Ralph Ginzburg (1929–2006)

My friendly library bookstore staff sold me these because they knew I liked art and history, They looked like the Horizon book series that were popular in the 60's and 70's, hardbacks, about 90 pages each, printed on good paper, interesting articles.. I found nothing objectionable. But the material was deemed objectionable, After publishing 4 issues, Ginzberg was arrested and charged with obscenity in a case that went all the way to the Supreme Court. He was found guilty and served a few months. You can read all the details in Wikipedia The books have been digitized and are available on the internet. One interesting article: How do porcupines do it?.… (meer)

This short scientific book describes the birth of the universe, the history of life on Earth, the origin of man, and a discussion of whether there might be life on Mars. Since it was written in 1977, a lot of the information is dated, but it’s an interesting read nonetheless. The author wrote in what I would almost call a storybook style as if he was telling a story around a campfire instead of explaining how Earth was formed and life evolved. This made the information interesting and easy to understand for those of us without a serious background in science.… (meer)