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Another Science Fiction: Advertising the Space Race 1957-1962
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.
240 pages, Paperback
First published April 13, 2010
108 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
June 16, 2010
In the midst of the current debate over the importance of NASA, historian Megan Prelinger has brought forth a fascinating glimpse into the early days of space development in the US. The unique lens through which she examines this period is the advertisements the aerospace industry used to advance its cause in the late 1950’s and early 1960’s.
In this stunning book, 200 images originally run in such publications as Missiles and Rockets are gathered together for the first time. Topics examined include both the vision and reality behind our first satellites, the fantastical early dreams of the human body in space, ideas of the crafts we’d need to bring us back and forth, images and landscapes of space itself, and the modernist influenced graphic art that graces many of the ads.
With expensive programs to sell to the public and the government, early advertisers drew heavily from the imaginings of science fiction in envisioning this future world. Despite the advances that have been made in the intervening half-century, many of their visions are overly optimistic even by today’s standards. Yet other interim successes are made obvious when viewing the focus of particular pieces: it’s hard not to smile when seeing an ad promising the miracle of being able to watch live television from anywhere in the world, or noting that an imagining of the first human footprints on the moon had realistic enough looking dust but also had the astronauts wearing wing-tips.
What surprised me the most about this book, however, was just how artistically striking many of these advertisements were. A company called Martin Denver drew heavily from the abstract modernist movement and regularly produced images I would be thrilled to have on my walls today. For those interested in the cultural history of the cold war years, science fiction and the space race, this book is a delicious collection of fascinating ephemera.
In this stunning book, 200 images originally run in such publications as Missiles and Rockets are gathered together for the first time. Topics examined include both the vision and reality behind our first satellites, the fantastical early dreams of the human body in space, ideas of the crafts we’d need to bring us back and forth, images and landscapes of space itself, and the modernist influenced graphic art that graces many of the ads.
With expensive programs to sell to the public and the government, early advertisers drew heavily from the imaginings of science fiction in envisioning this future world. Despite the advances that have been made in the intervening half-century, many of their visions are overly optimistic even by today’s standards. Yet other interim successes are made obvious when viewing the focus of particular pieces: it’s hard not to smile when seeing an ad promising the miracle of being able to watch live television from anywhere in the world, or noting that an imagining of the first human footprints on the moon had realistic enough looking dust but also had the astronauts wearing wing-tips.
What surprised me the most about this book, however, was just how artistically striking many of these advertisements were. A company called Martin Denver drew heavily from the abstract modernist movement and regularly produced images I would be thrilled to have on my walls today. For those interested in the cultural history of the cold war years, science fiction and the space race, this book is a delicious collection of fascinating ephemera.
July 20, 2024
Really nicely designed book. Subject matter not quite what I was looking for but it was enjoyable to just skim through it. The Los Alamos ads’ usage of Taos artists was my favorite part. And one thing stood out to me towards the end - that the use of illustration and imaginative/abstract imagery in material about going to space was replaced by photography/factual imagery once the space program got underway and there was more real-life stuff to include.
November 4, 2022
Underwhelming
June 2, 2023
Gorgeous, gorgeous book of midcentury promotional advertising images for the space race. Wow. Science fiction images in the services of real science companies.
January 4, 2013
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.
I found the best chapters / collections to be those on the human form, and on modern art influences. In these not only were the graphics themselves stunning, but the narrative added significant depth. I was a smidge less interested in the chapters that spent more time writing about technical details - the content seemed too deep for a non-aerospace reader, but "already known" for insiders.
A surprising side to this book was how many of the advertisements are focused on recruiting, reflecting the early space age ramp up. To this end the ad copy itself is often very interesting as well.
I gather the author is hard at work on another book. Can't wait!
I found the best chapters / collections to be those on the human form, and on modern art influences. In these not only were the graphics themselves stunning, but the narrative added significant depth. I was a smidge less interested in the chapters that spent more time writing about technical details - the content seemed too deep for a non-aerospace reader, but "already known" for insiders.
A surprising side to this book was how many of the advertisements are focused on recruiting, reflecting the early space age ramp up. To this end the ad copy itself is often very interesting as well.
I gather the author is hard at work on another book. Can't wait!
December 30, 2014
This book was tailor-made for my space-race-steeped childhood psyche. While I was not, of course, reading Aviation Week and Missiles and Rockets magazines as a toddler, the graphics that Megan Prelinger uses as the centerpieces of her work nonetheless seem comfortingly and excitingly familiar.
[As a side note, the author runs a private library in San Francisco (http://www.prelingerlibrary.org) that is open to the public on occasion. I happened to be in SF on one of those weekends, and made it a point to visit. Megan was very gracious and interesting to talk to. If you have the chance to drop by, I recommend it.]
[As a side note, the author runs a private library in San Francisco (http://www.prelingerlibrary.org) that is open to the public on occasion. I happened to be in SF on one of those weekends, and made it a point to visit. Megan was very gracious and interesting to talk to. If you have the chance to drop by, I recommend it.]
January 22, 2012
Absolutely amazing. Megan Prelinger has assembled a wonderfully curated collection of imagery that provides a fascinating glimpse of the mindset of the Sputnik and Mercury 7 era. I saw her talk last year at a NASA History Office event, and her work is meticulously researched and mesmerizing. There are a lot of early Space Race historians out there who do a fine job at looking at the political and technological landscape of the time, but Prelinger provides a very welcome perspective about Cold War culture without resorting to the cliched and one-dimensional fear-mongering slant. Looking forward to more works about visual ephemera from her soon.
January 10, 2015
A lovely book, that I discovered while browsing at the local book store. I'm old enough to remember seeing some of these ads in 'Scientific American' and other magazines. I have always wondered why they disappeared from view, and why their promised breakthroughs never seemed to materialize. Ms. Prelinger's book answered that question for me quite nicely. The book illustrates a promised future that never seemed to happen, via advertisements (of all things!). An enjoyable, if somewhat bittersweet, book.
August 15, 2014
A fine (but mildly flawed) initial study of the interrelationship of graphic design and the (U.S.) space program. Thus field is one likely to priduce rich and interesting crops in the future.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews