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This article could use some quotes from the book.
I would suggest one explaining the title in Wolfe's own words. The NY Times review begins with such a quote.
The astronauts cynically used "Spam in a can" as a nickname for Project Mercury, because they felt that '... they would just become "Spam in a can." '
And we can achieve a first at WP by using the term " anal thermometer" in an article. (page 60)
Wolfe describes the exasperation of the Americans at the anonymous Soviet genius with indisputable powers, known only as "the Chief Designer", who guides the Soviet space program. Wolfe never identifies him, but the Chief Designer is presumably Sergey Korolyov, who personifies the Soviet side of the space race.
Wolfe also seems to use the name of a spaceship called the "mighty Integral", which is a reference to Yevgeny Zamyatin's novel We, as a metaphor for the Soviet launch vehicle, the Soviet space program, and the Soviet Union.
The quote "our Germans are better than their Germans" is not in the book and should be removed from this article.
BTW, the full text of the book can be searched at http://books.google.com/advanced_book_search and at http://www.amazon.com.
-- Jtir ( talk) 14:02, 22 January 2008 (UTC)
I'm guessing that it is [http://www.amazon.com/Air-Classics/dp/B00006K2HU this magazine], but could not find a specific web site or any mention of it in several databases at my library. -- Jtir ( talk) 09:40, 24 January 2008 (UTC)
I have added this "second" edition(?) to the Bib.
-- Jtir ( talk) 18:20, 24 January 2008 (UTC)
Would it be OK to switch the ISBN in the book infobox back to the one that corresponds to the cover pic., now that we can cite both editions in the Notes? -- Jtir ( talk) 18:20, 24 January 2008 (UTC)
The first edition of this book, like all Wolfe's books (thus far), was published by Farrar, Straus & Giroux. In the world of publishing they are considered "the publisher", even though paperback rights and later editions were published by somebody else. The infobox really needs to mention the original publisher Farrar, Straus. I think we can include in a note, or a brief publication history section, the later editions, but in publishing that true first edition is always the most important. -- JayHenry ( talk) 18:17, 24 January 2008 (UTC)
Thanks, JayHenry, for adding this section. Ragen sounds like a superb source. Here are some comments:
-- Jtir ( talk) 11:09, 29 January 2008 (UTC)
Based on previous experience, this section will grow ad infinitum. We should probably work the shorter ones into the article text, so they have some context. The longer one, about the title, could go in a separate section that explains the title of the book. -- Jtir ( talk) 12:01, 29 January 2008 (UTC)
Although I find this annoying, Wikipedia's Manual of Style says that em-dashes (—) should be unspaced. WP:DASH is the relevant guideline. I notice that someone changed the dashes in the section I wrote at The Right Stuff (book)#Writing and publication, normally I wouldn't object to this, but I actually had them this way to conform with the project's guidelines. -- JayHenry ( talk) 15:09, 29 January 2008 (UTC)
I had never heard the expression before either, but according to this book-collecting terminology guide:
First state (of first printing)
Primary focus of collectors. Copy printed during first press run before any alterations are made to book. Alterations (aka issue points or points of issue) which indicate second or later state may include any modifications made during the production process - e.g., editorial corrections, additions or subtractions of pages, changes in binding cloth, alterations of dust jacket, etc. NOTE: all changes affecting state are more often than not assumed to occur prior to distribution. SYNONYM: first issue.
What's odd is that the cover is completely unfamiliar to me. Could it be a "first-state" cover in somewhere other than the US or Canada? The UK or Australia, perhaps? Ed Fitzgerald (unfutz) ( talk / cont) 21:46, 30 January 2008 (UTC)
This first edition includes the very scarce trial dust jacket, which was changed at the last minute from a striking design suggestive of the covers on Wolfe’s earlier books to a more somber, patriotic illustration. Copies in the trial wrapper were never sold to the public and even now are not widely known to exist.
That explains why I've never seen it. Ed Fitzgerald (unfutz) ( talk / cont) 21:50, 30 January 2008 (UTC)
Did Wolfe coin this phrase? If not, who did, where did it come from? I note that a 1974 album Captain Lockheed and the Starfighters uses the term as a song title and lyric in connection with the pilots of F-104s, so this would suggest the phrase predates Wolfe by at least that much. 60.229.10.93 ( talk) 12:12, 7 March 2011 (UTC)
This is the
talk page for discussing improvements to the
The Right Stuff (book) article. This is not a forum for general discussion of the article's subject. |
Article policies
|
Find sources: Google ( books · news · scholar · free images · WP refs) · FENS · JSTOR · TWL |
![]() | This article is written in American English, which has its own spelling conventions (color, defense, traveled) and some terms that are used in it may be different or absent from other varieties of English. According to the relevant style guide, this should not be changed without broad consensus. |
![]() | This article is rated C-class on Wikipedia's
content assessment scale. It is of interest to the following WikiProjects: | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
This article could use some quotes from the book.
I would suggest one explaining the title in Wolfe's own words. The NY Times review begins with such a quote.
The astronauts cynically used "Spam in a can" as a nickname for Project Mercury, because they felt that '... they would just become "Spam in a can." '
And we can achieve a first at WP by using the term " anal thermometer" in an article. (page 60)
Wolfe describes the exasperation of the Americans at the anonymous Soviet genius with indisputable powers, known only as "the Chief Designer", who guides the Soviet space program. Wolfe never identifies him, but the Chief Designer is presumably Sergey Korolyov, who personifies the Soviet side of the space race.
Wolfe also seems to use the name of a spaceship called the "mighty Integral", which is a reference to Yevgeny Zamyatin's novel We, as a metaphor for the Soviet launch vehicle, the Soviet space program, and the Soviet Union.
The quote "our Germans are better than their Germans" is not in the book and should be removed from this article.
BTW, the full text of the book can be searched at http://books.google.com/advanced_book_search and at http://www.amazon.com.
-- Jtir ( talk) 14:02, 22 January 2008 (UTC)
I'm guessing that it is [http://www.amazon.com/Air-Classics/dp/B00006K2HU this magazine], but could not find a specific web site or any mention of it in several databases at my library. -- Jtir ( talk) 09:40, 24 January 2008 (UTC)
I have added this "second" edition(?) to the Bib.
-- Jtir ( talk) 18:20, 24 January 2008 (UTC)
Would it be OK to switch the ISBN in the book infobox back to the one that corresponds to the cover pic., now that we can cite both editions in the Notes? -- Jtir ( talk) 18:20, 24 January 2008 (UTC)
The first edition of this book, like all Wolfe's books (thus far), was published by Farrar, Straus & Giroux. In the world of publishing they are considered "the publisher", even though paperback rights and later editions were published by somebody else. The infobox really needs to mention the original publisher Farrar, Straus. I think we can include in a note, or a brief publication history section, the later editions, but in publishing that true first edition is always the most important. -- JayHenry ( talk) 18:17, 24 January 2008 (UTC)
Thanks, JayHenry, for adding this section. Ragen sounds like a superb source. Here are some comments:
-- Jtir ( talk) 11:09, 29 January 2008 (UTC)
Based on previous experience, this section will grow ad infinitum. We should probably work the shorter ones into the article text, so they have some context. The longer one, about the title, could go in a separate section that explains the title of the book. -- Jtir ( talk) 12:01, 29 January 2008 (UTC)
Although I find this annoying, Wikipedia's Manual of Style says that em-dashes (—) should be unspaced. WP:DASH is the relevant guideline. I notice that someone changed the dashes in the section I wrote at The Right Stuff (book)#Writing and publication, normally I wouldn't object to this, but I actually had them this way to conform with the project's guidelines. -- JayHenry ( talk) 15:09, 29 January 2008 (UTC)
I had never heard the expression before either, but according to this book-collecting terminology guide:
First state (of first printing)
Primary focus of collectors. Copy printed during first press run before any alterations are made to book. Alterations (aka issue points or points of issue) which indicate second or later state may include any modifications made during the production process - e.g., editorial corrections, additions or subtractions of pages, changes in binding cloth, alterations of dust jacket, etc. NOTE: all changes affecting state are more often than not assumed to occur prior to distribution. SYNONYM: first issue.
What's odd is that the cover is completely unfamiliar to me. Could it be a "first-state" cover in somewhere other than the US or Canada? The UK or Australia, perhaps? Ed Fitzgerald (unfutz) ( talk / cont) 21:46, 30 January 2008 (UTC)
This first edition includes the very scarce trial dust jacket, which was changed at the last minute from a striking design suggestive of the covers on Wolfe’s earlier books to a more somber, patriotic illustration. Copies in the trial wrapper were never sold to the public and even now are not widely known to exist.
That explains why I've never seen it. Ed Fitzgerald (unfutz) ( talk / cont) 21:50, 30 January 2008 (UTC)
Did Wolfe coin this phrase? If not, who did, where did it come from? I note that a 1974 album Captain Lockheed and the Starfighters uses the term as a song title and lyric in connection with the pilots of F-104s, so this would suggest the phrase predates Wolfe by at least that much. 60.229.10.93 ( talk) 12:12, 7 March 2011 (UTC)