by Brian Kunde
A more brief piece this time around, as befits the book addressed. Today we’re exploring one of L. Sprague de Camp’s short science juveniles I haven’t previously covered. Energy and Power: How Man Uses Animals, Wind, Water, Heat, Electricity, Chemistry, and Atoms to Help Him in His Daily Living (New York, Golden Press, 1962, 56 pages), is a companion to his earlier Engines: Man’s Use of Power, from the Water Wheel to the Atomic Age (New York, Golden Press, 1959, 56 pages), issued by the same publisher, in the same series (The Golden Library of Knowledge), and about the same length, that is, roughly 10,000 words.
According to de Camp, agent Barthold Fles got him the contract for this book around 1959, and it was published in 1962. He does not record any such difficulties attendant on the production as plagued some of his other science juveniles of the period.
Energy and Power evidently had just one American edition, issued in at least two states. The one usually seen is bound in laminated paper boards with a full color cover painting featuring a refinery. My copy, though, sports a rugged cloth cover with a simplified version of the painting printed in blue, black, red, and yellow. Most likely this state is intended for libraries, and my copy is indeed an ex-library book, remaindered from the Brockway Memorial Library, 10021 N.E. 2nd Avenue, Miami 38, Florida. Neither state shares Engines’ format, borrowed from Golden Press’s more familiar “Little Golden Books,” which was squarish, bound between boards and stapled, with a shiny faux-metal strip covering the staples, the left margin of the front cover, the right margin of the back cover, and the spine. As with Engines, the author’s name does not appear on the front cover (though “de Camp” does appear on the spine), but only on the title page, along with the names of the illustrators.
A minor mystery associated with the book is that it bears three copyright dates; 1959 and 1956 following the primary date of 1962. The Internet Speculative Fiction Database suggests this was a third edition, and that there were two earlier ones not authored by de Camp. I have been unable to trace any such, and doubt they exist. My own thought is that the book simply recycled some material from other works. Illustrative material, I would assume, except that the credited illustrators, Weimer Pursell and Fred Eng, seem to have worked for Golden during this period only; Pursell illustrated three other books of theirs in 1962, and Eng none—neither one earlier. The index, however, does add a couple of picture credits to the British Information Service and photographer Russe Kinne (whom we also encounter contributing to de Camp’s more ambitious tome Man and Power(1961)); perhaps these account for the earlier copyright dates.
There are also a couple foreign language editions of Energy and Power, though hardly the plethora of translations Engines got. The first, in Mexican Spanish, was Energîa y potencia, translated by Francisco Téllez (México, Organización Editorial Novaro, 1966). It appears to have been quite popular as I find reference to at least three further “editions” (more likely, printings), dated 1969, 1972 (“2a ed.”), and 1979 (“9a ed.”). I presume there must have been six additional printings between the second and ninth. The second, in Portuguese, was Energia e potência, translated by Tomé Santos Júnior (Lisboa, Editorial Vergo, 1967. I also find a reference in OCLC to what looks like a second Portuguese edition, Energia e potencia (Porto, Porto Editoria, 1973), credited to “L. Sprague,” but it supposedly has 324 pages, so … something fishy about that one.
Both the Mexican and Portuguese versions appear to have been licensed by Golden, issued in local editions of its Golden Library of Knowledge and using the original illustrations. Every edition I’ve seen uses the same cover image (simplified, as noted, on my copy), which is adequate to the subject.
As in the earlier companion book, de Camp’s approach in Energy and Power is informative and factual but lacks his customary wit and irony, treating his subject simply and straightforwardly in brief titled segments rather than chapters. Otherwise the book makes few concessions to the young audience at which it is aimed, neither simplifying the diction nor dumbing down the content. It can serve the teen or even adult reader as well as a child.
The titled segments are “Power and Production” (work, energy and power defined, and a little history given), “Force and Work” (both defined in more detail), “Energy and Efficiency” (energy’s potential and kinetic states, and why some is lost in use), “Energy for Heating” (mostly history; includes a fun fact on the ancient realm of Arzawa in Anatolia), “Energy for Light” (types of lighting and their history), “Energy for Living” (mostly on calories), “Muscle Power” (from men and animals; look for pyramids, galleys, and mills here), “Energy of Moving Air” (sailing ships and windmills discussed), “Energy from Moving Water” (waterwheels, turbines, and hydroelectric plants), “Chemical Energy” (gunpowder, explosives, and chemical rockets), “Power from Coal” (steam engines, their types and development), “Energy from Oil” (internal combustion engines), “Electric Energy and Power” (electromagnetics and electric engines), “Nuclear Energy” (background, chain reactions, reactors), “Energy from Other Sources” (tidal, solar, geothermal, fusion), and “Future Sources of Energy” (actually more a discussion of finite resources, electrification, and conservation). A decent one-page index follows the text, and a precis and listing of the volumes in The Golden Library of Knowledge fill the front and back flaps.
The reader of Engines will note considerable duplication in subject matter between Energy and Power and the previous book, though with somewhat broader coverage and an arrangement more topical than historical. That said, the degree of rehash is considerable, and a perusal of both volumes is bound to be fraught with a feeling of déjà vu.
The illustrators ape Jack Coggins in Engines in sticking closely to and complementing the text, vividly picturing what de Camp is writing about. They actually do a bit better, avoiding the occasional misses and gaps in comprehension Coggins left in his wake, possibly due to this book being largely (though not wholly) less technical than the previous work. This book also gives us more of a sense of conclusion than that one with its portrait of resources being exhausted and more careful planning needed for the future. Indeed, in this it feels prescient, speaking as much to the present age as that of sixty years ago.
All in all, Energy and Power is a well-written book with qualities that transcend the era of its writing and the juvenile categorization. It’s a nice complement, despite a certain redundancy, to both Engines and Man and Power.
A brief account of the illustrators might be in order here. Weimer Pursell (1906-1974) was an American artist and near contemporary to de Camp, though not nearly as long-lived. He was born in Tennessee and lacked formal artistic training until enrolling in the Art Institute in Chicago. He worked as a freelance illustrator for such magazines as Forbes, Life, Newsweek, Redbook, and Town & Country, as well as designing posters for American Airlines, Coca-Cola, Winchester Rifles, and the 1933 Chicago World’s Fair. In addition to book illustration, he also turned his hand to calendar art and propaganda posters for the war effort during World War II.
My research has turned up several individuals named Fred Eng. The Fred Eng involved with this book was, I believe, Fred Cheng Eng (1916-1977), born Ng Kuen San in Hong Kong to a Chinese-American father and a Chinese mother. He spent his childhood in China and his teens and adulthood in New York. A self-taught artist, his interest in Chinese calligraphy got him a job as a sign painter for the National Youth Administration (part of the WPA) during the Great Depression, later moving on to poster art, inking and lettering for Classics Illustrated and Timely Comics, and animation for the Carlton Reiter Studio, Screen Gems, and television commercials.
Again, like Engines, this book has no dedication, doubtless due to the series style and format.
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(2/22/2022)
spraguedecampfan 