The first publication I put out was called the INTERPLANETARY NEWS SERVICE REPORT.I was big into the ET nuts and bolt theory in those days while now I am more of a "UFOs probably come from other realms and dimensions" sort of guy. Jerry Clark typed the stencils to one or two of the original issues and Lucius Farish was our Assistant Director. Gene Steinberg of TheParaCast.com was a friend as were a lot of teen researchers who have either vanished from the scene or gone on to become somewhat "legendary" in UFOlogy.

There wasn't much to read in those days - Amazon.com hadn't been invented. I'm not even sure its founder Jeff Bezos was born yet. Barns and Noble didn't exist and most of the independent book store owners never heard of UFOs or flying saucers as they were called way back when.

Major Donald E Keyhoe was the champion of the "serious minded" "flying saucers are from outer space" brand of UFOlogist, while Frank Edwards gave em hell on the radio. But it was the Polish born George Adamski who first spoke of meeting Venusians and Martians. He was the "wild card" in the cosmic deck with some of the most amazing stories and truly unique photographs -- even if the "vehicles" they showed might not have originated from outside earth's orbit. To me, they didn't seem like trash can lids (to obvious), nor were they Frisbees as I don't know if a patent had been established on this fun fad as of 1953 when FLYING SAUCERS HAVE LANDED was first released by a publisher in the UK. For added sales appeal the publisher who had tacked on a very lengthy introductory section by Desmond Leslie a British Lord who seemed to back GA all the way. Leslie bought in the historical aspects of the topic and helped with the books credibility factor.

It should be noted that I never meet Mr Adamski . We had some limited correspondence and after his passing I shared an office and an apartment with his unofficial publicist Mr Harold Salkin who worked with Claire John editor of the Washington DC based Little Listening Post. They both ran a sort of Flying Saucer clearing house and Hotel near the Capitol where, to cut expenses, all the contactees stayed when they were in town. It made it easier for Clair to ghost write some of Adamski's material, and besides the two UFO insiders always liked to keep their ear pressed to the wall for an inside scoop,and so this gave them a golden opportunity to keep a watchful eye on the master of outer space and ET communications.

Over the years there has always been talk of a "lost" work that Adamski supposed did several years before his first "official" book that tells of a remarkable true tale of interplanetary travel. Ray Palmer, who was one of my mentors, said several times in his Flying Saucers From Other Worlds magazine that he believed that Adamski was well meaning, but that his story could not be true, because Adamski had once submitted to Palmer a manuscript in which GA claimed to have voyaged into space much like he insisted he had done in his much later, frequently criticized, Inside The Space Ships in which Adamski speaks of traveling to the planet Saturn.

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Pioneers of Space is available at Amazon.com

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