Friday, September 25, 2015

Satellites Artificiels (Man-made Satellites) (1958)





A late summer re-run of sorts.

This is the French edition of Man-made Satellites (1957) which I blogged about almost exactly 5 years ago in 2010 in my 200th Blog post. (this one is number 462!)


http://dreamsofspace.blogspot.com/2010/09/man-made-satellites-1957.html



The 4 book Adventure in Space series was translated into French and Spanish. But I can still not get enough of the incredible John Polgreen paintings used to illustrate these books.











Friday, September 18, 2015

A Sun on Earth (1956)


A Sun on Earth is basically a Russian book about atomic energy. What attracted me was this fantastic cover showing an atomic plan in orbit beaming its energy down to Earth.


A Sun on earth. (1956). 20.4 cm x 14 cm. 294 pg.


As I said many of the illustrations have to do with the generation of  atomic power.

 There are a few nice illustrations of various atomic powered vehicles, including an atomic powered jet.




Friday, September 11, 2015

"Disney Blasts Off " TV Guide, March 5, 1955


As part of my interest in space flight I bring you Liberace! 

Well actually just a nice piece of ephemera about the Disney Man in Space television program. I loved these shows and the children's books that went with them.  So here is the TV Guide entry for when it was first shown as well as an article promoting the show.


Notice they actually misspelled "Wernher von Braun" as "Verner"

The article was very nice with some rarely seen color stills from the show:



The designs in the show look very similar to the Collier's illustration that were also designed by Wernher von Braun.






Friday, September 4, 2015

Space Satellite: The Story of the Man Made Moon (1957)



Another classic book that I found that I have never done a proper post on. It was illustrated by Jack Coggins 


Beeland, Lee and Robert Wells. Illustrated by Coggins, Jack. Space Satellite: The Story of the Man-made Moon. New York: Prentice-Hall, Inc. (79 p.) 25 cm. Cloth, DJ. 1957


Jack Coggins illustrated a couple of children's space books, most notably Rockets, Jets, Guided Missiles and Space Ships (1951)  and By Spaceship to the Moon (1952).












A pre-Sputnik book about the Vanguard  program and the I.G.Y.  Describes satellite and rocket theory as well as how the equipment involved will work. It also discuses the uses of satellites and the I.G.Y. 



What makes this book stand out are the wonderful color paintings of a rocket launch, a satellite in orbit, and a satellite burning up from re-entry. It also has nice paintings of a manned craft flying low over the Moon's surface and a rocket to Mars. Also 1958, 1960 editions.





 Truly beautiful "industrial-style" illustrations. The artist depicts the work of going to space.