There might have well been ancient aliens, but the modern age of flying saucers began in 1947 when a lone pilot of a small plane reported nine shiny objects in the sky over Mount Ranier. That pilot was Kenneth Arnold and he wrote of this life-changing event in the book The Coming of the Saucers, a book co-written with Shaver Mystery enthusiast and Fate magazine editor Ray Palmer.
The book is divided into two parts. The first was written by Arnold and he relates from a first-person perspective his famous sighting. He tells how he first saw the objects and the steps he used to guage their distance from him and their relative speeds. He says he saw nine mostly identical objects, save for one which had a bit of dark on its perceived front. Arnold gained notoriety for his sighting, one which touched off a wave of UFO sightings which have waned now and again but have never ceased into our current day. One such later sighting happened on a place Maury Island where another sighting had occurred, one in which debris had been spread and collected. Arnold was tasked by Ray Palmer to check out his new sighting and Arnold took with him an airline pilot named Captain E.J. Smith who himself along with is crew had reported a UFO less than two weeks after Arnold's. In fact most of the first part of the story is about how these two guys try to get to the bottom of a strange and bizarre tale which is filled with mysterious and likely untrustworthy types both in the government and out. The story is given much additional weight when two Air Force officers are killed in a strange crash after gathering up the purported fragments.
The book then shifts authors and focus, when Palmer takes over. He discusses the Air Force's investigation of the events described above along with others. He then turns his attention to the long history of unknown objects in the sky reaching back to ancient times and moving forward relating scores of unusual fireballs and whatnot folks have witnessed through history. He covers the infamous "Foo Fighters" in WWII. He then looks at modern UFO sightings across the globe up the time of the publication of this book in the early 50's. Most of the book is this kind of information, great for folks who had never had access to these strange facts.
This is an historical tome, a record of the events which in many ways marked the beginning of a modern era for society after the end of World War II. It's a quick and information laden read. Recommended to those deeply interested.
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