Astounding Science Fiction - July 1956. Includes First Appearance of the Semi-Controversial 'Tomb Tapper", by James Blish

Near Fine - very sharp, for a 50s genre pulp. Astounding Science Fiction - July 1956, which includes the First Appearance of the semi-controversial 'Tomb Tapper", by James Blish. 12mo, illustrated perfect-bound wraps, 162 pp.; cover art by Van Dongen, interior black and white art by him as well as Kelly Freas and Emsh. Near Fine, truly, for a fifties pulp; complete spine with just a tiny touch at top (see spine scan; what appears on that scan to be scuffing is not that - its wrap-around from the cover art); interior pages do have the inevitable age-toning in publications of this type and era - but much more moderately so than in almost any others you'll likely see. Included(see contents scan) are pieces by, in addition to Blish, Murry Leinster, Randall Garrett, F.L. Wallace, Allen Lang, and Robert S. Richardson. Upon request, I can e-mail you a link to an article on the UFOlogy semi-controversy - such as it was - about Bliss' story is well-summarized. a piece entitled ‘Roswell that Ends Well’ by Dwayne A. Day (Tuesday, May 31, 2011), in which he debunks a piece by edgy journalist Annie Jacobsen "in which she claimed that children, perhaps as young as 13 years old and genetically or surgically altered by Nazi doctor Joseph Mengele, flew a Nazi “flying disk” into the United States as part of a plan by Joseph Stalin to cause mass panic of an alien invasion. The plane crashed in Roswell, New Mexico in 1947. The United States then engaged in unethical Mengele-like research at Area 51." One of the rumors that swirled for a while around this direction of speculation was the later-assumed-by-some possible basis in reality of James Blish’s story ‘Tomb Tapper (July 1956 issue of Astounding Science Fiction) was itself based on the (actual, in the story) U.S. search for a crashed advance tech craft by the Russians, in which the pilot was found to be not Russian, but… Not a viable speculation for most folks, but an interesting part of UFOlogy lore. Collectible, especially in this remarkable condition for the genre. Please review scans. Ships in stout protection, of course. L103.…