Astounding Science Fiction 1952 Collection And Available Prints

I’ve been reading classic Sci-Fi for a long time and Astounding being the birthplace for the Mount Rushmore of Sci-Fi writers (Heinlein, Campbell, Asimov, Hubbard) and many, many others has a huge place in the history of modern culture. In reading through an account of Campbell and his editing of Astounding it has brought to my attention the fantastic covers of these monthly “magazines” which is truly impressive. A collection of artwork, fantastical in nature, and as much a piece of culture as the works the magazine contained…

Yet, I cannot find an online collection that encompasses all of them, an exhibition of the artwork, actual copies of the originals, or even prints of them, despite many of them being absolutely perfect for the dorm room, office, studio, garage or other walls. These works are unique in their creepiness, political commentary, beauty, and future prognostication—see inclusion of Chesley Bonestell’s work gracing some of these covers as an example of the real high-end artwork that is present within these.

So…I’ve now gone about the task of collecting many of these works, scanning in the covers and making them available for prints. I will print them in either the full version with the Astounding cover graphics, date, and primary work/author or will crop down to just the artwork itself if desired. Each will appear “distressed” due to the covers not being in 100% mint condition but I think that often adds to their look and none are damaged or otherwise obscuring the artwork itself. Look to the “products” page here for current options and scanned artwork that is available. I am starting with the full 12 issue 1952 covers that are available for print/sale.

Book Reviews: Quick Hits On Three Books

Trying to keep up my reading these days and closed out three works in the past month and a half, all in different genres and of different qualities.

Double Star by Robert Heinlein: Less a sci-fi novel than a “caper” it is still a fun read. In a very innocent, 50’s sort of way this is a light work with a down on his luck actor “everyman” being selected for his physical likeness to one of the most important men in the solar system. His job? To impersonate said important man while that individual is out of commission and cement the alignment of the native inhabitants of Mars with humanity and bring equality to all. Of course various pitfalls are encountered along the way including assassination attempts, betrayals, love interests, and so on. If I use the phrase “a rollicking good tale” that would describe it nicely. Nothing you are going to pull your hair out philosophizing over but a great little book to be entertained by.

Casting Into the Light by Janet Messineo: This ended up on a number of outdoor publications’ lists of notable works and I’ve certainly been interested in various fishing and ocean endeavors. It was unfortunate then that it was such a bore. Janet is a surfcaster focused on bluefish. She recounts her youth, introduction to surfcasting and years honing her craft on Martha’s Vineyard. The book is more or less simply a collection of personal anecdotes and remembrances of her past 40 years of surfcasting. Most of them not particularly interesting in nature or on the written page. There is no thread of continuity in the book other than simply the passage of time. No true theme that drives the recounting of events from one period to another. I might have more interest than most simply because of my geographic familiarity with the region and its aquatic life. Others will likely feel it to be more of a slog than I did in getting through it.

Cities of the Plain by Cormac McCarthy: The third in McCarthy’s “Border Trilogy” after All the Pretty Horses and The Crossing this work follows the two protagonists who were the solo focus (individually) of the prior works, now together working on a southern New Mexico ranch. COTP is actually an extension of The Crossing more than anything. As its central character in Billy Parnham states [paraphrase here] “I’ve gone down there three times and never once came back with what I went down to get”. By “down there” Parnham means Mexico. In COTP it is his fourth and final trip there to assist his friend in John Grady Cole that is the pinnacle of the three books. If you’ve read McCarthy’s books, by this point you know things are going to end badly when Cole falls for a Mexican whore but it doesn’t make the journey to that finale any less wonderful. It is again McCarthy’s ability to draw out descriptions of the deep southwest culture and geography that are so fantastic. Edward Abbey would be pressed to do a better job of desert, rock, sand, dust, coyote, horse and blood descriptions. McCarthy writes like someone who has lived these lives he describes. COTP does read like an extra long chapter of The Crossing and feels slightly overweight compared to the prior two in the series but still an great closer to a classic modern Western triptych.

Book Review: Stranger in a Strange Land

I REALLY wanted to like this work…Heinlein is a great SciFi novelist having written at least one of my all time favorite sci-fi works in The Moon is a Harsh Mistress as well as Starship Troopers which is also great but just short of TMIAHM.

Unfortunately I have to agree with some of the quotes from the original NYT review which included a feeling that it is “a disastrous mishmash of science fiction, laborious humor, dreary social satire and cheap eroticism”. While “disastrous” is a bit of a stretch, this overly lengthy work is of Heinlein’s lesser ones despite the platitudes it has been given and that it is his best selling work.

Crafted over a decade SIASL feels like it….in fact it feels like at least two separate novels in one. The first is more traditional Heinlein with an individual caught up in strange circumstances beyond their control and having to deal with it as the sci-fi part is brought in with the central character being a human who was born on Mars and raised by Martians, arriving back on Earth as an adult with capabilities far beyond those of existing Earth residents.

The second novel and the part that is the most tedious develops as this “Man From Mars” attempts to reshape humanity into a new ideal. Inclusive in this new ideal are commune living, spouse sharing, psychic powers, teleportation, and more. Zzzzzzz….Now Heinlein himself has said that he wrote this as a challenge to existing social mores and could not have published it when he first thought of it in 1948 due to then cultural restrictions—to which I say “hogwash”. There is nothing here that Hemingway, Henry Miller, Shakespeare or a 100 other known writers hadn’t already published…nothing scandalous beyond its peers certainly. Instead I believe his delay in publishing was simply that the story wasn’t good enough and was just adding to it and adding to it and by a certain point, his initial structure went by the wayside and he got waylaid by his puerile focus on “free love”…Now this was prior to the big hippy movement, so of course this book sometimes got thrown in with the Beats and similar and called a great piece deconstructing our existing society but I think Heinlein ended up with this content as many sci-fi nerds do—curiosity due to repression and inexperience.

Regardless of how he came to it, the second half of the work’s focus on “free sex” being a key component to transcendental growth of humanity comes off grossly juvenile. As Heinlein drags on and on and on as more and more of the central characters get drawn into the “free love” circle of the “Man from Mars”, one, as a reader responds with “OK, I get it…move on…” but Heinlein never does.

Referring back to the prior statement that Heinlein wanted to “challenge current mores”, he doesn’t really have any mores he wants to challenge in detail other than monogamy….race isn’t really brought up, nor is capitalism in any meaningful way. Religion gets a bit of a critique but gets wrapped directly into the “free love” commentary as well so doesn’t stand on its own. Again I revert to Heinlein’s lack of focus, length of the novel’s creation and fixation on his personal values than any desire to critique others or drive meaningful discussion. This one will NOT be going on my shelf alongside his better works…