Bullard of the Space Patrol

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Gary Brantley
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Bullard of the Space Patrol

Post by Gary Brantley »

Back when dinosaurs walked this earth, when I was in the 6th grade, the library at Ada Henderson Elementary School in Cameron was pretty well-stocked for a small Texas town of 6,000. There were perhaps six or seven Robert A. Heinlein books in the sci-fi section along with several other books by other authors and I read them all. It was there that I first encountered "Og, Boy of Battle" by Irving Crump, first published in 1925. http://www.sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/crump_irving

But I really enjoyed a book by Malcolm Jameson called "Bullard, of the Space Patrol" (1951). It described the adventures of the courageous and ingenious John Bullard, commander of the starship Pollux, sister-ship of its twin Castor. Oh, it was great reading for a 6th grader with a good imagination! Bullard and his crew faced all sorts of challenges and trials and it was all very exciting.

http://andre-norton-books.com/worlds-of ... ace-patrol

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malcolm_Jameson

Over the years, I forgot the author's name until I encountered Commander Bullard in a science fiction short-story anthology bought back in the 1980s. There was a story about Bullard, in reality it is a chapter from the book and I remembered it immediately. And there was the author's name too of course. Fast forward to 1995 and I am back in college, now at Texas A&M. I spent a lot of time in the vast library there and discovered several old "names" from my youth, including Irving Crump and yes, Mr. Jameson.

A few months ago, on a whim, I searched the 'net for a Bullard book of my own. I found one at Abe Books and it is a first edition. Moreso, it has a hand-written name just inside the cover, "Nan Hanlin", who is then thanked in the editor's introduction for "loaning her precious Bullard adventures for critical reading". I am supposing she was a collector of some sort?

Reading the book now has been a revelation. The setting is in the year 3915. The Space Patrol is obviously patterned after naval traditions. Incredibly, the starships, brand new machines, have pneumatic tubes as a backup system for communication. :lol: Writing when he did, Jameson could not foresee the digital revolution in any sense whatsoever. Here we see a future devoid of digital technology completely as far as I can tell. It really is a hoot, and I thought as I read, that my 6th grade self was just as "blind" to the coming "future" tech as Jameson had been 15 years earlier. The glaring lack of what we take for granted in our time was nothing that could even be noticed then. My son Carson and I were discussing this, and how far off the mark the author had been in 1951, unable to imagine even our reality. Carson pointed out that we may just as surprised by our future as Jameson would be by our world. A good point. :wink:

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Stikpusher
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Re: Bullard of the Space Patrol

Post by Stikpusher »

I presume that Mr Jameson did not have much of a background in electronics, or what may be just over the horizon in that field. Miniature solid state electronics were not that far away at that time. And the follow on micro electronics… :hmm: I wonder what’s ahead for us in that realm that we have yet to hear of?
Well, at least you found your childhood books and were able to re read and enjoy them from the perspective of today, and with the memory of reading them in another era. There are a few childhood books from my youth that I would love to find and read again from the same vantage point of age and life experience…
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LyleW
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Re: Bullard of the Space Patrol

Post by LyleW »

Good for you! A childhood treasure.
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Re: Bullard of the Space Patrol

Post by jeaton01 »

I too had a miss spent youth reading science fiction. Still have a large collection of books. Robert Heinlein was a favorite, of course. Can't say I ever encountered Mr. Bullard, but there was this one about bowling balls invading, "They Walked Like Men".
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Gary Brantley
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Re: Bullard of the Space Patrol

Post by Gary Brantley »

Thanks for the replies my friends. I took a few photos of the old book:

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It has been fun revisiting Bullard's universe but I guess the future isn't what it once was... :wink:
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Re: Bullard of the Space Patrol

Post by keavdog »

That's a great experience. I had done something similar with a book I really loved as a kid: "Daybreak - 2250 AD". I wasn't the avid reader you were until later in life, but that book would make a terrific movie.
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