Rauch's space books

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Rauch Space Books was a short-lived science fiction - book series , which in 1952 by the Düsseldorf smoke-Verlag published.

history

The series was published by the philosopher Gotthard Günther and was a first attempt to establish Anglo-American science fiction on the (West) German market. The four titles appeared in 1952:

  1. John W. Campbell : The Incredible Planet ( The Incredible Planet , 1949)
  2. Jack Williamson : Wing 4 ( The Humanoids , 1948)
  3. Gotthard Günther (ed.): Overcoming time and space ( anthology )
  4. Isaac Asimov : I, the Robot ( I, Robot , 1950)

The series was discontinued in the year of its publication due to "catastrophic response". Volume 1, with a print run of 7,000, was sold only 3,000, Volume 2 with the same print run only 2,000, as was the case with the anthology. Volume 4 was only published with 2000 copies, but only 900 sold:

This failure shaped the SF book scene in the Federal Republic for years. Science fiction was considered not for sale and was not published. It was only later that youth book publishers and loan book publishers dared to translate American SFs.

According to Galle, the demanding introductions by editor Günther overwhelmed the readers. In fact, Anglo-American science fiction was supposed to become popular in West Germany through the booklet novel, particularly through the Utopia science fiction series .

literature

  • Dieter von Reeken (ed.): Gotthard Günther. Science fiction as metaphysics? Introduction and comments on the four »Rauch Space Books« (1951/52) . Afterword by Franz Rottensteiner (with a contribution by Rainer Eisfeld ), 2nd edition Lüneburg (Dieter von Reeken Verlag) 2016. ISBN 978-3-945807-06-4
  • Hans-Joachim Alpers u. a .: Lexicon of Science Fiction Literature , 2 volumes, Munich (Wilhelm Heyne Verlag), Bd., 2, p. 1130. ISBN 3-453-01063-9 . ISBN 3-453-010647
  • Heinz J. Galle: Folk books and booklet novels , Volume 1: The boom after 1945 - from Billy Jenkins to Perry Rhodan , Lüneburg (Dieter von Reeken-Verlag) 2005. ISBN 3-8334-3232-2
  • Hans Joachim Alpers / W. Fuchs / Ronald M. Hahn : Documentation of science fiction from 1926 in words and pictures , Celle (Tandem-Verlag GmbH) 1978.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Alpers, p. 1130
  2. ↑ Documentation of Science Fiction, p. 76
  3. ^ Galle, p. 76.