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theodore williams
, April 18, 2018
(view all comments by theodore williams)
SPACE PILOTS is the second volume in a four-book series, 'Adventure In Space', published by Guild Press in 1957. It's an attempt to provide needed information to American youngsters just after Russia's early successes in space with its' Sputnik satellites---and Willy Ley was just the author for the job. An acknowledged expert on rocketry and space flight, his smooth prose accentuates the adventures which lay ahead for 'rocketeers' (while tactfully downplaying the potential dangers which our actual astronauts would soon be facing). Artist John Polgreen fills out the book with some very fine illustrations, conveying both technical information and a sense of wonder at the whole...pardon the expression...enterprise. From this distance in time the book is awfully disingenuous---our actual space program was pretty chaotic in its' earliest days, trying desperately to match Russian space successes, while the entire Free World's media were breathing down the technicians' necks. We already knew full well that this would be neither easy nor safe. SPACE PILOTS betrays none of that uncomfortable awareness...but then, it was meant to fire kids' imaginations. And indeed it did.
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