The Winston Science Fiction "Juveniles"

[Extollager]

Here's a place to discuss a series that was a landmark reading experience for some youngsters half a century or so ago.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winston_Science_Fiction

I'm discussing one of them, Don Wollheim's Secret of the Ninth Planet. elsewhere, with a link to a blogger on the same book.

From Way, Way Back in Your Reading Life

There must be some readers around here who'd like to discuss books in the series. Some notable sf authors contributed to the series, including Poul Anderson, Ben Bova, Arthur C. Clarke, Lester del Rey, Chad Oliver, Jack Vance, and others. Dust jacket artists included Alex Schomburg (a bunch) and Ed Emshwiller.

 

[Tom Hering]

Alex Schomburg's endpaper illustration for the Winston series is simply THE ultimate 1950s SF art. A masterpiece.

 

[Extollager]

Yes. That endpaper design was it; that was what I wanted. That illustration, the Zallinger dinosaur mural for the Peabody Museum (reproduced in books), and the Polgreen illustrations for Roy Gallant's Exploring the Planets, must have indelibly impressed my youthful imagination.

 

[clovis-man]

Read several of them when I was a youngster. The Schomburg end papers were what inspired me to read them and to get involved with SF to begin with. Bought a few first editions in the past couple of years just for nostalgia's sake. Not cheap these days. I also have found a source for most of them on a CD ROM compilation (public domain). I can share the source if anyone wants to PM me about it.

 

[Zendexor]

Here's a place to discuss a series that was a landmark reading experience for some youngsters half a century or so ago.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winston_Science_Fiction

I'm discussing one of them, Don Wollheim's Secret of the Ninth Planet. elsewhere, with a link to a blogger on the same book.

From Way, Way Back in Your Reading Life

There must be some readers around here who'd like to discuss books in the series. Some notable sf authors contributed to the series, including Poul Anderson, Ben Bova, Arthur C. Clarke, Lester del Rey, Chad Oliver, Jack Vance, and others. Dust jacket artists included Alex Schomburg (a bunch) and Ed Emshwiller.

I recently heard of this series as I have been trying to track down a copy of Philip Latham's Missing Men of Saturn for discussion on the Saturn page on my OSS website. The planet Saturn (you know, its solid habitable surface, Old Solar System style) hasn't often been visited in the pages of sf, as far as I can tell.

 

[Ray McCarthy]

The planet Saturn

There is the lovely short story were Earth sends a Robot to meet the Saturnalians. They neglect to make it clear it's a Robot and not a Tellurian. The Saturnalians sue for peace.

I forget which author

 

[Zendexor]

There is the lovely short story were Earth sends a Robot to meet the Saturnalians. They neglect to make it clear it's a Robot and not a Tellurian. The Saturnalians sue for peace.

I forget which author

Sounds like Asimov's Victory Unintentional though I think that was about Jovians rather than Saturnians...

 

[Ray McCarthy]

was about Jovians

Yes. Absolutely it was Jupiter. The Earth people had a camp on Callisto or Europa?
Sorry!

 

[Beamer01]

I loved the Winston set of juvenile science fiction. I have read most of them and have managed to collect 15 or so mostly old library editions. I think my favorite would be Vault of the Ages by Poul Anderson. It was a real good collection of classic science fiction authors. Clarke, Anderson, del Rey, Bova, Wollheim, Lesser, Vance, just to name the ones I remember off the top of my head. As I said I was a huge fan growing up.

 

[2DaveWixon]

Yes. That endpaper design was it; that was what I wanted. That illustration, the Zallinger dinosaur mural for the Peabody Museum (reproduced in books), and the Polgreen illustrations for Roy Gallant's Exploring the Planets, must have indelibly impressed my youthful imagination.

Absolutely! My county library not being interested in shelving all SF together, I used to go along the shelves pulling down books and opening then to look for those endpapers... (did not find many).

 

[2DaveWixon]

I loved the Winston set of juvenile science fiction. I have read most of them and have managed to collect 15 or so mostly old library editions. I think my favorite would be Vault of the Ages by Poul Anderson. It was a real good collection of classic science fiction authors. Clarke, Anderson, del Rey, Bova, Wollheim, Lesser, Vance, just to name the ones I remember off the top of my head. As I said I was a huge fan growing up.

My favorite was Rocket Jockey by Philip St. John (who turned out to actually be Lester del Rey). I loved the book so much that I saved my allowance for a long enough time to be able to special order it through the local bookstore -- and I still had the book when I met Lester, years later -- he autographed it for me! A simplistic story that might not even find a publisher today, but it was just right for teen-age me!
Another fave was named, I believe, Secret of the Martian Moons -- it might have been written by Don Wollheim.

 

[Beamer01]

Yes del Rey wrote under 3 or 4 different names in the collection.

 

[Extollager]

I've been tracking around books that made an impression on me almost 50 years ago but that I have never read. One that came to mind was Poul Anderson's Vault of the Ages, picked up for issue in the Winston series. Beamer 01 mentions it above. Unless memory is fooling me, a school friend had a copy. I think I would have been happy to borrow it if he had offered it, but either I asked and he said no, or I didn't ask. Or something.

I maybe didn't think the cover was all that great, since it isn't.

 

[J Riff]

I can usually spot Brit cover art, because I haven't seen it before, and this is one of them; but those endpapers are familiar. The other thing you saw was Dinosaurs, all of them in one little swamp, on book covers, and you had to have that book. I still have my fave reptile/amphibian books, some of them, though not sure why...

 

[clovis-man]

Absolutely! My county library not being interested in shelving all SF together, I used to go along the shelves pulling down books and opening then to look for those endpapers... (did not find many).

I guess I was lucky. My tiny Placer County Library branch in Colfax, California had a few of them filed together in a corner and I read all of them I could as a lad of 13 or 14. Then totally lost track of the series until just recently. Now they're big on my nostalgia radar.

 

[Extollager]

Alex Schomburg's endpaper illustration for the Winston series is simply THE ultimate 1950s SF art. A masterpiece.

Here's an article on endpapers.

The Unsung Delight of a Well-Designed Endpaper

Too bad that there doesn't appear to be a way to send a comment, with a link to the Schomburg endpaper.

 

[2DaveWixon]

Alex Schomburg's endpaper illustration for the Winston series is simply THE ultimate 1950s SF art. A masterpiece.

This was the greatest magic the young me ever came across!

 

[Extollager]

Unfortunately, the Schomburg endpaper wasn't used on all of the Winston books, or at least on all printings. I was disappointed years ago when I got a copy of Wollheim's Secret of the Ninth Planet with plain white endpapers. I wonder if someone at the company thought the endpaper design was maybe a bit too intense for parents and grandparents, the probable main purchasers of the books aside from libraries.

The cover designs were less fascinating, often striking a balance between sf appeal and a kind of Hardy Boys wholesomeness.

 

[Extollager]

More covers...

 

[Extollager]

A few more.

Like I said, the endpaper design was a lot more intense. These covers probably wouldn't have alarmed parents and grandparents looking to buy something for Junior. Maybe the company though the endpaper design was scaring some adult purchasers away. I wonder.