''Rip Foster Rides the Gray Planet'' is a

young adult A young adult is generally a person in the years following adolescence. Definitions and opinions on what qualifies as a young adult vary, with works such as Erik Erikson's stages of human development significantly influencing the definition of ...

science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel unive ...

novel written by

Harold L. Goodwin Harold Leland Goodwin (November 20, 1914 – February 18, 1990) was an American writer. Biography and writing career Known to his friends as Hal Goodwin, Goodwin wrote popular science books, mostly about space exploration, as Harold L. Goodwin ...

under the

pseudonym A pseudonym (; ) or alias () is a fictitious name that a person or group assumes for a particular purpose, which differs from their original or true name (orthonym). This also differs from a new name that entirely or legally replaces an individua ...

Blake Savage. The novel was originally published by Whitman in hardcover in 1952 and reprinted in the United Kingdom later in the same year as ''Rip Foster Rides the Grey Planet'' (note the spelling of "gray/grey"). There were two subsequent American reprints under different titles: another hardcover edition as ''Assignment in Space with Rip Foster'' in 1958 and a paperback edition as ''Rip Foster in Ride the Gray Planet'', in 1969. Under all titles combined, there were approximately 100,000 copies of the novel printed. The first edition was illustrated by E. Deane Cate and the 1958 edition by Denny McMains. Goodwin is better known for other children's books he wrote, including the '' Rick Brant Science Adventure Series for Boys''. According to Project Gutenber

this novel is in the

Public Domain The public domain (PD) consists of all the creative work A creative work is a manifestation of creative effort including fine artwork (sculpture, paintings, drawing, sketching, performance art), dance, writing (literature), filmmaking, ...

in the United States.

Plot summary

Freshly graduated and commissioned Planeteer (the space-going equivalent of a Marine) Lt. Richard Ingalls Peter ("Rip") Foster, already contending with inter-service rivalry with the Space Force (equivalent to Navy) crewmen with whom he serves, is tasked with retrieving an

asteroid An asteroid is a minor planet of the inner Solar System. Sizes and shapes of asteroids vary significantly, ranging from 1-meter rocks to a dwarf planet almost 1000 km in diameter; they are rocky, metallic or icy bodies with no atmosphere. ...

made of pure

thorium Thorium is a weakly radioactive metallic chemical element with the symbol Th and atomic number 90. Thorium is silvery and tarnishes black when it is exposed to air, forming thorium dioxide; it is moderately soft and malleable and has a high me ...

from the

asteroid belt The asteroid belt is a torus-shaped region in the Solar System, located roughly between the orbits of the planets Jupiter and Mars. It contains a great many solid, irregularly shaped bodies, of many sizes, but much smaller than planets, called ...

and bringing it to Earth for use as

fissionable In nuclear engineering, fissile material is material capable of sustaining a nuclear fission chain reaction. By definition, fissile material can sustain a chain reaction with neutrons of thermal energy. The predominant neutron energy may be typi ...

material. In this he is opposed by agents of the "Consolidation of Peoples Governments", who also seek control and use of the asteroid.

Political allegory

The

villain A villain (also known as a "black hat" or "bad guy"; the feminine form is villainess) is a stock character, whether based on a historical narrative or one of literary fiction. ''Random House Unabridged Dictionary'' defines such a character a ...

s in ''Rip Foster'' are known as "Consops", agents of the "Consolidation of Peoples Governments" that the Space Force and Planeteers of the "Federation of Free Governments" oppose. It is easy to see that the nickname "Connies" is reference to "

Commies Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a so ...

", an abbreviation of "

Communists Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a so ...

", given that the book was written during the

Cold War The Cold War is a term commonly used to refer to a period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc. The term '' cold war'' is used because the ...

and

Korean War , date = {{Ubl, 25 June 1950 – 27 July 1953 (''de facto'')({{Age in years, months, weeks and days, month1=6, day1=25, year1=1950, month2=7, day2=27, year2=1953), 25 June 1950 – present (''de jure'')({{Age in years, months, weeks a ...

. The story emphasizes adventure, comedy, and narrow escapes from destruction, but hints at a

geo-political Geopolitics (from Greek γῆ ''gê'' "earth, land" and πολιτική ''politikḗ'' "politics") is the study of the effects of Earth's geography (human and physical) on politics and international relations. While geopolitics usually refers to ...

situation not unlike that of the early 1950s.

List of editions

*Blake Savage. ''Rip Foster Rides the Gray Planet'',

Racine, Wisconsin Racine ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Racine County, Wisconsin, United States. It is located on the shore of Lake Michigan at the mouth of the Root River. Racine is situated 22 miles (35 km) south of Milwaukee and approximately 60 ...

, Whitman Publishing Company, 1952, 250p. *Blake Savage. ''Rip Foster Rides the Grey Planet'', London, UK, Publicity Products Limited, 1952. *Blake Savage. ''Assignment in Space with Rip Foster'', Racine, Wisconsin, Whitman Publishing Company, 1958. *Blake Savage. ''Rip Foster in Ride the Gray Planet'', New York, Golden Press, 1969, 253p.

References

*Clark, Roy Peter. ''Great Cosmos! Boyhood Memories Lead to quest for the Real Blake Savage''.

St. Petersburg Times The ''Tampa Bay Times'', previously named the ''St. Petersburg Times'' until 2011, is an American newspaper published in St. Petersburg, Florida, United States. It has won fourteen Pulitzer Prizes since 1964, and in 2009, won two in a single ...

, October 19, 1987
Available online

External links

{{Portal , Children's literature 1952 American novels 1952 science fiction novels Children's science fiction novels American science fiction novels American young adult novels Works published under a pseudonym Fiction about asteroid mining Fiction about main-belt asteroids