The Man Who Sold The Moon (1951 edition)

 

This is a 1951 paperback collection of 4 Robert Heinlein stories. Normally I would not blog about a science fiction collection but I found this charming. I imagined some older avid child finding this collection and devouring it. Both the title and cover have a lot of appeal and it has an application to "go to space" in the back. Probably in connection to the release of the movie Destination Moon in 1950. Just a quick "period" posting for today.

Robert Heinlein. The Man Who Sold the Moon- Four Great Stories Taken From the Original Edition. New York : Signet. 167 p. 1951.

Building Reading Skills (1951)

Today is a series of school spelling workbooks. What does that have to do with space? They chose an aerospace theme for their series of books and since spaceflight was the trend for children they "branded" them.  Truly these are pretty dull books even with a couple of space pictures but the covers are interesting. The themes were: Speedboat, JATO Car, Jet Plane, Rocket, Atomic Gyro, and Space Ship.

Armstrong, Leila and Hargrave, Rowena. Building Reading Skills. Wichita, KS : McCormick-Mathers. 64 p. 1951.

Triumph Over Space (1951)

Triumph Over Space is a lie!

Well actually it is a 1951 promotional comic book but it has very little to do with space flight. It turns out it is from Kaiser-Frazer Motor Company promoting their new car. Since space flight was the "in" thing they frame the story of the car around a Martian coming to Earth.

 So it does start the story off on Mars....

 But you do feel a little cheated (as a child of the time might have) that is is about the new Kaiser car.

 "The 1951 Kaiser is truly a triumph over space!"

Child Life "Rocket to the Moon" (May 1951)

Child Life was one of the earlier magazines intended just for children that started in 1926 and survived until 2007.

This May 1951 article on a "Rocket to the Moon" is a fun early article for children about space flight. It is illustrated with photographs from the film "Destination Moon" which came out in 1950. A very imaginative way to illustrate this short piece of non-fiction.

This seems from the exhibit at the Hayden Planetarium but the posters don't match (just the travel desk motif)
http://dreamsofspace.blogspot.com/2011/03/line-forms-here-for-trip-to-moon-1952.html

You and Space Travel (1951)

One of my favorite early space books. The illustrations are impressionistic and very "50s" in style.

Lewellen, John. Illustrated by Fitch, Winnie and Phelan, Joe. You and Space Travel.  Chicago: Children's Press. Inc. (60 p.) 24 cm. Cloth, DJ. 1951

Reprinted numerous times this is one of the first children's books about the possibility of space travel. It has illustrations primarily of rockets and how they work.  There are several spacesuit illustrations as well as a landing on the Moon. See 1958 reprint.

Why didn't the first astronauts look like this?  A brave group of balding and hipster explorers.

 I also have been waiting for my "rocket stop" (Public transit at its finest.)

In case you doubted that children's authors worked with scientists and engineers to research these books, this acknowledgment should make you feel better.

Building Reading Skills (1951)

Space flight illustrations were used as a "hook" to teach all kinds of things.  In the 1960s it was the Space Race. In the 1950s it was identifying with all those television space heroes (like Tom Corbett from last week's post).

Building reading skills. Leila Armstrong and Rowena Hargrave. Wichita, Kan. : McCormick-Mathers Pub. Co., 143 p. 21 cm. 1951

The Building Reading Skills 6 book series was first used in 1951, but I can find re-prints and re-usage of it until the 1970s. These were the titles of the 1950's series:

And these were the titles in the 1971 listing I found: Level 1. Speed boat book.--Level 2. Streamliner book.--Level 3. Jet plane book.--Level 4. Rocket book.--Level 5. Atomic submarine book.--Level 6. Spaceship book. Slightly updated but with substantially the same content.

 Really nothing about space flight at all except these tiny chapter header illustrations. They are a little like slices of a very tiny 1950s science fiction film.

 The only space content in the text is this short passage about the Moon.