American Astrophilately: The First 50 Years, by David S. Ball / A&A Publishers, 1312 Winchester Drive Charleston, SC 29407 8" x 10" Softbound, 344 Pages with DVD of 700+ pages of supplemental material. $39.95 plus $4.00 for USA shipping and handling. To order, write to address or visit www. AmericanAstrophilately. com

This prodigious work on Space Euent couers has has been reuiewed in Orbit, Topical Times, Airmail Journal, and American Philatelist. The American Philatelic Socieg awarded the book the Gold Medal for Literature at the Richmond APS Stampshow inAugust 2010, the largest euent of the year. Since then it has been bought by collec- Americon Astrophilately hos been nom- tors in sixteen nations. It is sold by dealers in inoted for the prestigious 2010 Eugene Berlin, Rome and Sydney and well as seueral M. Emme Astronautical Literature by the here in the States. American Astrophilately American Astronautical Socieg that recog- is sold at the National Postal and Air & Space nizes "the truly outstanding book... about Museum (the most popular on the planet). the positiue impact of astronautics upon so- It is stocked at Barnes ond Noble and the cieg." The oward is in honor of Eugene M. Kansas Cosmosphere. It is now auailable Emme, NASA's first historian. Preuious re- at Kennedy Space Center, Johnson Space cipients haue included; Frederick I. Ordway Center, and Marsholl NASA facilities. III, Jomes R. Hansen and Arthur C. Clarke.

Review by Jim Reichman, Space Unit I have to admit, up front, that I har- David Ball's book on American astro- bor misgivings about some of the tenets philately is one that few aspiring astro- that form the foundation of the philatel- philatelists should be without. Although ic study field being labeled "astrophilat- narrowly focused on the space programs ely". In particular, these concerns relate of the United States, it does provide to the exclusionist guidelines these col- guidelines and useful examples of how lectors have adopted which disqualify astrophilatelists around the world should otherwise world-class, philatelic exhib- address and model their own philatelic its relating to the history of spaceflight. research and documentation energies. I On the other hand you have to admire would even go so far as to recommend the tenacity these astrophilatelists the book to the rest of the space collec- employ to seek out and document the tors/philatelists, i.e., those of us whose details of philatelic, commemorative, cosmic collecting and exhibiting inter- space covers and their backgrounds. ests tend to violate one or more bound- Such attention to detail is the "right aries of the astrophilatelists' precepts. stuff" that turns any regular space col- One of the main reasons for these lector into a true cosmic-philatelist. recommendations is that a major por-

JANUARY/APRIL 20I O ASTROPHILE Book Cover: Dovid S. Boll 57 ]I ilt ilt lll tion of David's book is filled with an in- Interspersed in and around these ar- lll teresting collection of philatelic mono- ticles are others written personally by grams, vignettes, and even some short David that introduce and supplement "ffi theses written by the experts and first- those astrophilately subjects. Included hand participants in the field of astro- in his writings are discussions support- philately. These articles address a wide ing the foundations for and justification variety of philatelic subjects related to of the astrophilatelic tenets that deal the American space program. Although with issues like acceptable postoffices, ,., I -.-{ not a new approach to adding authentic- time zones, postmark classifications, 1', ity and scope to a space book's content, and backdating. id*;ka

it certainly enlivened the discussions of Interestingly, some of these discus- I,* r-wq! HI I t what could have quickly devolved into a sions address the problems associated "r d! matter-of-fact documentation of accept- with blindly applying some of these te- able and unacceptable astrophilatelic nets. One case in point, brought up by exhibition materials. the author, is the astrophilatelic tenet One of these articles was of particular requiring covers be postmarked on the interest to my own Russian spaceflight event date at/near the ground station *ffi: philatelic interests. This was a fascinating controlling the spacecraft. Strict ad- .,.iilffi story about how one enterprising stamp herence to this requirement makes no dealer was able to get two, same-day sense when, e.g., postmarking philatelic postmarks (one from Moscow and one covers commemorating a deep-space Tvoicol soreod from Section ll. feoturino covers for historicol missions. The outhor hos chosen six covers from lounch to re- .bu"ry, with impoitont mileitone dotes of eqch mission. This loyout is for the Apollo 1 I Lunor londing mission. from Cape Canaveral) on the same covers probe event when telemetric news of ilxtoposed commemorating both launches (Soyuz that event (i.e., whether it actually hap- lectors identify envelopes which meet ated comments found in Parts II and III and Apollo) of the Apollo-Soyuz Test pened and/or was successful) would not the International Philatelic Federation of the book and the files on the accom- Project. Given the number and variety of reach the ground station until the day guidelines for exhibiting, I went on eBay panying computer disk (CD). Without these types of discussions in the book, after these covers were required to be and randomly selected US space cov- such information, the average reader it would be fair to say that almost every postmarked because of how far out in ers being offered there that fit within will easily get lost amidst all the phila- space collector will find at least one and deep-space the probe was at. the timeline and space-mission bound- telic details. Second is the lack of an ad- probably many of these articles that will Since this book is being billed as a aries addressed in David's book. Each equate editorial review which should pique their own personal interests. resource that would help novice col- such cover selected was then com- have caught and resolved those defi- pared against the reference materials ciencies as well as several other mis- and guidelines of the book. Many were Ylh e, r*rhkn rni{o,*'|. *.( .i tr bip neri rnJ *x{d.ril{ r*rrs takes that were found in the book. "al ter$q.}r,! r{,(dru L,rJ:,eAt S:rli.ri.S""fnllrlrqtnnrn,i-!Nrk;d.nr lr.iifr,anii${*!91'iiktr,in'fdt h rilr d'&, r .61 !r{D,6 i erqtu ri', sisk tu* d *kn{{n8 Frh lkn$ r liM s.t! ! \i!*lJ Lns !E fairly easy to categorize and were, in Bottom line is that this is probably {nRfr';i nr;, fi!tri. ilr",rll &,Jlg!* rd Adi! 4d tuhh *;€rqrd'FRn aa!isr 1!$r!dia. {,hrh. I , rF iri n* i'1, il,, ti rJL d F* rd :d ,na,,* rt h:g {' !D d,w{:& fact, even included in the hundreds of too valuable a resource to pass up, the full-color, example covers shown especially for committed astrophilat- in the "World of Covers" section. Un- elists. However, readers need to buy it fortunately, there was almost as many with the understanding that the book for which an assessment was in doubt does have a number of content issues. or could not be made. Were it not for My recommendation is for purchasers an open email dialog with the author to to first read the Part I astrophilatelic help resolve these issues, I would have articles and similar materials located

'b!4 &,@d a" !!k !i*r! 5$: *h{i lE{: i{en*'i:i& been left wondering. My concern is that in the "Articles" folder on the CD then ,!n',,1.,i a trrlifd &f ,.li, i{,,tt, L&r,wd{*ts&"$ ri.ni !iit" liasbg rt h i.rl" r n t',*,, i(q r\ dtF ld "' a,rl I other readers/collectors will probably (also .0i nri *t e. {r Rr.ig'ri ! ild..\ i{ n.inr,$rr,,!!rqrlo r'".iI \j*,i rsd!&!,$lrd!*r&f*l! read the seminar briefing slides tnin.f "r rnclrlnt ,* lr *n:ii ,n;i {ri1 n, , .*,r I trk{kJ } ,r" I d rl" c.{r{q'r ai& rikt .rd o's tu$ i$r{ti- irinL JH'rh rnt ri.!,{ ,&ilfri d {i* ri6r ilrrltluil rr !t.(ilhsrr*+ar*iq.q,nijednd*ikj.EnjNix have access help resolve "Section ('in*{ I not such nl to ltu iarry. .tr![* !!l trii ! il dn & n(x{qr Nrtr {d i5,nrt tle!* ! !at- anr, Fain on the CD) labeled for Astro- en n\illh l{$ff d ila Sdnail ia dl^rtno, tid! r',n\ trh i' rq t, ld;'tra{ r{ A' i! irJ *. fr F,r ' F,eq {:Jhi!!i. I l}l tr}{ rL{,i r".*a * iit a( [1fu! dJ lllq J d! tt rL g"ts s ! ilnl hi F trtri r,l,nr arilr their questions. philately" dn{i it t rlle p!** lit n4 !.ii{ hNl I ndi[, o'* il rl{^ en!* *$ &dnd $ s!* before venturing into the )rL{. &, Ftr F t,' r}* t{J dr mn{ nt !il dr*r }il5. qrE Nr tilad .il,,t,r, dn Uy '",}ad'i'r,,!,(i{. &ldir !tr{ $N^ wldr '*rir !r l["ris& ,n! *rhr,&!,8 A!.t [,i'n&; l.*,!i ln!U. R!.r S. '* !n.*qd dl*ti thnin! tnr4dr {B' From my perspective, these prob- ih{,niiord E!",1,,&!ltnl(i[,r,!:r, rnrhL4\\qr \ilJ4, other materials in this book. With any lems arise because of two issues. First luck, even die-hard, cosmic-philatelists is the lack of adequate introductory like myself can learn a thing or two from explanations on how to read, interpret, these astrophilatelists. and relate the information, matrices, orti s one Guesi Chris C with US Spoce stomps. postmark/cachet images, and associ- Continued on next pall(

58 Poge Exomples: Dovid S. Boll SPACE UNIT Vol.55 #3'll Double lssue JANUARY/APRIL 20I O ASTROPHILE Review by John Macco, Space Unit Excerpts from Topical Times Review "One impressive book, by George B. Griffenhagen As an astrophilatelist for almost Gemini one 40 years, I am always looking for refer- and well worth "The first 120 pages of this volume de- ,: I ence books on the early space program, '{}r, i;l getting h ,' e"B i"';f GT VII your hands on." scribe U.S. stratospheric balloon flights its covers and astronauts to add to my tl"llll 1 E*l$I Laundl 'ql*-/ t-_1. Colin Burgess, lnfo the Silent Sea initiated on June 2,1957, and unmanned space library. My quest for this informa- satellites commencing with Explorer tion has been fulfilled with the publica- /N-{rN ' li-N-A'h\ 1," DEe /^- DFc '.)I included in a separate section on sus- launch Jan. 31, 1958. This is followed by tion of American Astrophilately. What '.\. /<-4' [, PM. I pect covers - an article on this subject launching and tracking ship covers for author David Ball did when writing this \ \€4-,/-t866 t$/ would have been a good adjunct to an Mercury (1961-63), Gemini (1963-66), was book to solicit articles from astro- article on Riser fakes. The cancels on Apollo (1966-72), Skylab (1973) and the philatelists on various aspects on space /!: r!; 15 j\ GT VI these covers are shown in the cancella- Space Shuttle (1973-2004). nbhl cover collecting. Articles from Morris f r9f,5 7 tion section without note that they are "Part two of the volume illustrates, in Beck, Joe Frasketi, Steve Durst, Ed Bi- to7Apollo Program), a picky observation. There is a whole a DVD, consisting of an equivalent of the as as postmarks with covers well the official NASA cachets, and the Apollo- section on FIP regulations. Be aware, 700 pages that picture sample award- associated with the NASA Official Ca- Soyuz Test Program. There is a nice the rules for astrophilatelic exhibiting winning exhibits, explains International chets. Also included with the book is a introduction to the work of Chris and are changing, so these are of limited Philatelic Guidelines (FIP) regulations resource DVD which includes articles, Paul Calle, a subject of great interest, usefulness - those considering creating for exhibiting, APS judging regulations reference spreadsheets, sample exhib- which readers should and can explore an astrophilatelic exhibit would be well and the landmark article on NASA VIP FIP regulations its, and the Paul Calle in more detail in other works. This is served by contacting the Space Unit for cards authored by Ray Cartier. archives of his stamp designs. I would followed by two huge sections on cov- guidance on the updated changes. "As the introduction suggests, this highly recommend this book to all astro- ers which are pretty, and even fun to It's fun for beginning collectors to landmark volume is essential for all philatelists to add to their space library. look at, but is probably of interest to a read about the astrophilatelic hobby; space event cover collectors and bud- more beginning collector. it really adds to the enjoyment of col- ding astrophilatelists. It is our convic- "An extraordinary American Astrophilately is identi- lecting. American Astrophilately is a tion that a copy shoul{be included in all contribution to the field." fied by the author as a guide book for good basic reference book. If you have philateliclibraries." & exhibiting, helping collectors to recog- no reference books in your philatelic - Don Boggs, Boggc Spocebookr nize envelopes which meet the Interna- library, this one can be recommended. "lf you are interested in tional Philatelic Federation (FIP) guide- More experienced collectors will find collecting U.S. Space covers, lines for exhibition States Review by Charles J., Vukotich, Jr. for United less to like about American Astrophi- material at stamp shows. this is aomust-have' book" Space Unit, Associate Editor lately, but many of the articles are in- Your Associate Editor has a few mi- teresting and the Calle material is defi- - Bonny Former, The Americon Philotelist American Astrophilately may be nor issues with the covers and cancels nitely worthwhile. Forward the URL viewed two ways. It is an interesting section. There are a number of early (www. AmericanAstrophilately. com) to The author is scheduled for book signings book, The first 120 pages features arti- space launch covers with suspect can- your family, and tell them that Father's of American Astrophilately at Smithso- cles by many experts in astrophilately. cels, and even though these are iden- Day, Birthday, etc. is coming. It would nian Air & Space May 31st, [Vational Post- These would be of interest to a begin- tified as such, they are out of place be a lot better than the useless stuff al Museum June Ist, and the Uduar-Hazy ner, as well as to an advanced collec- in this section, and should have been they usually buy. Center at Dulles on June 2nd, 2011.

SPACE UNIT Vol. 55 #3]I Double lisue JANUARY/APRIL 20I O ASTROPHILE