Flying Saucers From Beyond the Earth: A UFO Researcher's Odyssey, by Gordon Lore.
Published by BearManor Media, October 1 release date; available through www.bearmanormedia.com, Amazon, Barnes & Noble or the author himself (for autographed copies, contact the author directly at Gordon.lore@gmail.com or phone him at 661-255-7155; his web site is www.gordonlore.com). Listed at $39.95, postage extra.For 15 years during the turbulent 1960s and 1970s, Gordon Lore waded hip-deep through the UFO controversy, serving both as an intimately involved official of the National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomena (NICAP), then the USA's foremost Washington, D.C. UFO lobbying organization, and as a dedicated UFO researcher and writer who had already turned out a couple of major publications by the end of the sixties (co-author of Mysteries of the Skies: UFOs in Perspective, and writer of Strange Effects from UFOs, the latter a NICAP release).
I was an inveterate NICAP member before and during Gordon Lore's years with the organization, though at some point I undertook an Air Force enlistment and lost touch with so much, but nevertheless continued to follow and occasionally contribute in a small way to his work later on, when he published an outstanding periodical for a few years entitled the UFO Research Newsletter. Word has it, by the way, thankfully, that scans of the periodical may soon be available online, thanks to the work of some dedicated UFO researchers who know historical gold when they see it.
As I mentioned a few days ago, I no longer review UFO-related books, but this one will be of such important historical significance -- recalling an era when incredible international UFO incidents, reported with bold newspaper and magazine headlines, were topped off with congressional hearings and government actions, told plainly by an insider who was there for it all -- that it must be required reading for anybody seriously interested in the historical and social progression of the UFO phenomenon.
And now a disclaimer: I have not yet seen the book. The author, whom I only reconnected with a few days ago, and haven't been in contact with since cessation of his UFO Research Newsletter in the seventies, tells me that I am mentioned in the book regarding my own inquiry into various UFO reports. As a blogger, this puts me in a rather awkward position, because if I rave about the book the reader might interpret my praise as a payoff.
That said, and ignoring inclusion of my name, whatever it concerns, I can assure the reader that I would recommend Gordon Lore's book under any circumstances because he WAS a member of the inner sanctum of private UFO research in the 60s-70s era, golden all the more due to his link with NICAP.
Knowing what I remember of his work and concern for documentation, and his relationship with UFO notables such as the late Dr. James McDonald and Maj. Donald E. Keyhoe, I harbor every confidence that Lore will hold readers spellbound with revelations from the past -- hopefully including tidbits about alleged covert CIA connections to NICAP in its heyday, when we members on the outside had not a clue that government operative(s) actively worked to observe and perhaps influence NICAP using its most intimate functions.
Perhaps the most compelling thing about NICAP in its later years is the effect the emergence of UFO abduction cases -- specifically, at first, the Barney and Betty Hill incident -- forced upon the organization. Content for most of its early years to fight presumed Air Force UFO information censorship over evidence and eyewitness reports pointing to intelligently controlled craft of an extraterrestrial origin, NICAP had to swallow hard and reconsider what, to that point, had involved silly "contactee" stories essentially of earthling-spaceman encounters with denizens of Venus, Mars, etc. Suddenly, officials weren't dealing simply with the possibility of somebody else's spacecraft in the skies. Now there were jaw-dropping accounts of UFO occupants interacting with humans on the ground, something other UFO organizations had dealt with regularly, but that the generally conservative NICAP had been loath to consider. As a slow succession of "quality" UFO abduction events came to light, however, NICAP officials began featuring details in its membership periodical, the UFO Investigator. I expect Lore will explore this aspect but, again, I have not seen the book.
My readers already know about the link I posted here years ago (see the link list) to nicap.org, the official site showcasing the defunct NICAP's history. Gordon Lore's personal disclosures will complement the site nicely, and from what I've already seen of pre-publication reviews by prominent figures in the UFO research and publishing fields, this book should be a winner belonging in every library of worthy UFO books.
