Starman Jones 53

Cover illustration from the 1953 Scribner's edition. Cover and interior illustration by Clifford Geary. Max Jones works the family farm in the Ozark Mountains. With his father dead and his stepmother remarrying a man he detests, Max runs away from home, taking the astrogation manuals that his uncle had left him. Like most occupations, hereditary membership in the Astrogators Guild is tightly controlled. Since his uncle had been a member and had no children, Max hopes that before he died, his uncle had named him his heir. At the guild's headquarters, Max is disappointed to find that he had not been named as an heir, but a hobo he had met on the way helps him get forged papers that they use to ship out on a starship. Disaster strikes the ship and Max uses his photographic memory of his uncles navigation manuals to save the ship and its passengers.