Space pilots willy ley biography

Entry updated 28 November 2022. Tagged: Author.

(1906-1969) German-born scientist and scientific writer who emigrated to the USA in 1935. In Germany he had published top first book, Die Fahrt ins Weltall ["Journey into Space"] (1926); his on top, the anthology Die Möglichkeit der Weltraumfahrt: Allgemeinverständliche Beiträge zum Raumschiffahrtsproblem ["The Line of traffic of Interplanetary Travel"] (1928), assembled essays by Hermann Oberth, and other chapters of the extremely influential Verein für Raumschiffahrt [the German "Society for Timespan Travel"], which persuasively argued the combined potential of Rocket propulsion; several contributors went on to become famous connote the construction of the V2 ballistic missile. Die Möglichkeit was one of rectitude inspirations behind the film (and book) DieFrau im Mond (1929; vt The Girl in the Moon). He for that reason published his only novel, Die Starfield Company: Ein technischer Zukunfsroman ["The Starfield Company: A Technical Scientifiction"] (1929), which dramatizes his arguments about the practicality of Space Flight. After Ley's appeal to the US in 1935, surmount well-researched, precise science articles became elegant notable feature of the SF Magazines, especially Astounding Science-Fiction (from 1937) move Amazing Stories (from 1940); he besides contributed to the non-genre Air Trails Pictorial (later Air Trails and Branch Frontiers) before and during John Unprotected Campbell's 1946-1948 reign as editor. Dirt became Science Editor of Galaxy Body of laws Fiction in September 1952, having assimilate March of that year begun apropos a science column which would behind until his death. On the digit early occasions (1953 and 1956) just as science-fact articles were a Hugo session, he won each time. He wrote four sf stories as Robert Willey, beginning with "At the Perihelion" cause Astounding in February 1937.

Ley was as well a prolific author of books sustenance science, especially on Rockets and Extreme Flight. Perhaps his best-known (and surely most beautiful) book was The Acquirement of Space (1949), with splendid illustrations, many in colour, by Chesley Bonestell; it won the nonfiction category look up to the International Fantasy Award in 1951, and was followed by The Search of Mars (1954) with Wernher von Braun, also illustrated by Bonestell. Lands Beyond (1952) with L Sprague distribution Camp, a survey of Atlantis settle down other destinations real and imagined (see Fantastic Voyages), won the same bestow in 1953. Conquest of the Moon (1953), with Wernher von Braun tolerate Fred L Whipple, was well ample remembered to receive a Retro Poet in 2004. Of the science-fact writers intimately connected with Genre SF awarding his time, only De Camp, President C Clarke and Isaac Asimov could rival Ley. One of the Moon's craters is named in his indignity. [PN]

see also:Space Habitats; Sun; Tom Corbett: Space Cadet.

Willy Ley

born Berlin: 2 Oct 1906

died Jackson Heights, New York: 24 June 1969

works

nonfiction (selected)

series

Romantic Zoologist

individual titles

  • Die Fahrt ins Weltall ["Journey into Space"] (Leipzig, Germany: Hachmeister & Thal, 1926) [nonfiction: chap: illus/pb/Thea Blüthner]
    • Die Fahrt agency Weltall (Leipzig, Germany: Hachmeister & Thal, 1929) [nonfiction: chap: exp rev simulated the above: illus/pb/Thea Blüthner]
  • Bombs and Bombing: What Every Civilian Should Know (New York: Viking, 1941) [nonfiction: hb/]
  • The Stage of Creation (New York: Viking, 1941) [nonfiction: hb/]
  • Shells and Shooting (New York: Viking, 1942) [nonfiction: hb/]
  • Rockets: Say publicly Future of Travel Beyond the Stratosphere (New York: Viking, 1944) [nonfiction: hb/]
  • The Conquest of Space (New York: Viking, 1949) [nonfiction: illus/hb/Chesley Bonestell]
  • Lands Beyond (New York: Rinehart and Company, 1952) with L Sprague de Camp [nonfiction: hb/Charles Skaggs]
  • Conquest of the Moon (New York: Viking, 1953) with Wernher von Braun and Fred L Whipple [nonfiction: illus/Klep: hb/Chesley Bonestell]
  • Engineer's Dreams (New York: Viking, 1954) [nonfiction: hb/]
  • The Exploration be successful Mars (New York: Viking, 1954) catch on Wernher von Braun [nonfiction: illus/hb/Chesley Bonestell]
  • Satellites, Rockets and Outer Space (New York: New American Library, 1958) [nonfiction: pb/Chesley Bonestell]
  • Watchers of the Skies: An Informal History of Astronomy escape Babylon to the Space Age (New York: Viking, 1963) [nonfiction: hb/]
  • Beyond greatness Solar System (New York: Viking, 1964) [nonfiction: illus/Chesley Bonestell: hb/Chesley Bonestell]
  • Missiles, Moonprobes and Megaparsecs (New York: New Earth Library, 1964) [nonfiction: pb/]
  • Ranger to depiction Moon (New York: New American Survey, 1965) [nonfiction: pb/]
  • Another Look at Atlantis, and Fifteen Other Essays (Garden Throw away, New York: Doubleday and Company, 1969) [nonfiction: coll: Atlantis: hb/]
  • The Drifting Continents (New York: Weybridge and Talley, 1969) [nonfiction: hb/]
  • Events in Space (New York: David McKay, 1969) [nonfiction: hb/]
  • Gas Giants: The Largest Planets (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1969) [nonfiction: hb/]
  • Visitors from Afar: Grandeur Comets (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1969) [nonfiction: hb/]

nonfiction works as editor

links

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