AHQ: Books never written?

This is something that's maybe hard to quantify. I'm wondering if anybody's thought about what effect technical or historical changes may have on literature.

Frex: say a space telescope is possible, & flown, in the 1930s. (How is irrelevant.) What books are likely not to happen as a consequence? IMO (to name a few), the John Carter novels are non-starters. So is Red Planet.:eek::eek: (Maybe Stranger in a Strange Land, too, tho maybe Mike can come from further away.) So is Martian Chronicles. And Ark of Venus, along with all the other "Venus as a jungle world" books. (Aside: Welles' "War of the Worlds", & the movies, are probably put paid, too.)

In a TL where Napoleon never happens, that would seem to butterfly away all the Sharpe novels.

No Korean War means no M*A*S*H, which might mean none of the sequels, either.

No Vietnam War means no Executioner novels,:eek: & no First Blood.

Any other possibilities? Like, frex, earlier cars wiping out W. E. Butterworth's career.:eek: (Maybe not...) Or maybe Louis L'Amour's.

Thoughts? Brickbats?:eek:
 
I would literally kill for Robert A. Caro to have done a half dozen books on different subjects (The Power Broker style, which everybody needs to read) instead of spending the rest of his life on LBJ. Don’t get me wrong, those are not only the best books written about LBJ but also the best political books (and top tier biographies) ever—aside from HST’s contribution—and so stuffed full of AH PODs the mind boggles. The problem arises when one considers what if Caro picked a different course. (The most amazing timeline is where Caro spends some time while working on the books to write AH based on incredibly in-depth knowledge of the events and players.)

Edit: so what would get him to do it? I guess a JFK lives TL where LBJ is tossed or loses in ‘68?
 
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How would a space telescope necessarily kill early 20th century concepts of Venus and Mars? Would it be able to do what the Venera/Mariner programs did to the image of those worlds in the public eye (Mars a lifeless desert, Venus literally hell)? Especially Venus, since you need to capture direct evidence that the planet is an oven and that the atmosphere is toxic--although if you could, you might also find that high up in the clouds, the temperature is low enough for people to survive if they're wearing suits to protect against the acidic atmosphere and also easy to float, which might make airships on Venus a popular trope in pulp science fiction. To help things even more, you could have a misconception enter pop culture that if you're high enough in the atmosphere of Venus, it literally is earthlike since Venus has both oxygen and nitrogen and all the heavier/more toxic stuff obviously must sink to the bottom.

Of course, that assumes you could even get a telescope like that in space that early to begin with, which the launch infrastructure needed and what else would be done with that would have huge butterflies on science fiction and the public perception of space long before.
 
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How would a space telescope necessarily kill early 20th century concepts of Venus and Mars? Would it be able to do what the Venera/Mariner programs did to the image of those worlds in the public eye (Mars a lifeless desert, Venus literally hell)?
That's the idea. Most of these novels arose from the notional canals on Mars, or the idea Venus (under the clouds) was Earthlike. Any actual observation would blow those notions sky high & take the books with them.

That doesn't mean they aren't replaced by, frex, Green Mars or the Niven Venus landing story (title I can't recall:oops:)
Of course, that assumes you could even get a telescope like that in space that early to begin with, which the launch infrastructure needed and what else would be done with that would have huge butterflies on science fiction and the public perception of space long before.
Not really an issue, here.;) It's the effect, not the how, I'm interested in.
If JFK lives there’d be no conspiracy books written.
A lot fewer, but I suspect they'd still happen. FDR & Pearl Harbor being the #1 candidate (providing that still happens;)).

Could something actually wipe out a writer's career entirely? (Given the TL hasn't changed so much he/she isn't hit by a bus or something already.;)) Like, frex, J.K. Rowling's not being UE & starting on Harry Potter to make a living. Or RAH not getting TB (or not seeing the story contest ad); the Admiral Heinlein idea's been examined somewhere, I know.
Robert A. Caro ... what would get him to do it? I guess a JFK lives TL where LBJ is tossed or loses in ‘68?
I can think of a couple of maybes, looking at the WP page: he picks Harvard, instead, & so never hears the conversation on highways; or, POD going back farther, Moses is never in a position to control highway construction, & Caro never goes that direction.

That doesn't, unfortunately, guarantee he doesn't get fascinated with LBJ...but it might interfere with his chances of getting an LBJ bio published.

Given that, he might pick up a different subject, but how you point him at AH, I couldn't guess.

And thinking of books written, rather than not, I'd love to see something AH by Doris Kearns Goodwin with the caliber of Team of Rivals. That would have made Gingrich's Gettysburg novel look like a comic book. (Yeah, I know, Newt just put his name on it...)
 
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