Friday, October 16, 2015

First Men to the Moon reprint in German (1961)





I blogged back in March (March 13, 2015) about First Men to the Moon (1960) . I recently came across the German language edition which was published in 1961. While not a basic children's book in the English edition I was surprised that the German had very different illustrations and a much more "adult" look about it. Thought you might enjoy this. There seems to have been at least 2 covers on the German version. This second one may have been on the paperback.


 Here is the hardcover cloth cover.


I think this artist was much more of a technical illustrator than Fred Freeman.


It does not show as much with these first few, but unlike Freeman's seemingly freehand version these are much more carefully drawn.


1960 version by Freeman



I also like how the artist in this version "translated" the technology to engineering drawings


Still striking illustrations for a book aimed at the general public.



I think I like this Freeman "informal" version better.


1 comment:

  1. Does the book indicate if von Braun wrote the German text himself, or had it translated for him? I would imagine by this time most of his writing would have been in English.

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