Literary Art and Illustration

Get your ticket to that wheel in space while there’s time
The fix is in
You’ll be a witness to that game of chance in the sky
You know we’ve got to win

Here at home we’ll play in the city
Powered by the sun
Perfect weather for a streamlined world
There’ll be spandex jackets, one for everyone

What a beautiful world this will be
What a glorious time to be free
What a beautiful world this will be
What a glorious time to be free

From I.G.Y., “The Nightfly”, 1982

Here’s an interesting variation on a theme of space stations. Or, to be specific, the construction of a space station.

First, the front and rear covers of Pocket Books’ 1953 edition of Murray Leinster’s Space Platform, as illustrated by Earle K. Bergey (albeit sans Bergey Girl). Artistically it’s a fine illustration, and the scene depicted is consistent with the story, but with that, it’s still – well – odd. The setting of the space platform’s creation is weird: Given that the station is under construction on land – on the surface of the earth – in a facility that seems to be a cross between a shipyard and steel mill, how “on earth” (small pun there…) how did Leinster propose to get the thing into space once completed?

(Don’t know. Haven’t yet read the book. However, you can find numerous comments about it at GoodReads.)

In the little desert town of Bootstrap stands a huge metal shed. In the shed men are building an object that can change the history of mankind. It is a Space Platform. Propelled to an orbit 4000 miles from Earth this platform will serve as the staring place for man’s exploration of mysterious outer space.

SPACE PLATFORM tells the exciting story of a young man helping to build this first station. With scientific accuracy and imagination Murray Leinster, one of the word’s top science-fiction writers, describes the building and launching of the platform. Here is a fast-paced story of sabotage and murder directed against a project more secret and valuable than the atom bomb!

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And then it hit me: The story and Bergey’s illustration reminded me of something quite contemporary: The scene of the entirely earthbound construction of the USS Enterprise, as depicted in J.J. Abrams stunningly, sublimely, transcendentally awful – not initially-panned-and-eventually-recognized-as-a-great-film awful, just irrevocably-and-perennially-awful – 2009 Star Trek. Though effective in terms of color and lighting (the bluish-white background illumination, suggesting a combination of floodlights the light from sunrise or sunset, works well), and imparting a feeling of “busy-ness”, the scene is – frankly – idiotic. I know that post-TV-series iterations of Star Trek have the Enterprise (and other Federation starships?) capable of some degree of atmospheric flight, but…

Really??

And, talking of security precautions: I’m sure the fence and “Authorized Personnel Only” sign is entirely capable of dissuading any intruders. Well, barbed wire has long been known to be utterly impenetrable to phasers, disruptors, anti-matter, paper airplanes, and stray golf-balls.

(Digressing… Regarding what’s left of Star Trek, check out The Critical Drinker’s video of August 2, 2021, “Star Trek – It’s Dead, Jim“. Some of the comments are brilliant.)

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Back to art: I guess the platform’s earthbound construction is genuinely a part of the novel, and not something invented by Bergey solely for the cover of the Pocket Books’ edition, as seen in I. Heilbron’s cover for the Shasta edition (one of five science fiction novels published by Shasta in 1953) which conveys a more sedate impression.

References and Stuff

Murray Leinster (William Fitzgerald Jenkins)…

…at Internet Speculative Fiction Database

“Space Platform” (1953 Edition)…

…at Internet Speculative Fiction Database

…at GoodReads

…at L.W. Currey, Inc. (Bookseller)

Earle K. Bergey…

…at Wikipedia

…at American Pinup

…at ArtNet

…at Adventures Fantastic

…at American Art Archives

USS Enterprise (Star Trek) Under Construction…

…at reddit (see comments…)

I.G.Y. lyrics…

…at AZLyrics.com (Donald Fagen, “The Nightfly” (1982))

While the great majority of my posts displaying science fiction art present illustrations created for stories and novels written by authors of science fiction, the art for Herman Wouk’s The “Lomokome” Papers is somewhat different, given he nature of Wouk’s literary oeuvre. This could be categorized as historical fiction, with a focus upon aspects of the American experience of the mid-twentieth century as viewed through the lens of United States Navy during the Second World War, or the Second World War “in general”, and, the history of the Jewish people in both the United States and Israel as perceived in and personified through the lives of individual men and women, and, their families.

So, when – in a used bookstore (yes, a few still exist!) – I chanced upon this copy of The “Lomokome” Papers, it rang a literary bell of a highly different tone. I’d long nominally known “of” the title, but had not yet read the book.

While one might at first think the story to be purely a tale of science fiction representative of the mid-twentieth century’s “Golden Age”, the 1949 novel instead uses the plot device of American astronauts’ lunar voyage to confront themes much larger: the intersection between technology, war, and politics, and morality. In the words of Monstrodwhale at GoodReads – where ratings of the novel by 58 readers are hugely varied – the novel is a, “Swiftian satire about the Cold War set on the moon. Written not long after WWII, it provides a fairly interesting take on the real differences between Democracy and Communism as well as a strange reading of Weapons of Mass Destruction. Ultimately, it’s clever.”

In any event, the novel does mark Wouk’s only foray into science fiction.

In terms of art, this 1968 Pocket Books edition marked an effort by the publisher to – perhaps? – lend the novel a “highbrow” air through the inclusion of numerous full-page black and white interior illustrations, of which two are displayed below. (I didn’t want to risk breaking the binding by scanning all the other illustrations within the book!)

The frontspiece image of the astronaut depicted as floating against the background of a lunar inhabitant’s starry cloak in the “upper” black and white illustration was certainly inspired by James A. McDivitt’s famous photo of Edward H. White during the latter’s spacewalk three years prior to this edition’s publication: during Gemini 4, on June 3, 1965. Subsequently, McDivitt’s superb photograph (it’s a really nice image aside from its historical significance) was directly incorporated into, was adapted for, or inspired much in the way of the iconography of space exploration, science, and science fiction, at least through the 1970s.

Otherwise, Harry R. Bennett’s front cover has – surprise, surprise – a sort of “hippie” feel. Y’know, big red hair and all.

Well, this was 1968..!

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