy Journeys (1961) in 2024. 

Happy Journeys was a 1961 children's book about the future and ways someone might travel. The illustration were double page full color paintings of a exciting and strange future that might be around the corner. I see in this book the optimism we need to accept that the future will be better but we sometime can't imagine what it will really look like. I wish all my readers a great 2024 and many happy surprises.

Some of these "visions" look familiar, like they happened, but not as we thought, others are still to come.

Pekelis, V. Веселое Путешествие (Happy Journeys.) Moscow: Detgiz. (52 p.) 1961.

REALLY

AMAZING 

TRAINS (Anyone see Snowpiercer?)

DOMED CITIES (or Stadiums?)

READING, LISTENING TO MUSIC, WATCHING MOVIES IN YOUR CAR

INSTANT HOUSES

KIDS RIDING ELECTRIC BIKES TO SCHOOL (but no helicopters yet)

BUT NO HELICOPTER TRAFFIC EITHER

GIANT MOVIES IN THE SKY

MACHINES THAT DELIVER ENDLESS BOOKS

EXPLORING THE DEPTHS OF THE OCEAN

PLANES TAKING YOU AROUND THE WORLD

ROCKETS LEAVING EARTH

PEOPLE ON THE MOON

PEOPLE LIVING IN SPACE

COLONIZING MARS

TELESCOPES SHOWING NEW FAR-OFF PLACES TO VISIT

 

Stray Leaves from the Book of Nature (1859)

So this is a strange post for you all. Back there in the 1800s there were science philosophers.  I was struck by this passage written at the time about "A Trip to the Moon." Based in science but with a eye towards imagination and poetry. So imagine you have a telescope and a little science and want to expand people's ideas of what might be possible.

The whole book (because it is out of copyright) is online here: 
http://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/100166507

So poetic but watch how he tries to bring you to the surface of the moon.

The most popular theory of where craters came from at the time was volcanic actions