The Eagle Has Landed (1970)

Unfortunately I was out of town when Neil Armstrong died on August 25, 2012 so I didn't get to post about it. His deeds and those of the Apollo 11 crew were a huge influence on my life and dreams.  So this posting is dedicated to Neil.  He would have liked this one, just the facts, no hype. The wonderful paintings are almost impressionistic in their simplicity.

Martin, Jr., Bill. Illustrated by Aloise, Frank. The Eagle Has Landed. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston Inc. (32 p.) 17 cm. 1970

 

 

Moving Ahead : Easy growth in reading (1945)

We tend to think of all that "brave new world of the future" excitement starting in the 1950s. However here is a 6th grade school textbook for children from the 1940s that definitely has a similar theme.

Moving Ahead had a variety of topics in it but the one closest to the designer's heart seems to have been the streamlined future.

Hildreth, Gertrude Howell. Easy growth in reading : moving ahead /

Philadelphia : Winston, 440 p. 1945

"The world of tomorrow" does not seem to differ much from the 1927 film Metropolis.

 

We have airliners, streamlined cars, hover buses? and enormous cities.  I do like how rockets will be part of our everyday transportation. Who needs an autogiro when you can catch a rocket to the nearest city?

To Other Planets (1962)

This is yet another in the series of posts about (virtually) the same Russian children's space book.

I have found a reprinted and (slightly updated) version from 1962.

The first edition was discussed in these posts:
 To Other Planets by Pavel Klushantsev 1959

Part 1
http://dreamsofspace.blogspot.com/2010/02/russian-space-book-1959.html
Part 2
http://dreamsofspace.blogspot.com/2010/08/to-other-planets-1959-part-2.html


Since it is essentially the same book I am posting illustrations that you haven't seen before.

 Like their American counterparts, Russian children's publishers ran into the problem of the real space flights making the materials in their earlier editions obsolete within a few years. They also resorted to republishing thier books wih only a light updating to keep them current. As you can see this one had a new cover.

 Here is what a future exploration of Venus might look like. The jungle and the dinosaurs shows how the common understanding of what Venus might be like under the clouds had not been revised.

 And here is a future exploration of Mars. The vegetation and the flowing water is not too far off.

The basic rocket illustrations did not change and I especially love this comparison of the rocket to a Russian building rather than the usual skyscraper.

 In this launch pad illustration the cars and buses seem Russian also.

 This space station construction illustration is still the same but I like the red stars on the wings of the rocket.

Finally at the end of the book is the only substantial updating, a list of the launches and events since the 1959 first edition.

"Life on Mars" from This Week May 8 (1960) part 2

We come to the last part of "Life on Mars." I know this was a very different set of postings than my usual but I hope you enjoyed them. 

First off I wanted to share this because it is pretty cool to read such a wild story by Wernher von Braun.  He designs space ships a lot better than he writes.  However it also points out his philosophical side. For all the terrible things he was involved in he was also a dreamer. He dreamed that if this was possible where might we go.

Second my job at the University gets very busy this time of year, instead of few posts this was a way to have a whole set pre-made with some interesting images. So once again I will start digging through my stacks of space stuff and try to share something you may not have seen. Thanks for "watching".



"Life on Mars" from This Week May 8 (1960) part 1

 We continue with the final part of the science fiction story "Life on Mars" as written by Wernher von Braun and illustrated by Fred Freeman.  Because I had never seen this story before (although I knew of it) I thought you would also like a chance to read this for yourself.  It is just the kind of thing that made the Sunday paper (where the This Week magazine was enclosed) such a treat for children to search through.

"Life on Mars" from This Week May 1 (1960) part 3

 Sorry no cool picture today but we are finishing the second issue of "Life on Mars", stay tuned for the final exciting issue.