'So,' my wife said in her "disapproving" voice, as I brought this back from the charity shop: 'you've bought another Nazi book, I see.' I could have pointed out that German rocket scientist Willy Ley fled to the States in 1935 precisely because of the rise of the Nazis; but she would then have countered with 'and von Braun?' and I would have been silenced. Nonetheless, this is a lovely book indeed, with 16 gorgeous full-colour plates (and 5 black and white ones) by the peerless Chesley Bonestell, dozens of line drawings in the body of the text, and a splendid can-do attitude by the authors with respect to what they think will be, within a few years, the actual 'two year and 239-day' mission to Mars and back. (The images below should all embiggen upon clicking, I think):
But mars, man! Mars! Look how excited these tiny spacedudes are on Deimos, gambolling and leaping like giddygoats.
Ditto Phobos:
Now THIS is what a rocket ought to look like! --
On the left, assembling the Martian spaceship in orbit (check out the tiny ur-2001-A-Space-Odyssey wheel space station in the distance). On the right, 'the hardy lichens of earth could probably live under the severe conditions of Mars.' I'm a big fan of the Hardy Lichens, actually. I especially like A Laodlichen and The Moss of Casterbridge. Not forgetting the one about how happy Gustave drove all those people crazy, Fun Gus, the Madding Crowd:
Beauteous double-page spread of the Martian ground station! --
Adam. I am 71 and owned that book as a youngster living in New York City. Too bad I lost it in one of my moves. I liked the book so much that I read other works by Willy Ley. My partner's dad Eduard, a German anti-Nazi, was a student of aeronautical engineering with von Braun. Eduard told me of his low opinion of von Braun's talents. At any rate, here is my homage to Dr Ley and SF: http://www.farrockaway.com/georgebergerlibrary.html .
ReplyDeleteI want my near future back.
ReplyDeleteThat's a fascinating link, George -- thanks for sharing it!
ReplyDeletePhil: you and me both.
My pleasure, folks.
ReplyDelete