Adamski, George
Entry updated 12 September 2022. Tagged: Author.
(1891-1965) Polish-born author, in the US from infancy, best known for his founding contributions to the UFO mythos; these, written as purported nonfiction, still have devout believers but are widely regarded as an elaborate and profitable hoax. Adamski's first publication of genre relevance was however an outright sf novel, Pioneers of Space: A Trip to the Moon, Mars and Venus (1949) as Professor (though he had no such academic qualification) George Adamski, ghostwritten for him by Lucy McGinnis and replete with Scientific Errors: the Moon, for example, is described as having forests, lakes, snowy mountains and wild animals. Following an alleged UFO sighting during a 1946 meteor shower, Adamski began to give paid lectures on the subject in 1949. A few years later he published the bestselling Flying Saucers Have Landed (1953) with Desmond Leslie. This book's now familiar message is that spiritually and intellectually superior Aliens of Nordic appearance, principally from Venus, are much concerned with the sorry state of Earth (e.g. nuclear testing) and wish to deliver – through such selected contactees as Adamski himself – a gospel of peace, moral uplift and cosmic harmony while sedulously avoiding any actual public demonstration of their existence. Adamski's follow-up book Inside the Space Ships (1955; vt Inside the Flying Saucers 1967) was ghostwritten by his secretary Charlotte Blodget, based on his verbal accounts; this interestingly recycles numerous details – including descriptions of the Moon and the alien Spaceship, and even verbatim alien dialogue – from the above-cited sf novel Pioneers of Space. [DRL]
see also: Stranger from Venus.
George Adamski
born Bromberg, German Empire [now Bydgoszcz, Poland], 17 April 1891
died Maryland, USA: 23 April 1965
works
- Pioneers of Space: A Trip to the Moon, Mars and Venus (Los Angeles, California: Leonard-Freefield, 1949) as Professor George Adamski, ghostwritten by Lucy McGinnis [hb/]
nonfiction (selected)
- Flying Saucers Have Landed (London: Thomas Werner Laurie, 1953) with Desmond Leslie [nonfiction: hb/]
- Flying Saucers Have Landed (London: Neville Spearman, 1970) with Desmond Leslie [nonfiction: exp of the above by Leslie alone: hb/]
- Inside the Space Ships (New York: Abelard-Schuman, 1955) ghostwritten by Charlotte Blodget [nonfiction: hb/]
- Inside the Flying Saucers (New York: Paperback Library, 1967) [nonfiction: vt of the above: pb/]
- Flying Saucers Farewell (New York: Abelard-Schuman, 1961) [nonfiction: hb/]
- Behind the Flying Saucer Mystery (New York: Paperback Library, 1967) [nonfiction: vt of the above: pb/]
links
- George Adamski Foundation
- SkepticReport on Adamski
- Internet Speculative Fiction Database
- Picture Gallery
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