# Time/Life books, before they went wacky **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 16, 2012, 12:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-life-books-before-they-went-wacky/615955 "2012-03-16T12:52:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![jsc1953](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/5daacb/32.png) [@jsc1953](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jsc1953)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2012, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-life-books-before-they-went-wacky/615955/21 "2012-03-16T17:28:19Z")
> [@Eve](#): > > _Yes!_ I remember that, too! It was paintings of a cat, wasn’t it? I don’t recall a cat; I’m pretty sure the last in the series was [Starry Night.](http://www.vangoghgallery.com/painting/starryindex.html) ---
**Author:** ![Bridget\_Burke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7cd45c/32.png) [@Bridget\_Burke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bridget_Burke)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2012, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-life-books-before-they-went-wacky/615955/22 "2012-03-16T17:50:14Z")
The Crazy Cat (not Krazy Kat!) Artist was [Louis Wain](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_Wain). More [here…](http://www.cerebromente.org.br/gallery/gall_leonardo/fig1-a.htm) (Yes, I remember him from Time/Life. Googled for “Crazy Cat Artist”) ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2012, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-life-books-before-they-went-wacky/615955/23 "2012-03-16T17:57:53Z")
> [@Bridget\_Burke](#): > > The Crazy Cat (not Krazy Kat!) Artist was [Louis Wain](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_Wain). More [here…](http://www.cerebromente.org.br/gallery/gall_leonardo/fig1-a.htm) > > (Yes, I remember him from Time/Life. Googled for “Crazy Cat Artist”) Oh. Well, I was close. “_Have at you!_” ---
**Author:** ![DocCathode](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doccathode/32/18773_2.png) [@DocCathode](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DocCathode)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2012, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-life-books-before-they-went-wacky/615955/24 "2012-03-16T18:19:12Z")
I wanted these very badly when they were advertised. After all these years, I have Wizards & Witches Mythical Beasts Legends Of Valor The Fall Of Camelot I still want the rest of the set. I also remember the ads for Mysteries Of The Unexplained. “dismissed as coincidence” “dismissed as imagination” Yep, those explanations were good enough for me. ---
**Author:** ![Duke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e8c25b/32.png) [@Duke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duke)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2012, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-life-books-before-they-went-wacky/615955/25 "2012-03-16T18:42:08Z")
> [@DocCathode](#): > > I also remember the ads for Mysteries Of The Unexplained. Is that the ad where some doofus twists a coat hanger into “an ancient Egyptian symbol”, points it at Stonehenge, and gets knocked down by “a surge of energy”? Fun times. ---
**Author:** ![DocCathode](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doccathode/32/18773_2.png) [@DocCathode](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DocCathode)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2012, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-life-books-before-they-went-wacky/615955/26 "2012-03-16T18:44:03Z")
> [@Duke](#): > > Is that the ad where some doofus twists a coat hanger into “an ancient Egyptian symbol”, points it at Stonehenge, and gets knocked down by “a surge of energy”? Fun times. That’s the one. ---
**Author:** ![Morbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morbo/32/389_2.png) [@Morbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morbo)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2012, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-life-books-before-they-went-wacky/615955/27 "2012-03-16T18:45:25Z")
> [@Duke](#): > > Is that the ad where some doofus twists a coat hanger into “an ancient Egyptian symbol”, points it at Stonehenge, and gets knocked down by “a surge of energy”? Fun times. And the three friends walking in the woods where suddenly one of them just starts levitating? ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2012, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-life-books-before-they-went-wacky/615955/28 "2012-03-16T18:52:32Z")
> [@DocCathode](#): > > I wanted these very badly when they were advertised. After all these years, I have > > Wizards & Witches > > Mythical Beasts > > Legends Of Valor > > The Fall Of Camelot And, see, _that’s_ the point where Baby rolled her eyes and gave up on Time/Life. ---
**Author:** ![DocCathode](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doccathode/32/18773_2.png) [@DocCathode](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DocCathode)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2012, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-life-books-before-they-went-wacky/615955/29 "2012-03-16T18:58:59Z")
> [@Eve](#): > > And, see, _that’s_ the point where Baby rolled her eyes and gave up on Time/Life. I don’t know why. If you accept them as works of fiction and folklore, they’re quite good. The artwork is generally excellent. The research is generally excellent. The Baba Yaga story in W&W inspired me to do years of studying on her (Then the internet came along and you can now find the same information that took me years in about 0.008 seconds of searching). With the knowledge I have now, the Baba Yaga in W&W still holds up. ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2012, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-life-books-before-they-went-wacky/615955/30 "2012-03-16T19:07:25Z")
> [@DocCathode](#): > > I don’t know why. If you accept them as works of fiction and folklore, they’re quite good. But the Time/Life series \*had \*been so good at actual fact-based series: history, art, science, geography. Then they dumbed it down and went in for mystical woo-woo crap. Made them more money, I guess, but I was sad to see the hard fact-based books discontinued for ghosts and aliens. ---
**Author:** ![DocCathode](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doccathode/32/18773_2.png) [@DocCathode](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DocCathode)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2012, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-life-books-before-they-went-wacky/615955/31 "2012-03-16T19:11:00Z")
The woo crap was Mysteries Of The Unexplained. That series included UFOs Mystic Places Psychic Powers and so forth. Enchanted World was just retellings of myths, legends and folklore. ---
**Author:** ![AppallingGael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b9bd4f/32.png) [@AppallingGael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AppallingGael)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2012, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-life-books-before-they-went-wacky/615955/32 "2012-03-16T19:28:24Z")
> [@Motorgirl](#): > > My grandfather had a Time/Life series about the old west. It was really great to browse through. The old west… Not much left anymore. Just a few relics, dusty mementoes, and legends. Lots of legends. Though not all of them square with the facts. ---
**Author:** ![JohnGalt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johngalt/32/184_2.png) [@JohnGalt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnGalt)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2012, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-life-books-before-they-went-wacky/615955/33 "2012-03-16T19:51:52Z")
No one’s mentioned one of their later series: _The Third Reich_. It was wonderful seeing photographs from what I assume was Life along with some good maps and writing. I don’t know if I have all of the books in the series - does anyone still sell books from the sets? I also really liked the Math book - after reading it in seventh grade it was one of my main influences to go into engineering and later computers. That’s another one I’d like to buy. ---
**Author:** ![That\_Don\_Guy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/that_don_guy/32/538_2.png) [@That\_Don\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/That_Don_Guy)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2012, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-life-books-before-they-went-wacky/615955/34 "2012-03-16T20:12:31Z")
The only one I read more or less completely was the World War II set, which my high school’s library had. ---
**Author:** ![StusBlues](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/dc4da7/32.png) [@StusBlues](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StusBlues)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2012, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-life-books-before-they-went-wacky/615955/35 "2012-03-16T20:24:06Z")
> [@DocCathode](#): > > The woo crap was Mysteries Of The Unexplained. That series included > > UFOs > > Mystic Places > > Psychic Powers > > and so forth. > > Enchanted World was just retellings of myths, legends and folklore. Most of this was what specialists call “fakelore” – highly rewritten versions of folk narrative, or folktale-like fiction made up by the book’s author. They weren’t very good at woo even by woo standards. ---
**Author:** ![jsc1953](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/5daacb/32.png) [@jsc1953](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jsc1953)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2012, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-life-books-before-they-went-wacky/615955/36 "2012-03-16T20:34:11Z")
> [@StusBlues](#): > > Most of this was what specialists call “fakelore” – highly rewritten versions of folk narrative, or folktale-like fiction made up by the book’s author. They weren’t very good at woo even by woo standards. Yeah. I subscribed to this one and was rather disappointed. Dumped it on eBay. ---
**Author:** ![DocCathode](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doccathode/32/18773_2.png) [@DocCathode](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DocCathode)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2012, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-life-books-before-they-went-wacky/615955/37 "2012-03-16T21:09:23Z")
> [@StusBlues](#): > > Most of this was what specialists call “fakelore” – highly rewritten versions of folk narrative, or folktale-like fiction made up by the book’s author. They weren’t very good at woo even by woo standards. Are you talking about Enchanted World or Mysteries Of The Unexplained, or both? ---
**Author:** ![lawoot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/35a633/32.png) [@lawoot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lawoot)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2012, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-life-books-before-they-went-wacky/615955/38 "2012-03-16T22:20:16Z")
We had the World War 2 series - great stuff, and good history. My only complaint was that we never completed the series - they kind of quit sending them after a while. They’re still at my mom’s place - I need to go reclaim them (I’m the history buff in the family). Might be a bit expensive to ship, though. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2012, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-life-books-before-they-went-wacky/615955/39 "2012-03-16T22:24:09Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > Yes. I loved their book on the elements, with a photo of each one. Same here. Bought the entire set for A.C. off eBay a few years ago. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2012, 10:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-life-books-before-they-went-wacky/615955/40 "2012-03-16T22:35:23Z")
We had a couple of the good series growing up, and loved them. I recall the ads for the woo versions but never saw one. I don’t think you would need precognitive powers to know they were full of crap. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-life-books-before-they-went-wacky/615955.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-life-books-before-they-went-wacky/615955.md?page=3)