![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
beamjockeyLong ago, Boys' Life, the monthly magazine of the Boy Scouts of America, ran the Time Machine series.
In these stories, a Boy Scout patrol finds an abandoned Time Machine in the wilderness; the Smart Kid figures out the controls and they roar off to adventure, acquiring new patrol members from ancient Sparta and from 4000 A.D. along the way.
They were published, starting in 1959, under the byline "Donald Keith," a pseudonym for the father-and-son team of Donald Monroe and Keith Monroe. Eventually Keith Monroe published some of the stories under his own name.
I greatly enjoyed these when I was a Scout. I now recall that I read some even before that. My dad was a Scout leader and I remember reading a Time Machine story, maybe the origin story, in one of his issues of Boys' Life before we moved out of The Little Red House, so it must have been 1962 or earlier.
The Time Machine itself-- a luxurious saucer-shaped model-- was quite powerful, if not quite user-friendly. You could set the controls for any point in space and time, it was built to survive even in outer space, and it featured a time-viewer so you could study history or the future.
Boy, I wanted one of these so badly I could taste it.
(Using the time-viewer could be dangerous, though. On some occasions Brains Baynes would be watching some horrible scene from history, then somebody would trip and fall on the gearshift knob and the Polaris Patrol would find themselves in the middle of trouble...)
In the past, I have tried to track down some of the Time Machine stories I haven't read. I've pursued this quest for a long time.
Recently Google has been bringing more magazines down from the attic. In the past week, they have been adding freshly scanned issues of Boys' Life almost daily. One benefit is that we can all enjoy some of the Time Machine stories.
Here are the Time Machine stories I know of. (Tip o' the hat to Jerry Boyajian, who helped me get this list started years ago.)
Some of the stories were combined into two fix-up books, Mutiny in the Time Machine (1963) and Time Machine to the Rescue (1967).
Using another pen name, Rice E. Cochran, Keith Monroe also published Be Prepared, a comic memoir about his experiences as a Scout leader, in 1952. It was the basis for a 1953 movie, Mister Scoutmaster.
(Part 2 of this series is Arthur C. Clarke's "The Sunjammer." Part 3 is Robert A. Heinlein's Scouts into Space. Part 4 is Dale Colombo's Starship MAGELLAN, more stories for which Keith Monroe was a co-author.)
In these stories, a Boy Scout patrol finds an abandoned Time Machine in the wilderness; the Smart Kid figures out the controls and they roar off to adventure, acquiring new patrol members from ancient Sparta and from 4000 A.D. along the way.
They were published, starting in 1959, under the byline "Donald Keith," a pseudonym for the father-and-son team of Donald Monroe and Keith Monroe. Eventually Keith Monroe published some of the stories under his own name.
I greatly enjoyed these when I was a Scout. I now recall that I read some even before that. My dad was a Scout leader and I remember reading a Time Machine story, maybe the origin story, in one of his issues of Boys' Life before we moved out of The Little Red House, so it must have been 1962 or earlier.
The Time Machine itself-- a luxurious saucer-shaped model-- was quite powerful, if not quite user-friendly. You could set the controls for any point in space and time, it was built to survive even in outer space, and it featured a time-viewer so you could study history or the future.
Boy, I wanted one of these so badly I could taste it.
(Using the time-viewer could be dangerous, though. On some occasions Brains Baynes would be watching some horrible scene from history, then somebody would trip and fall on the gearshift knob and the Polaris Patrol would find themselves in the middle of trouble...)
In the past, I have tried to track down some of the Time Machine stories I haven't read. I've pursued this quest for a long time.
Recently Google has been bringing more magazines down from the attic. In the past week, they have been adding freshly scanned issues of Boys' Life almost daily. One benefit is that we can all enjoy some of the Time Machine stories.
Here are the Time Machine stories I know of. (Tip o' the hat to Jerry Boyajian, who helped me get this list started years ago.)
Some of the stories were combined into two fix-up books, Mutiny in the Time Machine (1963) and Time Machine to the Rescue (1967).
Using another pen name, Rice E. Cochran, Keith Monroe also published Be Prepared, a comic memoir about his experiences as a Scout leader, in 1952. It was the basis for a 1953 movie, Mister Scoutmaster.
(Part 2 of this series is Arthur C. Clarke's "The Sunjammer." Part 3 is Robert A. Heinlein's Scouts into Space. Part 4 is Dale Colombo's Starship MAGELLAN, more stories for which Keith Monroe was a co-author.)
Tags:
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2010-05-15 12:21 am (UTC)I first encountered those in novel form, a book in the local library.
no subject
Date: 2010-05-15 12:37 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-01-08 11:44 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-01-09 12:55 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-05-15 12:21 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-05-15 12:47 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-05-15 12:52 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-05-15 01:33 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-05-15 03:40 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-05-15 11:44 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-05-15 06:05 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-05-15 07:51 pm (UTC)I got that same graphic again.
I don't know how to notify IMDB of the problem.
no subject
Date: 2010-05-15 12:59 pm (UTC)Time machine
Date: 2010-05-15 03:27 pm (UTC)Nate
Re: Time machine
Date: 2010-05-15 04:24 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-05-15 06:05 pm (UTC)Surely there's significance to the hero's name being Bob Tucker?
no subject
Date: 2010-05-16 09:41 pm (UTC)I also encountered one of the fix-up books at my local library.
no subject
Date: 2010-06-04 01:58 pm (UTC)The Time Machine Hunts a Treasure Apr 1967
http://books.google.com/books?id=ROj2GiDixoMC&pg=PA26
The Dog from the Time Machine Dec 1968
http://books.google.com/books?id=PaoDbR61vOoC&pg=PA46
The Time Machine and the Generation Gap Sep 1970
http://books.google.com/books?id=LeEWEfio9g8C&pg=PA13
The King and the Time Machine Aug 1971
http://books.google.com/books?id=ZLluIXjczmMC&pg=PA32
The Time Machine Cleans Up Feb 1973
http://books.google.com/books?id=SF5jT6jVWt8C&pg=PA8
The Time Machine Twins the Jamboree Aug 1973
http://books.google.com/books?id=sHUp8snNE7YC&pg=PA8
"Santa Claus and the Time Machine " Dec 1973 p. 38
http://books.google.com/books?id=yP46ITGHQt0C&pg=PA38
The Time Machine Fights Earthquakes Nov 1974
http://books.google.com/books?id=LBf4cf6Rye8C&pg=PA3
The Time Machine Saves a Patriot Apr 1975
http://books.google.com/books?id=yvkxFKJu9d8C&pg=PA28
The Time Machine Kidnaps a Parade Jul 1976 (by Keith Monroe)
http://books.google.com/books?id=ZhETjrWtzwwC&pg=PA30
no subject
Date: 2010-06-04 02:30 pm (UTC)The book Time Machine to the Rescue is listed as "by Keith Monroe" in magazine ads peddling the book (for example, http://books.google.com/books?id=Jve-6Dnm4YkC&pg=PA71) but the cover, and libraries, say it's by Donald Keith.
Sometimes the contradictory bylines are in the same ad:
http://books.google.com/books?id=4ixnlmZo_gYC&pg=PA65
thank you
Date: 2010-08-12 10:22 pm (UTC)Re: thank you
Date: 2010-08-12 10:46 pm (UTC)Keith Monroe
Date: 2010-08-17 07:19 pm (UTC)http://www.troop2bsa.org/alumni/keithmonroe.html
Re: Keith Monroe
Date: 2010-08-17 11:13 pm (UTC)I hope you don't mind that I put a link to your page on the Troop 2 BSA website.
Not at all! I posted it in the hope that it would be helpful to those who wanted to read the writings of the Monroes. I'm glad you are spreading the word, and that Troop 2 is keeping Keith's memory alive.
Great!
Date: 2010-08-26 03:27 pm (UTC)From the Philippines,
Imee
ChooseYourOwnAdventureBooks.org for Kids, Adults and Teachers (http://www.ChooseYourOwnAdventureBooks.org)
no subject
Date: 2010-09-24 11:48 am (UTC)MUTINY IN THE TIME MACHINE Part 2: Jan 1963:
http://books.google.com/books?id=SO1lJQ0rHpQC&pg=PA47#v=onepage&q&f=false
MUTINY IN THE TIME MACHINE Part 3: Feb 1963
http://books.google.com/books?id=iHp5ZS6zDEMC&pg=PA56#v=onepage&q&f=false
MUTINY IN THE TIME MACHINE Part 4: Mar 1963
http://books.google.com/books?id=dfpzTLL-8QkC&pg=PA50#v=onepage&q&f=false
THE TIME MACHINE GETS STUCK Part 2: Mar 1965
http://books.google.com/books?id=ztpAhQVVo8UC&pg=PA42#v=onepage&q&f=false
THE TIME MACHINE GETS STUCK Part 3: Apr 1965
http://books.google.com/books?id=SyvUJSdj4aAC&pg=PA28#v=onepage&q&f=false
THE TIME MACHINE HUNTS A TREASURE Part 2: May 1967
http://books.google.com/books?id=VdV9c0kCq0IC&pg=PA30#v=onepage&q&f=false
THE TIME MACHINE HUNTS A TREASURE Part 3: Jun 1967
http://books.google.com/books?id=BL0uGcw82P0C&pg=PA30#v=onepage&q&f=false
Can anyone detail which stories are in which of the two books, MUTINY IN THE TIME MACHINE and THE TIME MACHINE TO THE RESCUE?
The last story I read as a kid was the 1976 "The Time Machine Kidnaps A Parade", so I just now read the final 3 stories.
In "Why We Kidnapped Our Scoutmaster" (February 1989), I point out for the record that, even though they have a time machine, a healing suit, anti-gravity belts, and night goggles, all technology from Kai's time, and the help of an 1851 mountain man, the technology that actually saves Mr. Dunn's life is a 1989 drug dealer's Ferrari car phone!
Incidentally, I just did a similar index of Google Books links to all the SPACE CONQUERORS! space opera serial comics in BOYS' LIFE, 1957-1972, here.
no subject
Date: 2010-09-24 12:16 pm (UTC)Great index, but, maybe I'm missing something obvious, but I don't get why you don't have links to the other parts of the serials:
Because I haven't rolled up my sleeves and finished the job. Thanks for your effort!
(I did create a Wikipedia article on the Time Machine, but it doesn't have links to the serial installments either.)
Can anyone detail which stories are in which of the two books, MUTINY IN THE TIME MACHINE and THE TIME MACHINE TO THE RESCUE?
This is another task I haven't yet undertaken. I do have both books.
Thanks also for the Space Conquerors index-- it's great work.
no subject
Date: 2010-09-24 02:39 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-09-26 10:20 am (UTC)But there's one I'm not finding. I could have sworn there was one where they meet a kid in the past in their town, then in their present, he, now a much older adult, sees them, realizes they haven't aged, and deduces that they must have a time machine, and then, becomes a bit of an obsessed antagonist.
Now, the 2nd story, "The Time Machine Flies Backwards", has elements of this... they do meet a kid in 1910, but in 1960, when they visit his restaurant, he references a weird dream he had as a kid where he went to the future.
But that's all there is to it. He doesn't become a villain.
Now, it's possible this story was expanded when it made it to book form, but as a kid I only read TIME MACHINE TO THE RESCUE, not MUTINY IN THE TIME MACHINE, and it seems like if it made it into a book, it would have made it into the earlier MUTINY.
Of course, it's also very possible I'm just mistaken, and/or mistaking it somehow with elements of some non-Time Machine short story I read, etc.
no subject
Date: 2010-10-15 01:54 pm (UTC)From the Philippines
Imee
ChooseYourOwnAdventureBooks.org for Kids, Adults and Teachers (http://www.ChooseYourOwnAdventureBooks.org)
these stories bring back memories
Date: 2011-01-22 05:00 am (UTC)Many thanks for putting this together.
- Paul (formerly of Troop 568, BSA, Houston, Texas)
no subject
Date: 2011-03-04 12:14 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-02-20 05:27 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-04-01 05:13 pm (UTC)I've now contributed an entry on Keith Monroe to the Encyclopedia of Science Fiction.
no subject
Date: 2013-10-21 01:58 am (UTC)As I have been working on the fiction from Boys' Life that was later published in book form, I decided to tackle Time Machine to the Rescue and figure out which stories were used. Here they are, in order:
"The Time Machine Flies Backwards" (Feb 1960; ch 1-3)
"Marco Polo and Our Time Machine" (Oct 1961; ch 3-4)
"Our Time Machine in the Jamboree" (Jul 1960; ch 5)
"The Time Machine Slips a Cog" (Feb 1962; ch 6-8)
"How We Got the Mind-Reading Pills" (Jun 1960; ch 8-10)
"The Time Machine Cracks a Safe" (Jun 1964; ch 11-13)
"Call to Courage" (not a TM story) (Feb 1957; ch 13-14)
The book contains some modified and additional text to make it something of a "fix up" story since many of the short stories are stand-alones.
At this time I suppose that the 4-part serial for "Mutiny in the Time Machine" (Dec 1962-Mar 1963) was the complete content of the book with the same title. I'll check to be sure since there's clearly a lot of manipulation of the story line for the later (and scarcer) book from Putnam.
James D. Keeline