{"id":26001,"date":"2023-09-21T17:18:07","date_gmt":"2023-09-21T21:18:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=26001"},"modified":"2023-09-21T17:18:07","modified_gmt":"2023-09-21T21:18:07","slug":"the-right-stuff-folio-society-edition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=26001","title":{"rendered":"The Right Stuff – Folio Society edition"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Folio Society<\/a> has released a special edition of The Right Stuff<\/em><\/a>, Tom Wolfe’s famous book about the Mercury Seven<\/a> astronauts. Andrew Chaikin<\/a>, author of A Man on the Moon<\/em><\/a> provided a new introduction and also worked<\/p>\n

… closely with Folio and illustrator Tavis Coburn<\/a> on the visual look and feel of the book, which takes its cue from 1940s comic art and Soviet posters of the time. The illustrations portray the astronauts as Cold War heroes, and Coburn\u2019s beautiful retro-futurist cover design perfectly captures the aesthetic and spirit of the early Space Age.<\/em><\/p>\n

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Title page of The Right Stuff<\/em><\/strong> edition published by The Folio Society including one of the illustrations by Tavis Coburn.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

When The Right Stuff<\/em> hit the bookstore shelves in 1979, two decades had passed since the famous press conference<\/a> that introduced the Mercury Seven<\/a> astronauts to the nation. Long gone was that Space Race era of the late 1950s and 1960s when astronauts and rocket launches were spotlighted in a never ending parade of front page newspapers articles and magazine cover stories. The 1970s certainly saw major space developments including the\u00a0 Apollo-Soyuz linkups in orbit, the construction of the Space Shuttles,\u00a0 deep space science missions, and a revolution in communications, especially the distribution of TV programming, by commercial satellites. For most of the public, though, space began to fade quickly from view after Apollo 11 and was almost completely out of sight by the late 70s. The press considered space pass\u00e9 and relegated most space news to back-page science and aerospace niche categories.<\/p>\n