Spaceman Discovers Christmas (1958)

 

Happy holidays and Merry Christmas! I am doing this post back in June 2025 so I am hoping the world is a happier and safer place in December 2025. It has been a little while since I found a book worth of a Christmas post. This one does not have a lot of spaceships or rockets. It was a giveaway at Ben Franklin Dept. stores.

It is the story of a Martian who wants to find out what Christmas is and research if they might want to export it to Mars. It is only an OK story but an old theme. It seems like "Mars Needs Holidays!" since I have heard many stories like this.

Including of course the famous movie "Santa Claus Conquers The Martians." (1964). So your Christmas present this year is this free movie:

https://youtu.be/L4SZyeUGSM4?si=ZpuNxrhfGe0ZgAWg

Spaceman Discovers Christmas.  (Premium, Ben Franklin Store). New York, NY: Promotional Publishing. (16 p.) 1958. BOX 05

Let's Pretend (1954)

Occasonally you pick up a book only for its cover. I agree there is no space flight content in Let's Pretend but the cover and the title page are spcial. They capture the dream of being in space and how some of us used to put on our space costume and create our visionary personal stories.  The book is about the occupations childen can dream of and the joy they get in thinking anything is possible. 

Friedman, Frieda. Illustrated by Patterson, Valeria. Let’s Pretend. Kenosha, WI: Samuel Lowe Co. (19 p.) 1954 

Spacewalks: Poems for the Moon Age (1971)

 

So to keep up with my strange postings, today is strange (bad?) space poetry. I like the drawings that are VERY late 60s with spacecraft and other images mixed together. I also like his approach to using our Space Race as an inspiration to think about what people had done and what they might do. Your mileage may vary :) At least I can safely assume you have never seen this before.

Roberts, Burgent. Spacewalks : Poems for a Moon Age. New York: Harper and Row. (90 p.) 1971.

Can't really believe he signed this book to Grace Slick and Paul Kantner (Jefferson Airplane). 

Space Travel (1960) / All About Satellites and Space Ships (1958)

Today is the Cantonese translation of the book All About Satellites and Space Ships, David Dietz (1958).

The Cantonese is translated for me by Google Translate so I apologize for the mistakes.

I am always looking for these children's books that got translated into other languages. This one is interesting to me since it seem like the children's level material is represented as a way for children to learn more about the future of space travel. It does not look at all like a children's book.

The book title and citation information seems to translate as:

Dez, David (sp?). Space Travel. Translated from English by Lo Tiande. Garden Road, Hong Kong : World Today. (135 p.) 1960.

TRANSLATED Back Cover: "Traveling to space is no longer a dream. Today's youth have the hope of traveling in the boundless universe. You should be prepared. David Dietz is a world-renowned author of popular science readings, and has won the Pulitzer Prize for scientific articles for many years for Scribes-Howard newspapers. This book uses simple text to describe the process of human study of space, with a popular and detailed introduction to the principles and development of tools used for space travel such as rockets, artificial satellites, and spacecraft."

Here are some scans of the 1958 book:

To The Moon By Rocket Ship (1940)

 

A bit of obscure ephemera today. In 1940 the Fels Planetarium in Philadelphia had a program they called "To the Moon by Rocket Ship." It was a program for adults and children describing the science of what it would be like to go to the Moon. It also explored the formation of craters (thought volcanic at the time.) They also sold this souvenir booklet of the program.

So from a hot summer night some 85 years ago we take you on an exploration of the Moon.

Franklyn Institute. To The Moon by Rocket Ship. Philadelphia, PE: Fels Planetarium.  (10 p.) Aug and Sept 1940.