Leigh Brackett’s “The Beast-Jewel of Mars” is a neat story about using a sort of reverse-evolution regression an illicit entertainment or drug.  I read in a collection I picked up a year or two ago, but recently I found a copy of the 1942 Planet Stories that originally published the story.  I liked the story, and the flashy 1940s cover was so great that I figured I had to get it.

I opened up a new page in my Other SF Art galleries, specifically Pulp Magazines, so now I have a place to post the illustration at left.

Enjoy!

Rafeeq

Currently I am in the middle--well, more like the first 20%, actually--of a project to catalog my library onto a single Excel.  I've considered this for years, and finally have begun to take the plunge.

In any event, I just discovered that the October 1941 issue of Astounding, which features "By His Bootstraps," actually also contains the Heinlein story "Common Sense," along with five interior drawings.  Great!

How I had missed this previously, I don't know.  Now, however, they are posted to the "Pulp Magazines" page of my Heinlein cover art galleries.

Enjoy!

​Rafeeq

A bit belatedly, I realized that “Gulf” was not a stand-alone story when published in Astounding Science-Fiction in 1949, but instead was serialized across two issues.  I rectified that wee lack in my collection, therefore.  The cover, which is colorful and interesting, is by someone I confess I had never heard of, but the interiors for the Heinlein story still are by the familiar Hubert Rogers.  Almost as soon as the old pulp came in the mail, I scanned the appropriate parts, and they now are posted in the “Pulp Magazines” area of my voluminous Heinlein galleries.

Enjoy!

Rafeeq

Recently I picked up a nifty old Space Cadet with lovely cover and interiors by Clifford N. Geary, plus the two issues of Boys’ Life that serialized the story “Nothing Ever Happens on the Moon” in 1949.  These magazines are harder to come by than more usual ones like Astounding, I would say, and the interior illustrations happen to be quite nicely rendered.

Now the art from these pieces all is scanned, and posted to the appropriate pages in my huge Heinlein Cover Art galleries.

Enjoy!

Rafeeq

I was working on a chapter about Heinlein yesterday, and I had need to cross-reference some familiar book-published versions against the original versions serialized in magazines in the 1940s and 1950s.  These happened to bear out a couple of suppositions I had had, but more important right now is that I discovered that I somehow had neglected to scan and post two nifty Hubert Rogers interiors for “ ‘If This Goes On—’ ” from the February 1940 issue of Astounding Science-Fiction.

This was quite an oversight indeed, but at last I have posted these Hubert Rogers illustrations to the “Pulp Magazines” page of my “Heinlein Cover Art” galleries.

Enjoy!

​Rafeeq

Over the past couple of weeks I received a March 1952 Galaxy with “The Year of the Jackpot,” plus the February,March, and April 1956 issues of Astounding Science Fiction, in which are serialized Double Star.

​The art—especially the Kelly Freas for Double Star—is lovely.  All-up I had 23 scans to do, both easy-peasy covers plus significantly trickier interiors, but at last all are done, and all are posted; “The Year of the Jackpot” art is at “Pulp Magazines,” while the art from Double Star is at “Serialized Novels.”

Enjoy!

​Rafeeq

I was in Chicago for a few days, during which my mail brought some nice old magazines of Heinlein.  For starters, I received three issues of The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction: the first installment of Have Space Suit--Will Travel in August 1958 with a beautifully detailed and plot-correct cover by Ed Emshwiller, an installment of The Door Into Summer from December 1956 with Kelly Freas cover, and the August 1957 issue with “The Menace from Earth” under a cover from someone names Barry Waldman.

In addition, I received two hard-to-find pulps with less-famous Heinlein stories: “Columbus Was a Dope” in the May 1947 issue of a Startling Stories splashily covered by the inimitable Earle Bergey, and the light fantasy tale “Our Fair City” in the May 1949 Weird Tales.

Then, as long as I was in a big city, I figured I'd poke around a couple of bookstores to see if I could find any Heinlein I didn‘t already have.  Indeed I could: hardcovers of To Sail Beyond the Sunset and Requiem, which I had had only in paperbacks, plus more modern Glory Road and Red Planet.  The prices were decent, so I picked ‘em up.

At last all are scanned, and all are posted to my Heinlein Cover Art galleries.

Enjoy!

Rafeeq

Today I received in the mail three different packages of old book-dom.

One box with not just bubble wrap but actual cotton inside held an old Book Club Edition of This Island Earth—I saw the film maybe 25 years ago, so on general principle I figured I might as well give the book a try.  It definitely won’t be today or tomorrow, but I’ll get around to it sometime.

One puffy envelope from Canada held a lovely UK Pan edition of The Puppet Masters with a cover reminiscent of—but not by, since the initials in the painting appear to be “GA”—Boris Vallejo.

Finally, a flat and sturdy little box held December 1951 Famous Fantastic Mysteries that has a reprint of “ ‘—And He Built a Crooked House,’ ” which of course first appeared in Astounding Science-Fiction in February 1941.

A nice evening’s haul, and now the Heinlein are scanned, and posted to the appropriate pages in my Heinlein Cover Art galleries.

Enjoy!

Rafeeq

Yesterday the mail brought a nice old Beyond This Horizon I had ordered, an early Grosset & Dunlap reprint of the Fantasy Press edition with dark but evocative cover by someone named Donnell.

Beyond This Horizon first was published in April and May 1942 in Astounding Science-Fiction, of course, illustrated then by Hubert Rogers.  Those printings are shown on my “Pulp Magazines” page.  After the war it was published in book form by Fantasy Press, and then by Grosset & Dunlap.

The two-tone painting here shows a future of soft parkland and soaring skyscrapers with arched bridges of white concrete...with an hourglass superimposed, in the bottom of which a toddler plays at piling up sand.  The book itself is a bit light in weight, as if made of cheaper materials, and the dust jacket has some little chunks missing at the edges.  Still, for its age, that’s not too bad, and the piece really was a great find.

See it on on the “Earlier Adult Works” page of my Heinlein Cover Art galleries.

Enjoy!

Rafeeq

A couple of days ago I received the beautiful Earle Bergey-covered October 1947 Thrilling Wonder Stories containing Heinlein’s “Jerry Was a Man,” the 8 February 1947 Saturday Evening Post with “The Green Hills of Earth,” and the September and October 1951 Blue Book with Between Planets serialized as Planets in Combat—these latter each also contained 8 or 10 lovely interior illustrations by Brendan Lynch.

Yesterday I got a nice vintage Door into Summer with a charmingly bold cover by Mel Hunter.

Then today a few newer paperbacks arrived: a British Assignment in Eternity with an interesting techno-treehouse sort of cover, a Rick Sternback Starman Jones, and a Man Who Sold the Moon with a bright and mildly humorous John Melo painting.

All now are scanned to the appropriate pages in my “Heinlein Cover Art” galleries, so now you may enjoy, too!

​Rafeeq