Gods from Outer Space: Return to the Stars or Evidence for the Impossible
Von Däniken, Erich. Gods from Outer Space: Return to the Stars or Evidence for the Impossible. G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1970 (Book Club Ed.). Hardbound. First published as Züruck zu den Sternen in 1968 in Berlin by Econ-Verlag. Translated by Michael Heron. After serving time for fraud following an Egyptian jewelry deal, von Däniken took up work as a night manager at a Davos hotel, where he labored over Chariots of the Gods? while the guests slept, putting the manuscript through a rigorous editing—some say rewriting—process with former Nazi propagandist Utz Uterman before its publication and subsequent success. This followup, Gods from Outer Space, was written while von Däniken was in prison for embezzling money from that same hotel; this sentence was commuted after one year, ending his one last tangle with the law before he was released and richly rewarded for his work in promulgating the now ubiquitous alien gods ideology. Generously illustrated and featuring a typo-maximalist book jacket collaboration between Judith Leeds, designer of The Color Purple first edition, and Mike McIver, this book club edition includes a charming rendering of a Japanese 'snow goggles'–wearing statue stamped to the front board.
