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I’m currently writing an essay to explain what I mean by “middle class values”, but I’ve been sidetracked into childhood memories about cows (don’t ask!) and rediscovering one truly wond’rous part of my childhood: the How & Why Wonder Book series.
If you can point to one thing that made me the geek I am today, it’s this series of books.
Each one was just 48 pages long, and the illustrations were usually paintings — pretty corny by today’s standards. But they really did create a sense of wonder for the Science and Technology which was unfolding in The Space Age. The first one was issued in 1960 and they ran well into the 1970s.
Looking through the lists put together by collectors intabits and Joe Roberts, I reckon I had at least 23 of the titles.
My favourites were The How & Why Wonder Book of Planets and Interplanetary Travel (insanely optimistic, in hindsight), Rockets and Missiles, Atomic Energy (no nuclear waste here, just atomic trains!) and The How & Why Wonder Book of Robots and Electronic Brains — man, there’s a whole essay in that last title alone, eh?
I bet my mother still has them stashed away in a cupboard somewhere.
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27 January 2008 at 11:57 pm
Nick Hodge
Hmmm, memories here too.
I think I had some handed down to me; either that, or they were in the school library (the place I hid from the reality of an Australian country upbringing) in the late 1970s.
If I recall, the “rockets and missiles” had a picture of Werner von Braun, the hero of NASA and V2 rockets.
28 January 2008 at 12:04 am
Stilgherrian
@Nick Hodge: I am, of course, completely NOT surprised that you know these books. The one on Stars told me how the Sun was going to eventually expand and fry the Earth — gave me nightmares for months.
But then the first time I watched Doctor Who there were Daleks and I had to hide behind the couch.
28 January 2008 at 11:23 am
Megan
Oh yes — I loved those books. I fondly remember the dinosaur one in particular.
I later progressed to Time Life Nature library where I learnt everything I know about things like operative conditioning, red shift and African animals.
Do you remember those school project packs with the poster and pictures you could cut out and put in your project book? I think even remembering project books dates me. Now it’s all PowerPoint and Flash presentations.
29 January 2008 at 10:11 am
Stilgherrian
@Megan: I vaguely remember the school project packs, but they were frowned upon where I went.
The How and Why Wonder Book of Dinosaurs was actually the very first in the US series — and one that I owned with pride.
01 February 2008 at 10:21 pm
Alastair
That is brilliant. I had totally forgotten about the Robots and Electronic Brains one, but I’m pretty sure I had it. All I can remember about it is wondering how that four-legged robot on the left of the cover could even walk, what with having no knees and all.
(”My robot has no knees!” “How does it walk?” “Badly!”)
And I never realised they made so many of the H&WWBs! Or that one of them was about the old testament!
10 May 2008 at 1:05 am
Stephen Cairns
As a child I lived in Australia in the 1960’s and I remember saving up my pocket money to by my How and Why Wonder Books. It was great to view the covers on the internet today as they brought back such great memories. The ones that stick in my mind are Planets and Interplanetary travel; Robots and electric brains; the human body; dinosaurs; electricity; famous scientists.
Does anyone know how to go about obtaining old copies?
10 May 2008 at 10:08 am
Stilgherrian
@Stephen Cairns: Since the books are long out of print, it’s a mater of scouring the planet’s second-hand bookshops. The biggest of them all, Amazon, has quite a few listed.