The Complete WotW

[David Faltskog]

Im seriously thinking about getting this book,but can't seem to find any reviews...So as usual i turn to you chaps and ask.

Ahem...Has anyone got this book...Is it Good,Bad,nicely illustrated and worth the price etc?.

I esp like the idea of the free Radio broadcast cd that comes with the book.

So any info about this and the book will be greatly assimulated.

Cheer's.

B-B.

Update...I,ve found some reviews,but would rather get the views of true WotW fans...So fire away!.

[Thunder Child]

Hi B-B,

I’ve got this book from Amazon and I think it’s pretty good. It gives a lot of information about the Orson Welles broadcast. Actually it’s more a book on the broadcast then on the novel itself. It even features a picture of the water tower mistaken for a Fighting Machine! ;D

Anyway, it gives the entire transcript of the Welles broadcast as well as the entire Wells novel including the original Warwick Goble illustrations and two of the Alvim Correa illustrations. There also is a chapter on H.G.Wells himself.

The CD included with this book is nice too. It contains the entire Welles broadcast, The Orson Welles press conference, and if you have never heard H.G.Wells speak then this CD is the one for you cause it also features H.G. wells talking to Orson Welles. The other two “tracks” on the CD are “An Excerpt from The War of the Worlds on WKBW Radio, Buffalo New York (1968)” and “Orson Welles Recalls The War of the Worlds broadcast”.

Great stuff!

Greetings,
Johan

[David Faltskog]

Cheer's Mr ThunderChild..Thanks for the info.

Im definitely gonna get this book.

B-B.

[Curate]

I picked it up on Ebay for just $10. It was going cheap because the CD was missing. The book was pretty nice though - except for the author's mocking tone towards the musical.

[Charles]

Unfortunately (and ironically) the meeting between Wells and Welles is not 'complete' on this disc. You'll have to track down the old Radiola LP of the Lux Theatre's production of WOTW for the complete KTSA broadcast...

[David Faltskog]

Thanks again for the info.

B-B.

[Rob]

I've got it and it's good, but considering the vast majority of it's volume is simply flled with the entire original story it's not the best value for money, however, the story is illustrated.

[Thunder Child]

The entire (I assume and correct me if I'm wrong Charles ;D) between H.G. Wells and Orson Welles can be downloaded here:

cai.ucdavis.edu/173default.html

Greetings,
Johan

[Bayne]

[glow=red,2,300]Wow, that was cool to hear!... The bit about the Nazi speech and parade was most certainly interesting.. any of the historians here have more on that?

Question: Is this book still widely available or is it an e-bay only affair.

Also: Same question, but regarding Tom Kidds illustrated WOTW [/glow]

[Charles]

Johan, that mp3 is mostly complete; its only missing Charles Shaw's brief closing remarks.

Bayne, as for the Hitler reference, its hard to say which address Orson was talking about. "The Great Munich Speech" has been very tough to pin down, and I've been trying for years! I work for an auction that deals with Imperial German and Third Reich relics as a major part of our business, so I see more of that stuff than most museums ever do (German ones and the Imperial War Museum included).

Hitler's big speeches were at the Reichsparteitag ceremonies (which were at Nürnberg, around the beginning of every September) and the "Tag der Arbeit" (Labour Day, May 1) ceremonies. Both ceremonies ceased after war broke out. It seems probable to me however that Hitler mentioned WOTW at the 1938 Feldherrnhalle ceremony, which was held in Munich on November 9th (the right time of year for it to be fresh news in 1938) to mark the original 1923 Putsch at the Braun Haus...(this Putsch was what landed Hitler in Landsberg Prison for a space - long enough to write "Mein Kampf" with Rudolf Hess´s help). The NSDAP used to publish the text of every notable Hitler speech as pamphlets, and I´m always watching for the 1938 Feldherrnhalle address.

I have an original copy of "Das Schwarz Korps," the official newspaper of the SS, from early November 1938 which has an unbelievably silly editorial cartoon lampooning Orson Welles´ WOTW by intimating that N.Y. is inhabited by Jews and that the Martians (clad in tourist cameras!) thought they had landed in Palestine by mistake. I plan on running it in the next HGW Society, the Americas newsletter. No one seems to want to claim the copyright on that one!!!

Tom Kidd´s illustrated WOTW should still be easy to find. Its definately worth it. The American HGW Society ran an expose at the time of its release with some extra artwork not in the published book. Back issues are still for sale, by the way.

[Bayne]

[glow=red,2,300]Back issues are still available for sale you say...

Give us all the details...

(Now how the heck am I going to afford all this stuff? War Of The Worlds is keeping me poor!)


[/glow]

[Charles]

Back issues of the newsletter containing the piece on Tom Kidd's WOTW (Winter/Spring 2001) are $5 (US) ppd in the USA, $6 elsewhere. Paypal is acceptable, please add .25 cents for their costs, though. My email address is [e-mail] (which Paypal will need to inform me of the transfer). If you prefer snail mail, the contact address is:

The H.G. Wells Society, the Americas
Charles Keller, Director
11305 Cypress Ave.
Kansas City, MO. 64137
United States of America

Now that didn't break the bank, did it? ;D

[JonT]

yeah i have this book too. its worth getting it has the novel with illustrations and it has the broadcast on cd.

[Selkirk]

Well worth the money. For me, some of the most interesting reading was about how people reacted to the broadcast - and why.

[miketrak]

I myself was dissapointed with the book. It certainly is not 'complete'.
It is basically a book about the radio broadcast, in a typical American 'look what we did, where so great' format. (No offence intended!
With only brief notes about the book, pal film, Jeff Wayne version, etc.
Also in my eyes there is a lot of wasted space in the book, with various photos of wells etc , obviously they just tried to pad it out a bit more.
The author is also completely 'poo-poos' the musical version, saying you have to endure it!

If you want a book about the broadcast then great, but if you want any other WOTW info then forget it.
If I knew what the book was like I certainly would not have bought it.

Mike.