Absolute Elsewhere

F62 (1962) Updated 26 May 2000

1962

Ashe, Geoffrey, LANDS TO THE WEST, 1962, Viking, HB, Need Copy and Info.

Baring-Gould, William S., SHERLOCK HOLMES OF BAKER STREET, 1, 1962, Clarkson Potter, HB. The prototype "fictional biography," which evolved out of The Baker Street Irregulars organization. The Irregulars studiously maintain that Sherlock Holmes is a real character and always treat him as such in their own writings. Others, notably Philip Jose Farmer would adapt this view point for other characters, even working them into the Sherlockian Universe, and expanding it to new directions.

Benoit, Pierre, ATLANTIDA, 1962, Ace, PB, Reprint of 1920 title. Above date uncertain.
 
Burroughs, William S., NAKED LUNCH, 1, 1962, Grove Press, HB.

 
Campbell, Joseph, THE MASKS OF GOD: ORIENTAL MYTHOLOGY, 1, 1962, Viking Press,  HB. The second volume in Campbell's MASKS OF GOD series on world mythology.
Dick, Philip K., MAN IN HIGH CASTLE, 1, 1962, Putnam , HB.  This is science fiction about an alternate existence where the Axis won World War II. Most of the action takes place in the Japanese-controlled Western U.S.A. Dick draws an interesting parallel between the American occupation forces in Japan and the fictional Japanese occupation. The Japanese overlords can't buy enough Americana, from comic books to Colt revolvers, just as G.I.'s couldn't buy enough pillow books and samurai swords. Philip K. Dick is one of the truly visionary writers of this period. It's important to note that Dick's use of the I CHING as a compositional device throughout the novel is one of its earliest uses in popular fiction. 
DR. NO, Motion Picture, 1962. Director: Terence Young. James Bond was created by former intelligence officer and journalist Iam Fleming in 1953, without much notice from anyone. Then John Kennedy casually mentioned that he liked the Bond novels, and this movie came out. Suddenly Bond was the most popular and long lasting pop literature hero since Sherlock Holmes. Go figure! See YOU ASKED FOR IT, 1955 entry,

Duraul, Arkon, HISTORY OF SECRET SOCIETIES, 1, 1962, Citadel, HB. Does anyone recall any other book by this author? This curious "history" of secret societies really didn't make its mark until Pocket Books putit out in paperback in 1969. Years ago I satisfied myself that this is written by Idries Shah -- the Sufi writer -- under a pseudonym. The style is similar to his, and many of the same ideas and special viewpoints can be found in his THE SUFIS (see 1964 entry).

Fox, Oliver, ASTRAL PROJECTIONS, 1962, University Books, HB.

Gardner, Martin, RELATIVITY FOR THE MILLION, 1, 1962, Macmillan, HB.See 1965 entry.

Goldberg, B. Z., SACRED FIRE, THE, 1962, Grove Press, PB. Reprint of 1930 title.
 
Haggard, Sir Henry Rider, CLEOPATRA, 1962, Pocket Books, PB.  It was the year of CLEOPATRA at the movies and all the old books were being rushed back into print (See Talbot Mundy, below).

Heinlein, Robert A., STRANGER IN A STRANGE LAND, 2, 1962, Avon, PB.

Heller, Joseph, CATCH-22, 2, 1962, Dell, PB. Heller's novel was onlya modest success in hardback, but took off in paperback. The ugly blue paperback with the crude drawing of a B-24 and a pilot could be found EVERYWHERE throughout the 60's and most of the 70's. CATCH 22 is one of the books that changed the face of publishing in the 60's (see Davis, TWO BIT CULTURE for more on this).

Huxley, Aldous, DOORS OF PERCEPTION AND HEAVEN AND HELL, 2, 1963, Harper and Row, Trade.

Kuhn, Thomas S., STRUCTURE OF SCIENTIFIC REVOLUTIONS, THE, 1, 1962, Chicago University Press, ? See 1970 entry.
 
Kerouac, Jack, BIG SUR, 1, 1962, Farrar, Straus and Cudahy, HB. 
Knebel, Fletcher, and Charles W. Bailey II, SEVEN DAYS IN MAY, 1, 1962,  Harper and Row, HB.  Another of the great prototype political paranoia novels produced in this period.   It is all about a military coup to take over the government of the USA,  Did some of these guys know something we didn't?  See Warren Report, 1964 entry!

Laing, R. D., DIVIDED SELF, THE, 1 1962, Pantheon Books, HB. See 1965 entry.

le Poer Trench, Brinsley (Earl of Clancarty), MEN AMONG MANKIND, 1, 1962, Neville Spearman (London), HB. See TEMPLE OF THE STARS, 1974 entry.

LONELY ARE THE BRAVE, Motion Picture, 1962. David Miller, Director. Dalton Trumbo, screenwriter. Based on Ed Abbey's THE BRAVE COWBOY (1956 & 1957 entries). Kirk Douglas was the real driving force behind this film about the individual vs. society and the state.

Lorenzen, Coral E., GREAT FLYING SAUCER HOAX, THE, 1, 1962, Signet, PB. See 1966 entry.
 
MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE, THE, Motion Picture, 1962, Frankenheimer, Director: John, From Richard Condon's novel, 1959, 1960 and 1988 entries. Re-released in 1988, entry. 

Maslow, Abraham, TOWARD A PSYCHOLOGY OF BEING, 1 1962, Van Nostrand. HB, entry.
 
Mundy, Talbot, QUEEN CLEOPATRA, 2, 1962, Ace, PB. Date not given. reprint of 1921 title. See 1969 entry.  Who could that be on the cover?  Liz Taylor?  Nah! Couldn't be!

PSYCHEDELIC REVIEW,  Issue 1, June 1963.  The first issue reads like a who's who of later psychedelia: Gerald Heard, R. Gordon Wasson (on Mexican mushrooms), Alan Watts, George Andrews, and others.  See Leary, Metzner and Weil, 1965 entry, and PSYCHEDELIC REVIEW, 1967 entry

Puharich, Andrija, BEYOND TELEPATHY, 1, 1962, Doubleday, HB.

Rose, Elliot, RAZOR FOR A GOAT, A, 1962, University of Toronto Press, HB.
 
Ian Stuart [Alistair MacLean], THE SATAN BUG, 1, 1962, Scribners, HB. 

Stuart, Ian [Alistair MacLean], THE SATAN BUG, 2, 1962 Paperback Library (this ed. may have actually appeared in 1963).  Another cold war techno-thriller, this time involving germ warfare.  A security agent tries to track down who has stolen the "satan bug", an germ that could end life on earth.  The novel signaled a new hardboiled style from adventure writer Alistair MacLean (See GUNS OF NAVARONE, 1957 entry), and a plot line he would reuse many times, but never as well as in this tight little thriller.  This novel was made into a tight little film by John Sturges (see SATAN BUG, 1965 entry).

Eunice Sudak, TALES OF TERROR, Lancer Books, 1962.  Tie-in with the Roger Corman anthology of Edgar Allan Poe stories which appeared that same year.  How does that look on your resume?  "I rewrote Edgar Allan Poe classics based on the movie version."   Sudak's name appears on a large number of tie-in novels for AIP movies during this period.  This could mean that it is a "house name for Lancer Books, or was the producer's brother-in law. 

Tallant, Robert, VOODOO IN NEW ORLEANS, 1, 1962, Collier/Macmillan, PB, Reprint of 1942 title.

Watts, Alan, JOYOUS COSMOLOGY, THE, 1, 1962, Pantheon Books, HB. With a Foreword by Timothy Learn and Richard Alpert.

Wauchope, Robert, LOST TRIBES AND SUNKEN CONTINENTS, 1962, University of Chicago, HB and Trade.

Wilson, Edmund, CLASSICS AND COMMERCIALS, 2, 1962, Vintage, PB.

Wilson, Colin, STRENGTH TO DREAM, THE, 1962, Houghton Mifflin, HB.

Wyndham, John [John Wyndham Parkes Lucas Beynon Harris. ], THE DAY OF THE TRIFFIDS, 4, 1962, Fawcett, PB. DAY OF THE TRIFFIDS above.

Yeats, W. B.; Rosenthal, ed., M. L., SELECTED POEMS AND TWO PLAYS OF WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS, 1962, Collier/Macmillan, Trade.
 
Yeats, W. B., CELTIC TWILIGHT, THE, 1962, Signet, PB.  A rare mass marked edition of one of Yeats's most important works.


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