Vintage Sci-Fi Covers

Today is a bit of a detour from the usual GDB offerings, but I hope that you will enjoy it anyway.

Long story short; my mom used to be a science fiction nut! Back in the 1950's she read sci-fi voraciously in her mid-to-late teens. And many of her old paperback books remained in her old bedroom in my grandparent's house in Encino for decades afterwards. The bedroom had two twin beds, so it was where my brother and I slept when we visited, and I loved to go through the bookcase and look at these fantastic (literally!) volumes. 

Arthur C. Clarke was one of her favorites... here are two covers that I particularly like, especially "Tales From the White Hart". I have read five or six works by Clarke, but not these two.

After my both of my grandparents passed away, I kept my mom's sci-fi books, moving them around as I went off to school and then to different living situations. And eventually I decided that I just couldn't lug them around any more. Yes... I sold them on eBay. I'm not proud of it. But at least I still have my scans of the wonderful cover art. The pictures I am sharing today are some of my favorites.

Here are two great covers of books by another science fiction legend, Theodore Sturgeon. One of his most famous books is "More Than Human", and he also wrote two "Star Trek" episodes including the fan-favorite "Amok Time". Pon Farr, yo! The cover on the right looks like it was painted by another sci-fi legend,  Richard M. Powers.

My mom introduced me to Ray Bradbury's works when I was young, and I eventually read as many of his books as I could get. She particularly loved "Dandelion Wine", which is a good one! I just love the varied graphic styles used on these covers - the one on the left must be from the 60's, with it's echoes of psychedelia.

Here are two very different versions of "The Martian Chronicles" - another great book! Thinking back, I also loved "Something Wicked This Way Comes", "The Halloween Tree", and of course "Fahrenheit 451".

Seeing these covers now, I wish I had read the contents! But there were "MAD" magazines to read. You understand.

Many of my mom's books were collections of SF stories, featuring familiar authors like John W. Campbell, Roger Price, Robert Heinlein, Leigh Brackett, and so on.

And finally, here are two more evocative covers. Looks like another Richard M. Powers painting on the left. "The Circus of Dr. Lao" had a fun movie very loosely based on it ("7 Faces of Dr. Lao"), directed by George Pal. I haven't seen it since I was a kid, but I loved it whenever it showed up on TV.

I tell myself "You can't keep everything!", but I really do wish I'd kept this great collection of my mother's science fiction paperback books. I still have one or two (including her copy of "Dandelion Wine") so that is some consolation.

NOTE: To the folks who checked in to GDB earlier in the morning, I mistakenly had TWO posts that published today. After some consideration, I finally decided to just remove the extra post, in spite of the fact that it had some comments (apologies to those people). This is what happens when I write many posts long in advance and then move them around the calendar. The rest of you will see those photos and the text on some future "Anything Goes Saturday".