Boy’s Life was the magazine for Scouts, but not just for Scouts. I read it years after I left Scouting. It was fun.
There was a Science Fiction series or two, published there. In the 50s, Heinlein serialized The Rolling Stones.
And there were others.
In the 70s, there was a series about a time machine, & some kids who used it. One kid was bald & from the future.
Does anybody know anything about it beyond that?
Was it reprinted? In book form?
The one I know of is Clarke’s Sunjammer.. When I was in the Boy Scouts, in the early ‘60s, there was an anthology of fiction, but not just sf. I’m unaware of any purely sf anthology from Boys’ Life.
Googling reveals nothing. The anthology I had is long, long out of print.
You’re thinking probably of a series of 60s stories about the Time Machine Patrol. They were written by “Donald Keith,” the pseudonym of two brothers, Donald and Keith Monroe.
The stories were collected into two books:
Mutiny in the Time Machine, 1963
Time Machine to the Rescue, 1967
IN the early 80’s, there was a Wellsian “War of the Worlds”-type series about Earth and humans being conquered by an enigmatic alien species that travelled about on large, tripodal “walkers.” Humans never saw these aliens, IIRC.
There was another alien species (transplanted slaves, IIRC) who worked with humans and developed technology to ultimately fight and defeat the “tripod” aliens.
Don’t remember. In the 1980’s, my Mom cleaned out her attic and got rid of all the copies from the '50s that I had been saving (and the early editions of Playboy).
Mutiny in the Time Machine, by Donald Keith, was the first book. I have a copy. There was a second book of more stories, but I don’t have that one.
The bald kid was a Scout from the future, and named Kai. They also went to the past and picked up a young man from Sparta, Dion.
In the second book they met Teddy Roosevelt at one point. Used mouth to mouth resuscitation to revive a kid who’d fallen into the water(I think) and Teddy thought that was a pretty good deal.
The collection “Requiem,” in honor of Mr. Heinlein, (Edited by Yoji Kondo 1992, Tor) includes “86,000 words of Robert A. Heinlein, never in book form before,” as the cover has it.
The book also contains a number of appreciations and rememberances
That includes the story “Tenderfoot in Space,” which I remember reading in Boy’s Life. In an introduction, Virginia Heinlein said that it had never been anthologized since it originally appeared in Boy’s Life, and she had to get a Xerox copy from UCSC, which had R.A.H.'s papers.
It’s a nifty little short, with some classic Heinlien touches. And it includes a dog, Nixie, modeled after one he had as a kid himself.
This sounds like John Christophers “Tripods” series “City of Lead and Gold” “The White Mountains” and “The Pool of Fire” The Tripods - Wikipedia
Back in the late 1960s/early 1970s, Boys’ Life ran two stories written by science fiction authors based on the same illustration. One was by Isaac Asimov, the other by Poul Anderson. Looking on th 'net, I find Anderson publshed twice in Boys Life – “The Faun” in Sept. 1968 and “Escape the Morning” in Nov. 1968. Asimov published numerous times in Boys Life. I’ll bet you’ll find that lots of science fiction authors published in there. I was a subscriber when the aforementioned “Monnjammers” appeared, and I still have the issue – it had a wonderful cover illustration, and an interior one as well.
Another Heinlein story that appeared in Boy’s Life was “Nothing Ever Happens on the Moon”. Another of his juveniles which had a Scouting connection, “Farmer in the Sky”, was serialized under the title “Satellite Scout”.
When searching a while back to refresh my memory of the Time Machine Patrol books* I found that there was also a “Boy’s Life Book of Outer Space Stories”, part of a series of thematic collections that were issued in the 60s.
*And thanks to Baker for lending me her copy of the first one. I’m still considering picking up my own copy, and if I ever pick up a copy of the second I’ll lend it to you if you’re interested.
Yep, Boys Life ran the Tripods cartoon serial when I subscribed in the 80s and it was probably my favorite part of the magazine. I also saw an episode the BBC production of the story on my local PBS station once and only once.
At some point after “Pool of Fire” ended, they started up on the Asimovs’ “Norby Chronicles.” I think it was right after, but I can’t be sure.
Exactly right, I read it in Boy’s Life faithfully.
Yes, please!
I’ve occasionally seen a copy for sale online, but it’s been so expensive I couldn’t afford it. I wonder why that is?
I suspect because it’s rarer; there may not have been as many copies printed in the first place. Currently there’s someone selling a copy on Amazon for $20, which is a bit above the border of my “I’d like to pick up a copy just so I can read it” range. There’s also someone asking upwards of $200 for a copy. At that price I expect it to be hand delivered by a matched set of naked nubile redheaded twins (female) who will snuggle with me while I read it.
Talk about your unrealistic expectations! If I could get the nubile twins for $200, they could completely eliminate the story. I wouldn’t mind. Or notice.
For $200 you could maybe get the issue PLUS a pair of nubile hamsters who will gleefully snuggle into yiou while you read it.
Better response than I hoped!
I stopped getting Boy’s Life when they were in the middle of the serial of Heinlein’s Between Planets - very annoying. I remember some Asimov mysteries being publishing in BL “Try Sarah Tops” etc. One story I don’t remember the title of involved a UFO landing in the desert and a boy with a fatal disease getting aboard somehow, and learning that the UFO was actually from the future. Anyone have any ideas?
Andy
How accurately are you remembering that story? The previously mentioned Time Patrol books are about a pair of Boy Scouts who find a saucer-shaped ship in a canyon which turns out to be a time machine from the future. IIRC it was published in Boy’s Life as either a serial or a series of stories that were collected into the two books. In the first book the scouts, along with a scout from the future named Kai (short for KBZ-Ten Troy) end up getting involved with someone who is trying to locate a cure for some disease which was lost in the Johnston flood. There was also a subplot involving a boy from ancient Greece, whose name escapes me at the moment except that it started with D.
I think my memory is pretty accurate on this one: as I recall, the UFO landing was a big deal (lots of witnesses), and after the sick boy who (somehow) gets aboard the vessel leaves, the vessel leaves. I don’t recall any other scouts involved, and the “people” on the ship were never seen (they may have been energy-beings or some such). I associate the story with the song “Season in the Sun” for some reason - it’s possible the title sounded something like that, or I was just connecting the boy’s fatal illness with the song.