The Boy Who Discovered the Earth (1955)

 

Continuing with a bit of a flying saucer theme today is The Boy Who Discovered The Earth. It is a pleasant science fiction novel for kids about an alien boy who is left behind on Earth. He makes friends with the locals and learns about dogs, baseball, and the life of children on another planet. 

The only trick is they don't look like humans at the beginning but disguise themselves as human. The "boy" keeps up this masquerade for the entire novel. Talk about Invasion of the Body Snatchers! What child finished this one without wondering which of his friends or teachers was actually an alien?

The illustrations are better than average and use the then-current current fad for children with spacesuits, space helmets, and ray guns.

Felson, Henry Gregor. The Boy Who Discovered the Earth. NY: Scribner. (140 p) 1955.

The World of Space (1955)

 

The World of Space was a pamphlet from 1955. It was a little like a children's annual with comic strips and stories. It had some very nice illustrations I wanted to share.

The World of Space. Illustrated by "Ron." England : P.R.  20 p. 24 cm. 1955?

The writing is "memorable"

Operation Moon: Facts We’ll Need to Know When We Travel to Other Worlds (1955)

 

Operation Moon is an early SRA (Science Research Associates) school reading pamphlet from the 1st year of the program in 1955. (For more about SRA read here). It covers the basics of spaceflight and then explains how we might voyage to the Moon in the future. 

Burnett, R. Operation Moon: Facts We’ll Need to Know When We Travel to Other Worlds. Chicago: Science Research Associates. (48 p.) 1955.

The "Collier's/Von Braun" rocket was still the model for the future

Similarly the Lunar Lander is also modeled after "Collier's/Von Braun"

I like very much these concrete predictions of the future.

Junior Scholastic March 23 (1955)

A space issue of Junior Scholastic from 1955.  I am fascinated how these "school" newspapers give a parallel story of the the space age. For example this story about the United States will lead in space.

This story below is a little goofy. They took a picture of a moon base and used it to describe future airports.

The last story is about "Conquest of Space." Personally I find this a terrible film with great visuals. The creation of scenes that echo Chesley Bonestell's space paintings from Colliers is worth the effort (Also tuning the sound down may be required)

Fred Freeman's Painting of a Coleopter. Colliers Magazine Sept 16, 1955

I love early space art and while this is actually in the atmosphere, I thought this would be fun to see. Fred Freeman did many realistic paintings for Colliers. This one was a small spread in the Sept 16, 1955 issue. You might have missed it leafing through the issue but it show one of the more interesting flight concepts of the time.  A "space age" propellor ship.