Friday, September 24, 2010

Space Story Omnibus (1955)

(1955) Boyd, Edward and Allward, Maurice. Illustrated by North, T E, Branton, R.A. and Gaffron, Bruce. Space Story Omnibus. London : Collins. (128 p.) 26 cm.

An "annual" with a mixture of fictional stories and factual articles. The non-fiction articles were written by Maurice Allward on subjects such as the "history of rockets", "construction of a space station", "space medicine", and "a landing on the Moon". Includes a future space travel timeline predicting the first space station by the late 1960's and a Moon landing in the year 2000.
The headers for these Allward articles were very nice. Really gave a nice vision of moving outward.

I also like this particular color (or colour) plate. It is a nice combination of the older idea of gliding back with the parachute return. I don't know why they chose to combine them but it is a nice painting.

My next post will be post number 200! I will be sharing one of my greatest treasures. See you then.

7 comments:

  1. I love your blog and was curious about this post:
    http://dreamsofspace.blogspot.com/2010/05/space-age-1959.html

    I found this poster at an estate sale this weekend and they gave it to me for free!! Is it worth anything and/or do you remember what you paid for it?? I would love to hang it in my son's room, but would like to know more about it first. Thanks so much!

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  2. Beca, At least some of my other followers have said this is one of their favorite space posters and very hard to find. I would guess it is worth at least $40-100. You probably should frame it carefully and display it. You might consider Ebay or sharing your address with this group in a comment box so people could make you offers. One of the reasons it seems to be rare is that very little is know about the publisher, who seemed to be an educational company making classroom stuff. Congratulations on a GREAT free poster!

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  3. Thanks so much John! If anyone is interested or would like to share any additional info on this I'd be happy to hear it! ...although I'm not sure I would sell it. :)
    http://this-is-beca.blogspot.com/ OR ethertonrj@yahoo.com

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  4. always a pleasure to step by your very spatial blog

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  5. Ya gotta love that heroic, hands-on-hips pose of the astronaut in the foreground of the cover! Looks like he was posing for a photo op!

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  6. as a matter of interest,i have owned a copy of this annual since my parents bought it for me in '55 when i was just 8yrs old!!,i always enjoyed the artwork therin and have kept it stored away and it's still in mint condition after 55yrs,not bad eh...anyone know it's value?

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    1. Just found my copy and googled it.....GBP20 :( and that's mint.

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