With things underway, its time to look at some seminal items in my library. There will always be favourites in any collection and mine is no exception. There are several special books on the shelf which bear a close look, but probably one of the earliest -at least in terms of publication date, would be The Golden Library book of Space Flight. 1959
I first came across this book in the school library in the mid seventies and was immediately taken by the lovely painted artwork. The other significant element was the design of the rockets. Similar in form to the early designs of Werner Von Braun, they were simple, sleek and certainly on the cover, colourful and eyecatching.
Besides the simplicity of the design, they also put me in mind of a favourite space toy, a small plastic rocket that appeared in several Hong Kong space sets.
The illustrator for the book was one John Pohlgreen and his clear, painted style extended to pastel toned space stations, claw armed spacesuits and bright planetary vistas.
Pohlgreens style was distinctive and uncluttered, the Moon Observer vehicle is a series of solid shapes, but his use of colour makes it very easy on the eye. Soft greens and aquas are offset by salmon pink and tangerine. A definite contrast to the usual blacks, whites and greys of actual space vehicles.
His space wheel designs, again reflecting Von Braun and Willy Ley designs, are uncluttered and easy to understand. There is a certain elegance to his paintings, which seem to echo the space wheel sequence in Kubricks 2001 - the balletic approach of the Pan Am Clipper, accompanied by the waltz music of Strauss, would fit happily in the pages of the book.
The Golden Library book has heavy board covers, like a young child's book. The series was aimed at children, but there is a pre-school feel to the layout. Like many of the books in my library, I have never actually fully read it, just dipping in to relevant passages, to find out more about the wonderful painted designs.
Around the time that I found the book in the library, I bought another small space book, published in 1971 by Piccolo Books, a division of Pan Books.
'Exploring Other Worlds' is a small pocket sized softback well illustrated with painted art, some of which was lifted from 'Space Flight'.
Once more John Pohlgreen's pastel shades grace the pages, alongside another artists work of a lesser quality.
The space wheel construction art is included in its entirety along with other later artwork, such as the interpretation of a Gulliver Probe resting on a rather florid Martian landscape.
The Gulliver Probe was intended to soft land on a planetary surface and shoot out sticky cables which would draw back in dust and soul samples to vats of protein rich chemicals, to see if bacteria were present.
During recent searches for space books, I found another example containing Pohgreen's paintings.
Odhams was a major British publisher in the sixties, producing comics and books. The Question and Answer Book of Space is a hardback from 1965. Predating the Apollo Moon landings, it includes representations of the proposed vehicles, clearly based on NASA concepts. In this instance Pohlgreen is clearly credited on the cover.
Although not as lavishly illustrated as his other books, some of the paintings are of good quality and less fanciful than his work in the Golden book. His trademark space wheel is prominently shown, along with full page paintings of astronauts gear and small pictures punctuating the text.
John Sisson's wonderful blog, 'Dreams of Space' has further examples of Pohlgreens wonderful artwork.
Odhams was a major British publisher in the sixties, producing comics and books. The Question and Answer Book of Space is a hardback from 1965. Predating the Apollo Moon landings, it includes representations of the proposed vehicles, clearly based on NASA concepts. In this instance Pohlgreen is clearly credited on the cover.
Although not as lavishly illustrated as his other books, some of the paintings are of good quality and less fanciful than his work in the Golden book. His trademark space wheel is prominently shown, along with full page paintings of astronauts gear and small pictures punctuating the text.
