The late 1950s and early '60s were the golden age of science fiction, an era when the farthest reaches of imagination were fed by the technological breakthroughs of the postwar years. While science fiction writers expressed the dreams and nightmares of the era in pulp print, real-life rocket engineers worked on making space travel reality. The imaginations of many Cold War scientists were fed by science fiction literature, and companies often promoted their future capabilities with fantastical, colorful visions aimed at luring young engineers into their booming workforce. In between the dry articles of trade journals, a new visual vernacular sprang up. Aerospace industry ads pitched the idea that we lived in a moment where anything was possible — gravity was history, and soon so would be the confines of our solar system. Another Science Fiction presents nearly 200 entertaining, intriguing, inspiring, and mind-boggling pieces of space-age eye candy.
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"A brilliant tour through the iconography and literature of America's grandest corporate dreamtime, the Space Age." —William Gibson, author of Neuromancer and Pattern Recognition
"I wish I had this book when I started Mad Men. This is exactly what I look for, a concise visual-historical reference of mid-century advertising. Megan Prelinger has uniquely and beautifully taken us on a trip back to space." —Gay Perello, Prop Master for Mad Men
"Stupendous." —Jonathan Lethem, author of Motherless Brooklyn and The Fortress of Solitude
"To the author of this remarkable work must go well-deserved laurels for rescuing rocket/space ad artwork from virtual obscurity. Megan Prelinger's book is a treasure that should find a worldwide readership of space historians, lovers of space art, and all who seek to understand the evolution of humanity's transition to a space-faring species." —Fred Ordway, former member of the Wernher von Braun rocket team and consultant to Stanley Kubrick for 2001: A Space Odyssey
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More About the Author
Megan Prelinger is an independent historian and a lifelong collector of space history ephemera and science fiction literature. She is co-founder and architect of information design of the Prelinger Library, a private research library open to the public, which houses more than forty thousand books and other print artifacts on North American regional and land use history, media and cultural studies, and technology, including a space history collection. She is also a naturalist and rehabilitator of aquatic avian species. She lives and works in San Francisco.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
28 of 28 people found the following review helpful
By J. Veazey
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
If you were a youngster like me during the dawn of The Space Age, this book is a trip down memory lane.
I read and watched everything I could find about space travel and aviation, so most of these ads passed by my eyes at one time or another.
It was fun turning the pages and coming upon an image that I hadn't seen in 50 years or more. It recalled to me the wonder and the fabulous anticipation I felt at the time as man made his first baby steps into space.
The book is also kind of depressing, to see visions of a future that never arrived. The shuttle looks likes like a bus with wings, not the sleek streamlined spacecraft of the 50's. The ISS looks like a floating junk yard compared to the giant rotating wheeled space stations of those days. Damn it, I want my private spaceship, my vacations on the moon, tourist trips to Mars, day trips to the giant wheel space stations. What happened to the future we were promised in all these ads?
Oh well, if you're a Baby Boomer, and you were/are a space enthusiast who grew up in the late 50's and early 60's, you WILL enjoy this book.
I read and watched everything I could find about space travel and aviation, so most of these ads passed by my eyes at one time or another.
It was fun turning the pages and coming upon an image that I hadn't seen in 50 years or more. It recalled to me the wonder and the fabulous anticipation I felt at the time as man made his first baby steps into space.
The book is also kind of depressing, to see visions of a future that never arrived. The shuttle looks likes like a bus with wings, not the sleek streamlined spacecraft of the 50's. The ISS looks like a floating junk yard compared to the giant rotating wheeled space stations of those days. Damn it, I want my private spaceship, my vacations on the moon, tourist trips to Mars, day trips to the giant wheel space stations. What happened to the future we were promised in all these ads?
Oh well, if you're a Baby Boomer, and you were/are a space enthusiast who grew up in the late 50's and early 60's, you WILL enjoy this book.
7 of 8 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
I came across some old Look and Life magazines at a thrift shop recently. They all featured John F. Kennedy - his inaugural as president, his assassination, the funeral, Jackie and the kids one year after. Important and memorable topics, but when I actually sat down to look at the magazines, I found that I was flipping past the articles and studying the ads. Buicks and Studebakers and Chevys, cigarettes, whiskey and beer, typewriters, canned soup, TV dinners. They were fascinating.
Author Megan Prelinger collected the best and most interesting ads from five years worth of aviation and technology magazines. The result is Another Science Fiction, a document that is probably more revealing about the era than the collected articles in those same magazines, and certainly more entertaining.
The overall impression is one of optimism and the expectation that science and technology will pave the way to a bright future. We're going to the moon. ... and beyond!
Contrast that with aviation and technology magazines of today. The ads are overwhelmingly military-themed, featuring weapons and soldiers. They are utilitarian ads, using photographs and text.
The space age ads are also often utilitarian and direct, but just as often they are whimsical or futuristic. Many are works of art. The Martin Company (later Martin-Marietta, then Lockheed-Martin) used many paintings by graphic artist Willi K. Baum, most of which would not look out of place in a modern art gallery.
On opening Another Science Fiction, I first looked at all the images, and then read the text later. It was fun to start to recognize the style of some of the regular artists for the various companies. The text was informative, explaining what some of the ad campaigns were about (some of the products advertised were pretty technical and specific to the space and aviation industries). Prelinger also talks about how the space race influenced the appearance of books and magazines, TV and movies.
The result is a crash course in one brief shining moment in American history.
Author Megan Prelinger collected the best and most interesting ads from five years worth of aviation and technology magazines. The result is Another Science Fiction, a document that is probably more revealing about the era than the collected articles in those same magazines, and certainly more entertaining.
The overall impression is one of optimism and the expectation that science and technology will pave the way to a bright future. We're going to the moon. ... and beyond!
Contrast that with aviation and technology magazines of today. The ads are overwhelmingly military-themed, featuring weapons and soldiers. They are utilitarian ads, using photographs and text.
The space age ads are also often utilitarian and direct, but just as often they are whimsical or futuristic. Many are works of art. The Martin Company (later Martin-Marietta, then Lockheed-Martin) used many paintings by graphic artist Willi K. Baum, most of which would not look out of place in a modern art gallery.
On opening Another Science Fiction, I first looked at all the images, and then read the text later. It was fun to start to recognize the style of some of the regular artists for the various companies. The text was informative, explaining what some of the ad campaigns were about (some of the products advertised were pretty technical and specific to the space and aviation industries). Prelinger also talks about how the space race influenced the appearance of books and magazines, TV and movies.
The result is a crash course in one brief shining moment in American history.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
By Gilbert Huey
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
For those of us who grew up during the golden age of space exploration, this book is a treasure trove. Although I had never seen most of the illustrations they transported me back to those exciting days when America had vision, courage, and commitment. Now as we shut down the shuttle program, I wonder what happened.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
3.0 out of 5 stars
Nice graphics but weak text
This could have been much better written with more information on the various artists and advertising agencies which created the art and fewer lame observations supplied by the... Read more
Published 3 months ago by W. Crichton
5.0 out of 5 stars
Fantastic
Wow! This book is not only beautiful but really interesting. Far more than just a nostalgia coffee-table piece, the text is both interesting and thought-provoking. Read more
Published 4 months ago by Dennis J. Boccippio
4.0 out of 5 stars
Space-age ads
Loved this book! A great collection of advertising material supplemented by the author's observations, this book is fun to read or to simply leaf through. Read more
Published 4 months ago by James D. Crabtree
4.0 out of 5 stars
Interesting subject but limited presentation
The subject is very interesting, and I was glad to see someone paying attention to the "work" side of space exploration rather than the "fantasy" side. Read more
Published 16 months ago by HaloJonesFan
5.0 out of 5 stars
Wonderful Magazine Art Direction and Illustration
I have a number of collections of ads from the '50's and '60's - the years just prior to the changes in photographic and engraving technology that rendered illustration passe'. Read more
Published 19 months ago by Stephen Rustad
5.0 out of 5 stars
a fascinating look at an often overlooked topic
I have to say that I don't normally think a lot about what advertising says about cultural perspectives, but this book is a fascinating exploration of the early space race and how... Read more
Published on May 6, 2011 by Dan Wilson
5.0 out of 5 stars
An Overlooked Gem
Another Science Fiction: Advertising the Space Race 1957-1962 This book is not getting the attention it deserves. Read more
Published on January 6, 2011 by Hugh
5.0 out of 5 stars
Exhilarating Yet Sad
As I write this it's nine years after "2001: A Space Odyssey" was supposed to have taken place and not only do we not have PanAm clippers flying to the Moon, we don't even have... Read more
Published on December 3, 2010 by W. H. Jamison, Jr.
4.0 out of 5 stars
Another Science Fiction
Really neat book. Cool retro advertizing art from a time now long since past and much more innocent.
Published on October 25, 2010 by Patrick C. Weidinger
3.0 out of 5 stars
Interest, but could be better
Very small print, could have been better. A little history, and picture, but they really did not tie together that well
Published on July 4, 2010 by Jeffrey Schwartzkopf
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