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Flying Saucers - Here and Now!
Covers famous UFO cases of the 1950s and 1960s, including the early abduction and contactee cases of Betty and Barney Hill, Antonio Villas Boas and George Adamski.
From the cover: "The astonishing new bestseller by the author of the most sensational book ever written on the subject: Flying Saucers--Serious Business."
From the cover: "The astonishing new bestseller by the author of the most sensational book ever written on the subject: Flying Saucers--Serious Business."
- GenresParanormal
162 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published September 1, 1968
About the author
Frank Edwards
66 books21 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author by this name in the Goodreads database.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
March 20, 2018
I freely admit to having an interest in esoteric subjects. Magick in theory and practice, sideshows, Tarot cards, pulp science-fiction and fantasy, archaeology, and dare I even mention it, the golden age of professional wrestling. But I will also freely admit to a love of what I would call “classic” UFOlogy. The modern field is full of cranks and conspiracists and flat-earthers fed by a sort of New Age foo-foo that relies on an overabundance of psychic contactees and silly Nibiru cultists and, oddly enough, a whole slew of Christians who theorize that UFOs are either angels or demons, depending on which side of the argument they want to appeal to. The whole thing has just become silly and boring and you can thank E.T. and the X-Files and the ancient astronauts for ruining the whole thing for the rest of us.
But it wasn’t always that way. Back in the 1950s, '60s, and '70s, flying saucers as a subject of interest were MUCH more fun. In point of fact, my obsession with UFOs (and cryptids, but that’s another review) fueled my interest in real science to the point where I pursued a degree in anthropology by the time I made it to college. I got into science-fiction early, and by the time I was in the third grade I was gobbling up UFO-related books and magazines with a voracious appetite. UFOs were just COOL, man, and my friends and I would just consume all that stuff like pulpy, sweet brain candy.
Perspective is important here. I’m almost 54 years old, and I grew up in an era when a person had to actively work to seek out new information. Books, magazines, comic books, television…..these were the mediums of exchange for ideas and news about the things that interested us as kids. And UFOs were definitely interesting. And yeah, my friends and I were big old nerds, even back then, although it didn’t really SEEM particularly odd or nerdy to us, and maybe there is some cultural anthropology there that needs to be explored some time….but now is not that time.
And while I developed an interest in flying saucers as a youngster, I don’t want you to get the impression that the subject was only appealing to juveniles. From the 1950s straight through to the late 1970s, UFOs were a topic that could captivate audiences of any age. In point of fact, UFOs were newsworthy enough to occasionally make the local nightly news shows. I clearly remember a case in Pascagoula, Mississippi that reverberated all around the TV news shows in 1973. But the public seemed to lose interest by the late '70s, and serious UFO reports and books seemed to leave the mainstream to be replaced by sensationalist accounts that serviced a smaller niche of people. By the time that E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial came out in 1982, the classic age of saucer fun was pretty much over. Once a phenomenon begins to become a parody of itself...well, the end can’t be far.
So here we are, FINALLY, to my review of Frank Edward’s excellent 1967 saucer book, “Flying Saucers - Here and Now!” Written as a follow-up to 1966’s very successful “Flying Saucers - Serious Business,” this book would go on to be Edward’s final written output, as he died in June of 1967. I’m lucky enough to have a hardbound second edition from Lyle Stuart, Inc. You could also find paperback copies of this book all over the place back in the day, but I enjoy the hardback editions personally. It’s a fairly short read, and an important one, as it presaged and gave voice to the idea that “the government” (in the form of the United States Air Force, to be specific) was hiding SOMETHING from the rest of us. In a very real sense, this book is the true beginning of what would eventually coalesce into the modern conspiracy theory movement.
Frank Edwards was a giant of radio broadcasting, starting his career in the 1920s, marking him as one of the pioneers of the medium. In 1948, Donald Keyhoe, another seminal figure in early UFOlogy, gave Edwards a copy of a magazine article that he had written on the subject of flying saucers. Edwards was intrigued by the story, and began to incorporate flying saucer news into his radio shows, to great public interest. Later in his career, Edwards began to publish books with a focus on UFOs as well as other types of paranormal phenomena. Edwards wrote for a popular audience, and his style is simple and straightforward. “Flying Saucers - Here and Now!” adheres to his standard formula, alternating various witness accounts of UFO sightings with chapters on what was going on “behind the scenes” at the time with regards to research and current explanations for the saucer “waves” that seemed to be constantly erupting in the U.S. and around the globe.
But the most interesting part of Edward’s book is his focus on the events surrounding a widely witnessed and reported sighting near the University of Michigan in 1966 and the ill-conceived explanation for the event that was put forth by J. Allen Hynek, an astronomer and research scientist who was then under the employ of the United States Air Force as a liaison to Project Blue Book. Project Blue Book was the official mechanism of the USAF to explain and debunk saucer sightings to the general public. Hynek, at the insistence of the Air Force, tried to suggest that the Michigan episode was attributable to nothing more than “swamp gas,” an explanation that sent reporters rushing to their news wires to ridicule the story. This left Hynek extremely embarrassed and gave the USAF a serious black eye with regards to its credibility with the public.
It must be noted that Hynek was a serious scientist, one of several in the 1960s who was desperately trying to get funding and traction to study the UFO phenomenon under the glass of true scientific method. Hynek was the chair and a full Professor of Astronomy at Northwestern University, and he worked closely with other scientists such as Dr. Jacques Vallee, a decorated computer scientist and another prominent UFOlogist of the day who pioneered the idea of creating databases with which to study the scope and breadth of saucer sightings. The “swamp gas” incident is covered thoroughly in Vallee’s excellent memoir, “Forbidden Science,” which also chronicles Hynek’s attempt to get a government grant to study UFOs, a windfall which eventually went to one of Hynek’s rivals at the University of Colorado, Edward Condon.
The big takeaway here is the damage that was done to the general public’s perception of the Air Force as a credible source of information and comfort surrounding flying saucers. Project Blue Book would grind to halt in 1969, it’s meager efforts mostly discredited. The Condon Report would conclude that UFOs did not merit serious scientific study, and the whole subject became something to be avoided by any scientist with a professional reputation worth keeping. And thus began the slow decline of the “classic age” of flying saucers. By the late '70s it would become a topic for supermarket tabloids like The National Enquirer, as well as a popular trope for science-fiction movies like “Close Encounters of the Third Kind.” And by the way, J. Allen Hynek was the originator of the “encounter” system that is still widely used to classify sightings and contactee cases.
So here, in this book, you can find the seeds of the conspiracy theories and governmental distrust that feed the UFO “community” to this very day. Alex Jones and his “deep state” dementia, David Icke and his tricksy lizard people disguised as world leaders….it all started here folks, with a badly timed insistence that the general public was gullible enough to sniff a whiff of “swamp gas” when there was CLEARLY something else going on in the skies above us.
I don’t believe in the paranormal. I DO believe that nature still has surprises for us, though, and if there is an explanation for UFOs then it is most certainly grounded in science. That effort, though, was done considerable damage in the 1960s by an indifferent governmental body that didn’t take the subject seriously at all, at least not in any way that would be digestible to the public. Much has been written about the covert efforts to investigate the saucers, and those supposed covert efforts still fuel the UFO “movement” to this day.
Back in the day, though, it was still kinda fun to be a kid and believe that somewhere out there was something strange and alien, just waiting to be discovered. That air of mystery and excitement can still be found in “Flying Saucers - Here and Now!” I think I’ll go and glue a couple of paper plates together and fly my own little homemade saucer around the back yard, just like I did when I was younger. It’s nice to know that I can still have a glimmer of a sense of wonder when I look up at the stars at night, and I have Frank Edwards to thank a bit for that.
But it wasn’t always that way. Back in the 1950s, '60s, and '70s, flying saucers as a subject of interest were MUCH more fun. In point of fact, my obsession with UFOs (and cryptids, but that’s another review) fueled my interest in real science to the point where I pursued a degree in anthropology by the time I made it to college. I got into science-fiction early, and by the time I was in the third grade I was gobbling up UFO-related books and magazines with a voracious appetite. UFOs were just COOL, man, and my friends and I would just consume all that stuff like pulpy, sweet brain candy.
Perspective is important here. I’m almost 54 years old, and I grew up in an era when a person had to actively work to seek out new information. Books, magazines, comic books, television…..these were the mediums of exchange for ideas and news about the things that interested us as kids. And UFOs were definitely interesting. And yeah, my friends and I were big old nerds, even back then, although it didn’t really SEEM particularly odd or nerdy to us, and maybe there is some cultural anthropology there that needs to be explored some time….but now is not that time.
And while I developed an interest in flying saucers as a youngster, I don’t want you to get the impression that the subject was only appealing to juveniles. From the 1950s straight through to the late 1970s, UFOs were a topic that could captivate audiences of any age. In point of fact, UFOs were newsworthy enough to occasionally make the local nightly news shows. I clearly remember a case in Pascagoula, Mississippi that reverberated all around the TV news shows in 1973. But the public seemed to lose interest by the late '70s, and serious UFO reports and books seemed to leave the mainstream to be replaced by sensationalist accounts that serviced a smaller niche of people. By the time that E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial came out in 1982, the classic age of saucer fun was pretty much over. Once a phenomenon begins to become a parody of itself...well, the end can’t be far.
So here we are, FINALLY, to my review of Frank Edward’s excellent 1967 saucer book, “Flying Saucers - Here and Now!” Written as a follow-up to 1966’s very successful “Flying Saucers - Serious Business,” this book would go on to be Edward’s final written output, as he died in June of 1967. I’m lucky enough to have a hardbound second edition from Lyle Stuart, Inc. You could also find paperback copies of this book all over the place back in the day, but I enjoy the hardback editions personally. It’s a fairly short read, and an important one, as it presaged and gave voice to the idea that “the government” (in the form of the United States Air Force, to be specific) was hiding SOMETHING from the rest of us. In a very real sense, this book is the true beginning of what would eventually coalesce into the modern conspiracy theory movement.
Frank Edwards was a giant of radio broadcasting, starting his career in the 1920s, marking him as one of the pioneers of the medium. In 1948, Donald Keyhoe, another seminal figure in early UFOlogy, gave Edwards a copy of a magazine article that he had written on the subject of flying saucers. Edwards was intrigued by the story, and began to incorporate flying saucer news into his radio shows, to great public interest. Later in his career, Edwards began to publish books with a focus on UFOs as well as other types of paranormal phenomena. Edwards wrote for a popular audience, and his style is simple and straightforward. “Flying Saucers - Here and Now!” adheres to his standard formula, alternating various witness accounts of UFO sightings with chapters on what was going on “behind the scenes” at the time with regards to research and current explanations for the saucer “waves” that seemed to be constantly erupting in the U.S. and around the globe.
But the most interesting part of Edward’s book is his focus on the events surrounding a widely witnessed and reported sighting near the University of Michigan in 1966 and the ill-conceived explanation for the event that was put forth by J. Allen Hynek, an astronomer and research scientist who was then under the employ of the United States Air Force as a liaison to Project Blue Book. Project Blue Book was the official mechanism of the USAF to explain and debunk saucer sightings to the general public. Hynek, at the insistence of the Air Force, tried to suggest that the Michigan episode was attributable to nothing more than “swamp gas,” an explanation that sent reporters rushing to their news wires to ridicule the story. This left Hynek extremely embarrassed and gave the USAF a serious black eye with regards to its credibility with the public.
It must be noted that Hynek was a serious scientist, one of several in the 1960s who was desperately trying to get funding and traction to study the UFO phenomenon under the glass of true scientific method. Hynek was the chair and a full Professor of Astronomy at Northwestern University, and he worked closely with other scientists such as Dr. Jacques Vallee, a decorated computer scientist and another prominent UFOlogist of the day who pioneered the idea of creating databases with which to study the scope and breadth of saucer sightings. The “swamp gas” incident is covered thoroughly in Vallee’s excellent memoir, “Forbidden Science,” which also chronicles Hynek’s attempt to get a government grant to study UFOs, a windfall which eventually went to one of Hynek’s rivals at the University of Colorado, Edward Condon.
The big takeaway here is the damage that was done to the general public’s perception of the Air Force as a credible source of information and comfort surrounding flying saucers. Project Blue Book would grind to halt in 1969, it’s meager efforts mostly discredited. The Condon Report would conclude that UFOs did not merit serious scientific study, and the whole subject became something to be avoided by any scientist with a professional reputation worth keeping. And thus began the slow decline of the “classic age” of flying saucers. By the late '70s it would become a topic for supermarket tabloids like The National Enquirer, as well as a popular trope for science-fiction movies like “Close Encounters of the Third Kind.” And by the way, J. Allen Hynek was the originator of the “encounter” system that is still widely used to classify sightings and contactee cases.
So here, in this book, you can find the seeds of the conspiracy theories and governmental distrust that feed the UFO “community” to this very day. Alex Jones and his “deep state” dementia, David Icke and his tricksy lizard people disguised as world leaders….it all started here folks, with a badly timed insistence that the general public was gullible enough to sniff a whiff of “swamp gas” when there was CLEARLY something else going on in the skies above us.
I don’t believe in the paranormal. I DO believe that nature still has surprises for us, though, and if there is an explanation for UFOs then it is most certainly grounded in science. That effort, though, was done considerable damage in the 1960s by an indifferent governmental body that didn’t take the subject seriously at all, at least not in any way that would be digestible to the public. Much has been written about the covert efforts to investigate the saucers, and those supposed covert efforts still fuel the UFO “movement” to this day.
Back in the day, though, it was still kinda fun to be a kid and believe that somewhere out there was something strange and alien, just waiting to be discovered. That air of mystery and excitement can still be found in “Flying Saucers - Here and Now!” I think I’ll go and glue a couple of paper plates together and fly my own little homemade saucer around the back yard, just like I did when I was younger. It’s nice to know that I can still have a glimmer of a sense of wonder when I look up at the stars at night, and I have Frank Edwards to thank a bit for that.
June 18, 2023
El popular escritor y locutor Frank Edwards dedicó sus últimos años a investigar el fenómeno OVNI, volviéndose un controvertido divugador del tema al insistir en el papel del gobierno y las fuerzas armadas estadounidenses ocultando información al público. Este libro recolecta informes bien documentados sobre avistamientos de ovnis hasta 1967, año de su muerte.
July 28, 2026
I read Edwards' previous book, "Flying Saucers - Serious Business" when it first came out. Now, over 60 years later, I finally was able to read its sequel.
Yes, I liked the book, despite Edwards' sometimes over-enthusiastic cheerleading. Problem is, it's been over 60 years, and nothing new has been learned -- or released. So, is it all a hoax? Delusions? Or is the government (which NO ONE trusts) still hiding the truth?
Yes, I liked the book, despite Edwards' sometimes over-enthusiastic cheerleading. Problem is, it's been over 60 years, and nothing new has been learned -- or released. So, is it all a hoax? Delusions? Or is the government (which NO ONE trusts) still hiding the truth?
September 13, 2023
not too far behind Flying saucers serious business. Excellent book.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews