The United States had been engaged in the Second World War for some four months – and other Allied nations notably longer – by the time A.E. van Vogt’s “Recruiting Station” appeared in the March, 1942 issue of Astounding Science Fiction. In light of the United States’ efforts to mobilize American manpower for the war effort, van Vogt’s title – which would have an immediate resonance with the cultural zeitgeist of the America of 1942 – was aptly chosen. The significant difference being, that the military enlistees in van Vogt’s story – elements and aspects of which perhaps drew upon his earlier experience as a writer of romances – would unwittingly be fighting for the alien race known as the Calonians.
Unlike van Vogt’s brilliantly-done story “Asylum“, from the May, 1942 issue of Astounding, visualized by Charles Schneeman, both the cover art and black & white interior illustrations for “Recruiting Station” were created by Hubert Rogers. While most of the story’s interior art is not particularly dramatic or compelling, simply nominally depicting the story, the image on page 20 is nonetheless intriguing and well-conceived.
As for the images you’re actually viewing in this post, the cover image and close-up of the cover art were scanned from my own copy of the March ’42 issue of the magazine. However, due to the fragility of my copy (I didn’t want to break the delicate, now-brittle binding!), all the interior images (including the table of contents) were instead created from the PDF version of the magazine which was downloaded from Archive.org, with illustrations having been enhanced and edited via Photoshop.
Enjoy!
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“Are you interested in the Calonian cause?”
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