Moon Base (1959)

Number two in the series: Moon Base. Just saying the phrase "moon base" brings me a sense of excitement and nostalgia. In fact one of my treasures is my talking Dr. Evil Doll that says "Welcome to my moon base".



Nephew, William and Chester, Michael. Illustrated by Buehr, Walter. Moon Base. New York : GP Putnam's Sons. (72 p.) 23 cm.

And what a moon base it is. Building on the 1st book this one discusses a permanent settlement on the Moon. Many full page and double-page illustrations of rockets, Moon vehicles, and Moon base. Number 2 in Nephew and Chester’s space quartet.


This winged ship still looks impractical to me. However I like the "under construction" aspect where repairs are made as needed. Ladders on the Moon! How much does it cost to get a ladder to the Moon and given that you want to make it out of light strong material, will it be alumium or something more exotic (inquiring minds want to know).


Here is a lunar construction site, complete with 2 people who just stand around and watch :)






But we are not stopping at the Moon, in a couple of days it is a trip to the planets!

Moon Trip (1958)

Some of you are familiar with the Ley-Polgreen 4 book "Adventures in Space series (Man-Made Satellites, Space Pilots, Space Stations and Space Travel). If not I will have to do a series about those later.

But today it is about a 4 book space series you may never have seen. Michael Chester and William Nephew also did a great series of books about the grand space flight progression. They may be less remembered because while their illustrations are great they used a limited color pallet.

Nephew, William and Chester, Michael. Illustrated by Robinson, Jerry. Moon Trip: True Adventure in Space. New York: Putnam. (63 p.) 23 cm.

This book gives a basic description of rocket theory, astronaut training and how a trip to the Moon could be accomplished.


But this is just the first book in the informal "series" of: "Moon Trip", "Moon Base" (1959), "Planet Trip" (1960) and "Beyond Mars" (1960), all by Chester. In this "quartet" he moves from travel to the Moon to planetary exploration to interstellar travel.


So look for Moon Base later this week.

Space Base (1972)

Freeman, Mae B. Illustrated by Mora, Raul Mina. Space Base. New York : Watts. (63 p.)

Although the paintings are reproduced in black and white, Space Base is another of those remembered books. After the moonlandings the next step seemed to be a space station. Surprisingly this is one of the few books about that possible next step.



The book is a story about a child visiting a space station and learning about the construction and use of space stations. I like how the delta-winged ship and the circular station are combined.


The text gives a complete basic description of how the station would be constructed, what power sources they would use, and what life on a space station would be like.



The best part is the many full page illustrations of the exterior and interior of an imaginary circular space station. In some ways this is the last non-fiction book about circular space stations. After this they appear only in fiction.

I like also how the Apollo modules suggest how this station would be used as a transfer point. Of course that ship makes no sense as a trans-lunar vessel since the re-entry capsule is unneccessary (plus it makes for cramped travel).
On the other hand I always though of space travel as a kid's ride. Zero-G vacations anyone?

Intra-Space Stamp Album (1953) (Part 1)

OK here is my latest "catch". It is a 1953 "stamp" album produced with the
supervision of the Director of the Fels Planetarium, I.M. Levitt.It consists of facts about the planets and amazingly detailed stamps for all the different ways you could travel between the planets via the regular rocket liner service.


I think the educational goal of this particular item got out shown by the artist who designed the stamps. Each one is a little engraved masterpiece.


Also there were 8 or 9 stamps designed for each planet (plus the Moon) so the whole book has over 80 different space flight stamps. Here are the Earth stamps:

And here are the Moon stamps:

This is a unique little item. The creator of the book had a plan so each planet has its own currency, its own shuttle services, and many illustrations of astronauts, different rockets, and space stations. It was designed like a stamp album so the reader had to glue stamps in on each page in the correct spot. Opposite each page of stamps was an information page about that planet. Here is the page for Mars:

I suspect that only myself and my loyal readers can really dig how amazing this little booklet is. Here is Saturn and Pluto:

UPDATE JULY 28, 2010 See part 2 of this post: http://dreamsofspace.blogspot.com/2010/07/intra-space-stamp-album-1953-part-2.html

We Land on The Moon (1969)

There were a number of coloring books that came out in 1969/1970 about the moonlanding. I like this one especially for its futuristic illustrations. Plus someone colored in one of the drawings very nicely.

Coloring books are a whole separate collecting area but I have a hard time resisting those that mix the non-fictional images in with the fiction. In some ways coloring books were the picture books for those children who didn't/wouldn't read. Your parents loved that you were occupied. And the "artist" got to really focus on an image and get it stuck in your head.

Man-Made Moons (1960)

Just a simple one today. I like the stark design that Marie Neurath puts into her space books. With just a few colors the diagrams stand out almost like icons. You could almost image international spaceport signs using these images.

Neurath, Marie. Man-made Moons. New York : Lothrop, Lee and Shepard / London : Parrish. (36 p.) 22 cm.

The book discusses satellites, rocket fuels, orbits, and animals in satellites. Part of the "How and Why" series (US) and "Colour Book" series (UK). See also the 1961 reprint.

Scientific Wonders (1953) / Wonders of Space Travel (1954)

Lion Weekly was a magazine for children with comics and stories. (from Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lion_(comics)). It ran from 1952-1974. Evidently once in a while they would have extra booklets as part of the magazine.

I am fascinated with children's non-fiction about spaceflight. I especially like these early efforts where children were told and shown their brave new future. Here are a couple of these booklets from Lion: Scientific Wonders of Today and Tomorrow 1953 (Lion #32) and Wonders of Space Travel 1954 (Lion #116).



I love how these early efforts towards space were presented as glimpses of the future.






In this one mixed in with the factual items about plans for space was this great illustration of the moon city of the future. It is by R. A. Smith , the amazing British space artist (http://dreamsofspace.nfshost.com/exp8mo.htm) from the AC Clarke book: "The Exploration of Space"