Slashdot Mirror
Mad Scientists' Club Returns To Print
Jill Morgan writes "Hi
I think your readers will enjoy finding out that The Mad Scientists' Club by Bertrand Brinley is coming back in print this September. I saw a reader mention it on your book page at
one of the reviews.
This book was first printed in 1965, featuring six junior genuises whose pranks turn the town of Mammoth Falls upside down! You can read more about our new edition (which features text restored from the original manuscript) at from Purple House Press
" I remember reading these as a kid.
I really enjoyed the book. Some truely fun stories, like the bank robbers, or the time the Mad Sciencetis bought the min-sub to use in the local lake.
I guess I'll buy a copy and give it to my niece.
III.IIVIVIXIIVIVIIIVVIIIIXVIIIXIIIIIIIIVIIIIVVIII
That brings back some memories, those books inspired my interest in model rockets, lake monsters, hot-air balloons, ghads! Always kinda hoped someone would pick it up and make a movie or TV series, but something like that would never match the books. They were/are some of the best inspirational stories for kids.
NULL
First post? I still have a copy. It made me what I am today. I suppose The Great Gas Bag Race is my favorite, but they're all good.
One line blog. I hear that they're called Twitters now.
Personally I have a hard time reading fictional literature. I can watch a movie based on a book, but I would rather read tech, or political books. But since this is an odd book I figured I would point out something which always made me laugh. The Anarchy Cookbook.
That was some of the funniest shit in the world, and unless you were some type of LEA (law enforcement agent) you had to find some form of dark humor reading the good old Jolly Roger.
Want Root?
Thats one of my favorite books.
All Troll + "offtopic" mods are meta moderated as "Unfair", because you abused the system.
I'm a little young to remember this. Is this a series of formula-written novels like Goosebumps?
Formula writings always have a unique (ununique?) charm, remember Scooby-Doo? Repetitiveness gradually gives way to familiarity.
Too busy staying alive... ~ R.A.
For those of us who don't know about this series, could you please tell us what it is, maybe some links with more info, and all that fun stuff?
Things you think are in the Constitution, but are not.
It's great to see these books returning to print. They inspired a whole generation of geeks. They don't qualify as great literature, but still... It's nice to see them back. I wonder if they'll influence a whole new generation of geeks this time around...?
--CTH
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--Got Lists? | Top 95 Star Wars Line
A while ago I got the following letter from Sheridan Brinley (the heir of the late author of MSC) regarding the republication:
To the Mad Scientists' Club Fans:
The book will be published by Purple House Press www.purplehousepress.com, a publisher created expressly to bring back to you and millions of others the books they remember reading as children. The text will be based on the original manuscripts of the stories, so there will be some differences in words from the Macrae Smith and Scholastic editions. And, passages have been restored that were edited out of certain stories. I have done this to reflect more accurately the style and syntax my father used.
Please let other fans know about this development and encourage them to visit the Purple House Press Web site.
Thank you for your long devotion to my father's works. He wrote these stories for you and for himself, because he was as imaginative and adventurous as the seven characters he brought to life as the Mad Scientists' Club.
Sheridan Brinley
This
I think; been 35 years since I read them! But if memory serves, it seemed the most believable, in merely requiring heating and expanding the cannon to pull the concrete plug. The others were more fun, in some ways, but seemed to require a bit more suspension of belief.
--
Infuriate left and right
The stoiries were great, and inspiring for future geeks. Some of it might be lost for the newer generations, like their amazing use of HAM radios. Unfortunately, I know of few young people who are interested in those anymore.
This sounds a lot like the Encyclopedia Brown stories I totally dug as a kid. I remember being thrilled once when I figured out how Bugs Meanie managed to win the raffle. On a similar note, be sure to look at Modern Humor's various parodies of this series.
Last night I shot an elephant in my pajamas. How he got in my pajamas I'll never know.
From the previous /. story, there was This link from a fan site
I'm thrilled to see that the same reprint house carries The Shy Stegasaurus of Cricket Creek. I loved that book. Now if only they'd bring Secret Under the Sea and The Wonderful Flight to the Mushroom Planet back into print...
~sabine
Those were good, but the three investigators were better.
Between The Mad Scientists Club and Alan Mendelsohn, The Boy from Mars (Daniel M Pinkwater) I don't know if I could pick a favorite; I think I've read those books at least 250 times each.
Scott
"Hokey religions and ancient weapons are no match for a good blaster at your side, kid."
Picture teenage geeks combined with junkyard wars and a few other things i cant event think of.
All Troll + "offtopic" mods are meta moderated as "Unfair", because you abused the system.
Possibly my favorite geek kid story of all time. Defintely should be in the library of any school that wants to foster a geek appreciative culture.
Xix.
"Everything is adjustable, provided you have the right tools"
A friend of mine quoted a four-line poem from Space Child's Mother Goose ("Probable Probable My Black Hen") on her web page, and Purple House Press sent this letter (discussion accompanies it at that url). While Purple House didn't specifically brandish actual litigation, they threatened to hassle my friend's ISP about the quote (presumably under the DMCA), thus outdoing even the Scientologists (who famously hassled people for posting seven lines from an OT rundown, rather than a mere four lines).
It's nice that these books are back in print but Purple House's behavior bugs me enough that I can't let myself buy anything from them. Sigh.
Funnily enough the mad scientists books are some of the ones I kept from my childhood, and recently (under parental pressure) took them from storage at mom and dads to the overloaded shelves at my apartment. They are great books, and look forward to passing them on to my offspring. Hell, I'll probably re-read them a few times myself before that happens though!
Ok, one of the weirdest things EVER has just happened to me. I'm lying in bed trying to fall asleep and my mind started to drift. The way it was drifting felt vaguely familiar, but I couldn't put my finger on it. After thinking a while longer, it eventually occured to me that it felt like a scene I had imagined while reading a specific book as a kid, like 20 years ago. I couldn't remember anything about the book, except this one detail. After thinking a little more, I picked out a few more details from which I could hopefully perform a successful internet search to find the exact title of the book (and also confirm the scene).
Jump forward a few minutes. I'm sitting at my computer running my searches and turning up nothing (although I did turn up some interesting links to other childhood books of mine that I loved reading and had forgotten about). After fruitlessly digging for a title or an author or anything useful about the book, I gave up and decided to look at a couple of news sites before going back to bed.
Now here's the freaky part. Remember that I hadn't thought about this book for twenty years. The first news site I go to is Slashdot. The first story on the page, posted well after I had gone to bed the first time, was a feature about that exact book being reprinted in September.
The instant I saw the headline, my jaw dropped. I knew immediately that it was the title and book I had been trying to remember all night. I mean, what are the odds? Needless to say, I'm glad the book is being reprinted, but I'm also a little freaked out about the coincidence. I've heard people claim that coincidences like that aren't real. That I must have seen a story about it somewhere else earlier in the day or the week, and just didn't remember. Something to tie my though to a reality. I can tell you that the chain of thoughts that led up to thinking about the book completely precludes that. There is no possible way that I could have been reminded about that book prior to laying in bed a few minutes ago.
"Tell me doctor, with all of your defenses, are there any provisions for an attack by killer bees?"
Required reading for any developing geek. Now when are they going to reprint the original Tom Swift?
Yep, the Eel Brains is a much better story. Fire off a couple buckshot rounds for me, Bubba!
The Mad Scientists Club is an awesome set of books for kids. I know that it helped shape my intellectual curiosity and define my childhood (and career path).
Another good one for the same age group is The Great Brain.
Oh, and while I'm reminiscing, Legos rock
I built my first homemade hot-air balloon after reading a story about the Mad Scientists' Club. One light plastic dry cleaning bag and a tea candle, some Scotch tape, two pieces of balsa wood and off it went.
Of course, the small fire that resulted when the wind gusted and blew the bag over onto the candle wasn't so much fun, but at least the thing *flew*.
Looked pretty bizarre from the ground, too - the candlelight gave some pretty weird reflections from the inside of the bag, and the whole thing sort of glowed.
Those were the days. I wonder how long it'll be before someone else duplicates that, starts another fire, and sues the people who're republishing the books?
Specialization is for insects. - R.A.H.
I still have my copies of each book, tattered and well worn, sitting beside the likes of the Hitchhiker's Guide and Ender's Game. I still read them even these days from time to time. As others have said, they pretty much made me the geek/hacker I am today. And more than once I've jury-rigged items to get them working, with child like fascination, much like in these books... I'm glad they'll be in circulation again.
Karma: Good. I'm hoping in the same way as pizza is 'good'...
Hmmm... I read all the time how Slashdot editors "repeat articles"... perhaps what we don't realize is that for every duplicate article posted, there's a hundred which weren't.
-Karl /dos]# file msdos.sys
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[root@kgutwin
[root@kgutwin
msdos.sys: fsav (linux) virus (17518-87)
http://modernhumorist.com/mh/0005/encyc_mp3/
---
eeww, I'll have a crab juice.
Agreed. I have a 1st edition of the Space Child's Mother Goose, and though I've considered buying copies from Purple House to give as gifts, this certainly gives me pause. Not everyone has heard of the book; you would think that they would be happy for the free advertising.
It just seems funny that they excerpt a poem on their own site, but don't want anyone else to do it--not from a legal standpoint, but from an advertising standpoint. Oh, well...
Oh, man I remember those books, they're right up there with "The Great Brain" series and "Tom Swift". Just the thng for this father on father's Day. I might have to see if i can pick them all up for nostalgia's sake...who know's maybe my girls (all 3) will enjoy them.
This reminds me of another series of books that I used to read when I was younger. I was wondering if anyone knew the name. I know this may be offtopic but I had a wave of nostalgia. The series that I read is similar to this though.
It was probably in the Juvenile fiction (or scifi) section of my small library. It was the story of how a boy (the name Alvin sticks in my mind but it might not be that) and his single mother live with this professor. (She works as his maid) The professor makes all these inventions which are really cool like a time machine and an electronic dragonfly that is flown by virtual reality. I think he also invented an X-ray machine to see through walls and I remember once they got lost in a cave. Basically the kid was really curious and he always got in trouble by using these inventions.
These were all separate books. It was a bunch of stories. I would be really greatful if anybody knows what I am talking about. This sounds a lot like the "Mad Scientists" club with the kids theme.
classics like danny dunn series...i loved those books. the "invisible boy" one was the best, although i was at an age where i thought of more interesting uses for it... hope they'll reprint those too.
this is just a placeholder till i send back my real sig from the future.
The mad scientist club is a truly awesome book.
"'Every time you Mad Scientists get mixed up in something, it means trouble!' cries the Mayor of Mammoth Falls."
Who can forget the Monster in the lake that attracted torrists, And the prehistoric egg made from mold. And the truly awesome cannon with a suprise!
I'm so glad that you let us know about this event!
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Insert Witty Remark Here ===>____________________________
sorry, the egg was cast in a mold
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Insert Witty Remark Here ===>____________________________
Gordon Dickson rocked my world, later that year I graduated to Asimov and Clarke. Next thing I know I read Heinlein and you can guess the rest. I Grok therefore I am.
feed the hungry for free, visit: http://www.thehungersite.com
"The six members of the Mad Scientist Club experiment with new projects which include making rain and launching a flying saucer."
"When the mysterious object that lands in the lake they're fishing on turns out to be a bomb, a group of boys decide to find it themselves since no one pays attention to their story."
Ebay has had some decent auctions recently, but another good resource for used books is Bookfinder. Keyword/author = "Brinley" works well on either site.
-- "Driving drunk on the information superhighway since 1986!"
If my instincts are correct, I believe the movie 'Explorers', starring a young Ethan Hawke, and River Phoenix, was inspired loosely by that book. There's a dialogue glitch in the soundtrack where one distinctly hears one of the characters referred to as 'Hannibal', an MSC cast member apparently played by Phoenix in the film.
I'd love to see a director's cut of that picture. It was hacked all to hell when it was actually released.
Brak: What's THAT?
Thundercleese: A light switch.. of TOTAL DEVASTATION!
Shouldn't that be "I am therefore I Grok"?
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Book(n): Utensil used to pass time while waiting for the TV repairman
I shudder to think what would happen to the MSC if the Chief of Police and Colonel March had "all of the lessons from Columbine" at their disposal. Back then, "boys will be boys" was an actual legal dictum that lawyers could offer to judges and actually get their clients off. These guys were using pyrotechnics in several so-called capers.(They blew up the monster in Strawberry Lake at the end.) They seemed dangerously interested in military surplus. Hacking the radio frequencies was second nature to them. All of these actions are dangerous predictors of future Bad People. I wish the book publishers would start reprinting more books about good children who sit still and devote themselves to watching Disney cartoons. If kids must get off of the couch, they might devote themselves to collecting Disney beanbag dolls or maybe those plastic action figures for Disney characters.
First way: I've recently been remembering these books but I had no idea what they were called. I just remembered reading them (especially the UFO story) one time. So now I know the author, book titles, publisher, etc--I can find them and re-read.
Second way: Duh, they are making more.
--
324006
Written by the Donald J Sobol, also the author of the "Two Minute Mystery" books.
--
324006
I've been thinking about grabbing a set of them for my brother-in-law (he's 14).
Help find a cure for Gidget.
This series is so beloved by Slashdotters that it should be brought forward into the 21st century. They grew up and had kids, you know, and those kids are probably out there right now tinkering with DNA, AI, SETI, you name the acronym. Who's gonna catalog their exploits? We should! Any ideas / announcements on starting a (Slashdot sponsored) fanfic website?
This type of language and attitude is endemic in the Tom Swift series. I remember being shocked a couple years ago when I reread one of my old copies.
As an additional exercise, try and find a copy of Disney's "Song of the South" on VHS.
Help find a cure for Gidget.
I'll have to read it again but I remember thinking that it was all believable.
Watching Cowboy Bebop in my jammies, eating a bowl of Shreddies.
I'm afraid that sort of thing was endemic to the writing of the time.
/me shudders
It always causes a shudder when I read commmon expressions of the day like "Say, that's mighty white of you!"
One line blog. I hear that they're called Twitters now.
Oh yes, MSC and the Great Brain were some of my favorites...anyone here remember Alvin Fernald and his hijinks? I remember the one where he used a model rocket on a string to send a message into this old house...something like that...anyways, it was another in the genre of books that I highly enjoyed.
Hi All,
Thanks for the nice notes, it is great to see how many people remember these wonderful, unique books. To clear up any confusion, there are four books in the series: The Mad Scientists' Club, The New Adventures of the Mad Scientists' Club, The Big Kerplop and an unpublished manuscript titled The Big Chunk of Ice. The first two books contain a total of twelve short stores. The two other books are full length novels.
Our edition of The Mad Scientists' Club marks the 40th Anniversary of The Strange Sea Monster of Strawberry Lake appearing in Boys' Life magazine in 1961.
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The Wonderful Flight to the Mushroom Planet by Eleanor Cameron is in print in paperback. The remaining four books in the series are out of print. The new book does have different cover illustration.
This email mentioned above was intended as a private letter and was never intended to be placed online. If you do happen to read it, you will notice I am polite while the other guy is quite rude in several replies. Some people never bother to think that there is a real person on the other side of the email.
I didn't read any of those books, so I don't fit the demographic, but I guess its a higher grade of spam that usenet still.
Four lines from a longer work, in turn a part of an even longer book, correctly attributed, probably mis-remembered by David, qualify as fair use. People like him reciting Frederick Winsor's poems to each other are what kept the market for that book alive through the years it was out of print. Without his recitation to me, recorded in the journal entry, I would never have known those delightful poems existed. I've still never seen a copy.
Remember this if you're lucky enough to see your reprint reviewed in a local newspaper, and the reviewer quotes a similar four-line snippet. The law of the United States gives the reviewer the right to use brief excerpts, and you know what, Jill? It's to your benefit. Tasty previews like that are good advertising. They're like the people at your local supermarket with the cheese samples cubed up in bite sizes. Mmm, delicious, the reader says, and ponies up the dollars for more. Think like a salesman, Jill!
A friend of my was just asking us for advice the other day about great books he could read to his kids. I immediatly mentioned "TMSC" and he went out and bought a used copy. His kids love it. I remember the author had a knack for giving everything a cool name. like Ol' Jeff Crockers Barn, Strawberry Lake or Richard Deep Breather III. (I may have messed them up a bit in my mind over time but you get the idea.) Good memories.
The Mad Scientists series was (so far as I know) just a pair of novels with a total of twelve stories describing the adventures of a group of preteen/young teen nerds, called the Mad Scientists' Club. The stories were generally technology-driven - that is, Henry might built a hot air balloon or a high-end haunted house, and the story would progress from there. I loved these books - so much so, in fact, that my copy of The New Adventures of the Mad Scientists' Club has been read to tatters. I highly recommend either book in the series for the younger reader - it's what gave me my love of technology.
Laugh at this if you will, but my imaginary friends when I was young were all members of the Mad Scientist Club.
I'm the stranger...posting to
Even though we're all probably too old to read these books, I still say we should buy them. The series never sold very well, but it turns the potential geek onto technology like nothing else. I speak from experience on that one.
I guess what I'm saying is that I think we really should try to support quality kids' books like this one. And there's also sentimental value.
No, I am not a Mad Scientist pimp.
I'm the stranger...posting to
I still have my original copy, got it in about 1966. It started my interest in Ham radio and that led to computers. My favorite is the Haunted Mansion.
And no, it's not automatically a violation of copyright laws to take a four-line quote from a book and republish it, on the internet or anywhere else. See the Stanford Library Fair Use Site for more info.
I have yet to hear anyone mention my favorite series for budding techies of the pre-PC era: "Rick Brant's Electronic Adventures" a series by John Blaine. These are now out of print, but told the tales of a Johnny Quest-like teenager who lived on his father's private island research compound and joined the resident scientists on expeditions around the world. I'm 34 and I still want Rick Brant's life!
"I wish the book publishers would start reprinting more books about good children who sit still and devote themselves to watching Disney cartoons. If kids must get off of the couch, they might devote themselves to collecting Disney beanbag dolls or maybe those plastic action figures for Disney characters."
Hell yes!
We all *know* those MSC kids would have grown up to be cyberterrorists, drug dealers, money launderers and child pornographers (did I leave anything out?). They might even have done things like code free and open operating systems, in an attempt to destroy prefectly good American institutions like Microsoft; disrupted the smooth functioning of universities like MIT, with so-called "harmelss yet educational" acts of violence and danger, as documented here, here and here; or even subverted the messages of honest hard-working advertisers through blatantly anti-capitalist and possibly Communist-supported billboard vandalism! And they would have tried to justify it with names like "hacking" or "pranks" or "social commentary"!
Books like these should be banned! Kids read this stuff and get ideas into their heads, and that inevitably leads to Columbine or possibly even "thinking for themselves" and (selfishly) having "fun"!
Now stop wasting time reading Slashdot and get back to work making your corporate masters wealthier!
-- "Driving drunk on the information superhighway since 1986!"