Violet Books

The science fiction element of the Fantastic Flight genre was quite often exceeded by rapid advancements in aeronautics. Around the World in Ten Days by Chelsea Curtis Fraser (Cleveland: World, 1922) is shown in a colorful dustwrapper from the 1941 edition which is "First Thus" because of a new preface by the publisher about some of the futuristic touches that came to pass in the intervening years. Many of the "fantasy" touches of these old tales were indeed soon exceeded by actual innovations.

Thomas Burtis was one of the leading authors of flight-adventure novels, usually sticking pretty close to a realistic approach. But in Haunted Airways (Doubleday, 1930) shown here in the 1937 Sun Dial Press edition, Burtis took a look into the future of 1985, when there will be thousand-passenger airplanes, personal rocket-planes, the Great Union Airdrome high above New York City, giant airships that transform themselves into ocean-liners... A special Introduction by Professor Alexander Klemin of the Guggenheim School of Aeronautics boasts the book expresses "a perfectly logical outcome of the inventions that are sure to come." Yet the dustwrapper which imagines the future was to remain spectacularly art deco in its rocket-plane designs is as amusing is it is attractive.

A rare, early fantastic flight novel is A Knight of the Air; or, The Aereal Rivals by Henry Coxwell (London: Digby Long, 1895). This specimen is a bit scruffy but the imaginativeness of the pictorial binding is undiminished, showing a flying machine launched by giant crossbow. While some assumptions about how flight was developing rapidly came to pass, others were soon to look rather silly in retrospect; it was once really believed that canons, slingshots, or crossbows might be just the ticket. This book also has a frontispiece depicting balloon flight.

Air Monster by Edwin Green (New York: Goldsmith Publishing, 1932) is a Fantastic Flight adventure the dustwrapper for which shows the humongous derigible Goliath anchored at the North Pole, on a rescue mission to save the crew of the submarine Neptune. By a typical plot device, the dirigible's Captain Harkins is so stricken as to be unable to complete the important mission, but never fear, boy hero Andy is able to take charge of the rescue. A generation of teenage boys went straight form this kind of fantasy heroics to actual heroics of World War II.

Herbert Strang, one of the leading authors & editors of boys' adventure fiction, was inspired by the beginnings of the airplane age in composing more than one "fantastic flight" novel. This one's reminiscent of Jules Verne. The idea of a journey Round the World in Seven Days (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1911) was wholly science fictional in its day. The pictorial binding and seven full color action plates are by A. C. Michael, well known for his artwork in a number of H. Rider Haggard novels.

Marvin West (in daily life John H. Goldfrap) wrote six books in the Motor Rangers series, placing the lads in sundry motorized vehicles to see what sort of trouble they could get themselves into. The Motor Rangers' Cloud Cruiser (1912) is in the "fantastic flight" category so popular in the early days of airplane development. It is furthermore an archeological fantasy, with the Rangers investigating two weird temples. In the story, the lads battle giant killer birds and reptiles and discover a Lost City of a vanished race on an island off Bolivia. The sinking island climax was de rigour. The pictorial binding shows the hero hanging from a balloon-ladder, while the spine, not shown here, is a pictorial of the Rangers entering an Inca temple. The book's illustrator is Clarke L. Wrenn.

George Griffith wrote a handful of adult fantastic flight science fiction epics, including The Outlaws of the Air (London: Tower, 1895). This book has a frontispiece by E. S. Hope & many interior illustrations by Raymond Potter. A tale of future warfar; inventions; fantastic flight & voyages; & scattered utopias, though the pictorial binding shows us only the story's femme fatale. Griffith was a key influence on H. G. Wells & especially M. P. Shiel.

E(dith) J(anice) Craine's "Airplane Boys" series consists of eight novels, including Airplane Boys on the Border Line (Cleveland: World Syndicate Publishing, 1930), seen here in the dustwrapper which with minor variations in layout was used for the whole series through many printings. This is a fantastic flight & archeological fantasy of the Andes, bordering on Lost Race.

H. L. Sayler's "Airship Boys" series was one of the more sophisticated juvenile fantastic flight series. First of the seven volumes in the series was The Airship Boys; or, The Quest of the Aztec Treasure (Chicago: Reilly & Britton, 1909). Besides the attractive embossed pictorial boards there are five illustration plates by J.O.Smith. The conquest of the air opened up exploration of the world to humanity, & this adventure typically develops along the lines of an archeological fantasy & Lost Race.

The Airship Boys' adventures pick up immediately after the events of the first volume in this sequel, The Airship Boys Adrift; or, Saved by an Aeroplane (Chicago: Reilly & Britton, 1909). Each of the seven books has a unique embossed illustration. There are four illustration plates by F. R. Harper, including a stunning double-pager. This time into the wild blue yonder, the boys find a Lost Race of previously unknown pyramid builders in Central America.

"Roy Rockwood" was a house name for the Stratemeyer Syndicate, the greatest of the publishers of juvenile series books. The actual author for this episode of the "Great Marvels" series was Howard Garis. Through the Air to the Northpole; or, The Wonderful Cruise of the Electric Monarch (New York: Cupples & Leon, 1906) has pictorial boards showing the flying ship over a mountain lake. This binding has several states & colors but always the same embossed artwork. The frontispiece depicts a polar tribe attacking the dirigible.

The author for this episode of Roy Rockwood's "Great Marvels" series was John Duffield. The City Beyond the Clouds; or, Captured by the Red Dwarves (New York: Cupples & Leon, 1925) sports a lovely embossed binding of the improbable boat-dirigible plus a fabulous frontispiece by Ernest Townsend. One of the scarcest in the series, a weird fantasy that stretches the capacity of lighter-than-air craft farther than most such books dared. By airship our heroes discover a small, inhabited, volcanic moon halfway between the Earth & the Moon. Little red men, giant bugs, inventions & other ingredients make it very much over-the-top.