Absolute Elsewhere

1954

Abbey, Edward, JONATHAN TROY, 1954, Dodd, Mead, HB.  Abbey's first novel, and interesting for its negative portrait of my old hometown of Indiana, Pennsylvania.  Never reprinted and disavowed by Abbey himself, it is the rarest of finds for the Abbey collector (see Abbey, BRAVE COWBOY, 1956 entry)..

Apuleius, GOLDEN ASS, THE, 2, 1954, Pocket Books, PB.  Robert Graves, trans.

Camp, L. Sprague de, LOST CONTINENTS, 1, 1954, Gnome Press, HB. Rewritten article from OTHER WORLDS, Oct. '52-May '53. The most detailed and complete account of Atlantis and lost continent literature ever done. It's out of date and would take a whole second volume to cover material written since de Camp's 1970 revision. It's a great starting place for any study of the subject. What makes the book more important is that it's one of the most successful pieces of debunking ever written. Many of his opinions and assertions have been repeated over and over through the years. De Camp is a man with strong opinions and prejudices, it is best to check some of his facts--especially where 20th century figures are concerned. A good many of his ideas are repeated in Gardner's FADS AND FALLACIES (1957). De Camp seems to have been one of the first to infer that Velikovsky was a follower of Nazi cosmologies Hans Horbiger (Velikovsky was a Russian Jew and Zionist!). This is not a moment that de Camp should be proud of.

Gardner, Gerald B., WITCHCRAFT TODAY, 1, 1954, Rider / British ed., HB. See 1970 entry.
 

Harrer, Heinrich, SEVEN YEARS IN TIBET,1, 1954, E.P. Dutton, HB.

 

Huxley, Aldous, DOORS OF PERCEPTION and HEAVEN AND HELL, THE, 1, 1954, Harper and Row., HB. An early classic of the psychedelic/ consciousness expansion school of thought. The rock group THE DOORS took its name from this book.
 

Matheson, Richard, I AM LEGEND. 1, 1954, Doubleday, HB.  The spiritual father of all those "They're all outside, trying to get inside and at me" tales.  Robert Neville is the last man alive on earth who is not a vampire, and he's lonely, horney, and just plain pissed off about it.  Matheson's classic was made into a very good cheapo movie, THE LAST MAN ON EARTH (1964), with Vincent Price, and a really bad big budget movie, THE OMEGA MAN(1971), with Charlton Heston, and was a major influence on George Romero's NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD (1968), and its sequels.

 

Matheson, Richard, I AM LEGEND. 2, 1954, Gold Medal, PB.

 
Moore, Virginia, UNICORN, THE, 1954, Macmillan, HB. This is a ground breaking study of W. B. Yeats' interests in mythology, folklore, and esoteric lore. Moore was one of the first literary scholars to realize that his interest in occultism was not just an embarrassing hobby he indulged in, but an important part of his overall aesthetic. This book contained a fairly reliable account of Yeats' membership in the Order of the Golden Dawn, and included extensive quotes from their teaching documents and rituals (much of it from Regardie, 1969 entry). Mrs. Yeats seems to have provided Moore with a lot of material, which is invaluable. THE UNICORN broke a lot of silence on this aspect of the poet's life, and brought the study of esoteric aesthetics into literary scholarship.
 

Mundy, Talbot , Talbot, KING OF THE KYBER RIFLES, 1, 1954, Beacon Books, PB.  Beacon was a publisher  which specialized in publishing borderline smut.  Apparently, they also took it upon themselves to rewrite books which were not smutty enough to suit their taste.  In this case, they took Mundy's 1916 adventure classic and added leering and suggestive passages in order to "hot" the book up for the smut market.  It would be an interesting study for someone to discover how widespread this practice was in the paperback publishing business of this period (see Fleming, TOO HOT TO HANDLE, 1956 entry).

 

CORE (COSMIC ORGANIC ENGINEERING); OROP DESERT: SPACE SHIPS DOR AND DROUGHT,  1953 , Orgone Institure, Chapbook.  Part of Wilhelm Reich's contribution to UFO lore.  Apparently, UFOs appear wherever you point your Orgone Energy collector.  You've got one of those at home in your garage, right?  Well, get that baby outta mothballs and start seeing the saucers.

 

Rohmer, Sax [Arthur Sarsfield Ward], THE RETURN OF SUMURU, 1. 1954, Fawcett, PB.

 

Suzuki, D. T., INTRODUCTION TO ZEN BUDDHISM,  1954, Grove Press, PB.

Wiener, Norbert, HUMAN USE OF HUMAN BEINGS, THE, 2, 1954, Doubleday PB. 2nd ed., revised.
 

Wilkins, Harold T., FLYING SAUCERS ON THE ATTACK, 1, 1954, Citadel, HB. British title: FLYING SAUCERS FROM THE MOON. The original British title gives you an idea where Wilkins thought UFOs came from (actually, he just thought they were based there). Wilson provides a lot of possible UFO visitations from historical and ancient times. These would become part of general UFO lore, and ultimately the basics of the "extraterrestrial genesis" thesis. Wilkins was one of a minority of UFO writers who believed that "they" were not friendly (See 1955, 1957 and 1958 entries).

 
Wilkins, Harold T., FLYING SAUCERS ON THE ATTACK, 2, 1954, Ace, PB. Above date uncertain.
 

1955

Anon., URANTIA, 1955, Urantia Brotherhood (Chicago, IL), HB. 2097 pgs.!

Ashe, Geoffrey, KING ARTHUR'S AVALON, 1955, Dutton, HB. Need Copy and Info.
 
Dick, Philip K., THE SOLAR LOTTERY,1, 1955, Ace, PB.  Published in the Ace Double Novel series along with Leigh Brackett's THE BIG JUMP.  PKD's first published full length novel.  If Philip Jose Farmer is the "Henry Miller of Science Fiction," then Dick could be seen as the "William Burroughs of Science Fiction."

Finney, Jack, THE BODY SNATCHERS, 1, 1955, Dell, PB.

Fleming, Ian, MOONRAKER, 1, 1955 MacMillan, HB. See Fleming, TOO HOT TO HANDLE (1956, and 1960 entries).
 

Fleming, Ian, YOU ASKED FOR IT, 1955, Paperback Library, PB. Retitled ed. of CASINO ROYALE (1954). It seems hard to believe, but once upon a time you couldn't give a James Bond novel away. Sales were so bad on the hardback edition of the first Bond novel that Paperback Library changed its name and gave it a very racy cover in hopes to boost sales. It didn't work. See DR NO, 1962 entry.

 

Gardner, Gerald B., WITCHCRAFT TODAY, 2 1955, Citadel Press, HB. See 1970 entry.  The first US ed. of the work that literally reinvented witchcraft as a contemporary spiritual alternative.

 

Graves, Robert, GREEK MYTHS, THE, 1, 1955, Penguin, PB. 2 Volumes.
 

Heard, H. F. [Henry Fitz Gerald Heard], A TASTE FOR MURDER, 1, Avon, PB. Retitled ed. of Heard's classic Sherlockian novel A TASTE FOR HONEY (1941), see 1967 entry.

 

Huizinga, Johan, HOMO LUDENS: A STUDY OF THE PLAY ELEMENT IN CULTURE, 1955, Beacon, HB and Trade. Reprint of 1950 British title.

Jessup, Morris, CASE FOR UFOs, THE, 1, 1955, Citadel, HB. Despite what is said in many UFO books, this volume is not the origin of the "Philadelphia Experiment" legend.
 

Donald Keyhoe, THE FLYING SAUCER CONSPIRACY, 1955, Henry Holt, HB.  The third book by the Major has a more paranoid tone to it.  Holt actually spent a buck or two on the cover, though.

 

Neumann, Erich, GREAT MOTHER, 1, 1955, Pantheon Books, HB.
 

TIME MAGAZINE, 14 February, 1955.  Psychiatrist Carl G. Jung makes the cover of  Time with a 6 page article "Finding the God Within" on his ideas..

Velikovsky, Immanuel, EARTH IN UPHEAVAL, 1, 1955, Doubleday, HB. The direct sequel to WORLDS IN COLLISION. Velikovsky presents geological evidence for his catastrophic theory of ancient history. Enjoyable reading for its more direct attack on uniformitarian sensibilities.

Waddell, Helen, WANDERING SCHOLARS, THE, 1955, Doubleday, PB. Reprint 1932 British ed. Entry

Webster, Nesta H., SECRET SOCIETIES AND SUBVERSIVE MOVEMENTS, 2, 1955, Britons Publishing Society (London), HB. Also rpt. late 70's or 80's by Omni Pubs., (Hawthorne, CA)

Wilkins, Harold T., FLYING SAUCERS UNCENSORED, 1, 1955, Citadel, HB.