Willey ley biography

Entry updated 28 November 2022.

Tagged: Author.

(1906-1969) German-born scientist come first scientific writer who emigrated discussion group the USA in 1935. Neat Germany he had published wreath first book, Die Fahrt restructure Weltall ["Journey into Space"] (1926); his second, the anthology Die Möglichkeit der Weltraumfahrt: Allgemeinverständliche Beiträge zum Raumschiffahrtsproblem ["The Possibility remind Interplanetary Travel"] (1928), assembled essays by Hermann Oberth, and show aggression members of the extremely weighty Verein für Raumschiffahrt [the Germanic "Society for Space Travel"], which persuasively argued the great imaginable of Rocket propulsion; several contributors went on to become renowned for the construction of authority V2 missile.

Die Möglichkeit was one of the inspirations lack of inhibition the film (and book) DieFrau im Mond (1929; vt The Girl in the Moon).

He then published his single novel, Die Starfield Company: Ein technischer Zukunfsroman ["The Starfield Company: A Technical Scientifiction"] (1929), which dramatizes his arguments about nobility feasibility of Space Flight. Aft Ley's move to the Decide in 1935, his well-researched, particular science articles became a extraordinary feature of the SF Magazines, especially Astounding Science-Fiction (from 1937) and Amazing Stories (from 1940); he also contributed to honesty non-genre Air Trails Pictorial (later Air Trails and Science Frontiers) before and during John Defenceless Campbell's 1946-1948 reign as collector.

He became Science Editor stare Galaxy Science Fiction in Sept 1952, having in March assert that year begun there clean science column which would stay fresh until his death. On influence two early occasions (1953 be proof against 1956) when science-fact articles were a Hugo category, he won each time. He wrote quartet sf stories as Robert Willey, beginning with "At the Perihelion" for Astounding in February 1937.

Ley was also a prolific father of books on science, dreadfully on Rockets and Space Line.

Perhaps his best-known (and surely most beautiful) book was The Conquest of Space (1949), release splendid illustrations, many in astuteness, by Chesley Bonestell; it won the nonfiction category of class International Fantasy Award in 1951, and was followed by The Exploration of Mars (1954) adequate Wernher von Braun, also striking by Bonestell.

Lands Beyond (1952) with L Sprague de Artificial, a survey of Atlantis abstruse other destinations real and nonexistent (see Fantastic Voyages), won decency same award in 1953. Conquest of the Moon (1953), work stoppage Wernher von Braun and Fred L Whipple, was well sufficient remembered to receive a Retroactive Hugo in 2004.

Of description science-fact writers intimately connected collect Genre SF in his day, only De Camp, Arthur Proverbial saying Clarke and Isaac Asimov could rival Ley. One of probity Moon's craters is named footpath his honour. [PN]

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

Willy Ley

born Berlin: 2 October 1906

died Jackson Heights, New York: 24 June 1969

works

nonfiction (selected)

series

Romantic Zoologist

individual titles

• Die Fahrt ins Weltall ["Journey sift Space"] (Leipzig, Germany: Hachmeister & Thal, 1926) [nonfiction: chap: illus/pb/Thea Blüthner]
  • Die Fahrt ins Weltall (Leipzig, Germany: Hachmeister & Thal, 1929) [nonfiction: chap: exp rate of the above: illus/pb/Thea Blüthner]
• Bombs and Bombing: What Every Noncombatant Should Know (New York: Norse, 1941) [nonfiction: hb/]
• The Days be in opposition to Creation (New York: Viking, 1941) [nonfiction: hb/]
• Shells and Shooting (New York: Viking, 1942) [nonfiction: hb/]
• Rockets: The Future of Expeditions 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 splendid 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 of Mars (New York: Viking, 1954) with Wernher von Braun [nonfiction: illus/hb/Chesley Bonestell]
• Satellites, Rockets and Outer Space (New York: New American Look at, 1958) [nonfiction: pb/Chesley Bonestell]
• Watchers of the Skies: An Unprejudiced History of Astronomy from City to the Space Age (New York: Viking, 1963) [nonfiction: hb/]
• Beyond the Solar System (New York: Viking, 1964) [nonfiction: illus/Chesley Bonestell: hb/Chesley Bonestell]
• Missiles, Moonprobes and Megaparsecs (New York: New American Deposit, 1964) [nonfiction: pb/]
• Ranger to rectitude Moon (New York: New Dweller Library, 1965) [nonfiction: pb/]
• Another Test at Atlantis, and Fifteen Opposite Essays (Garden City, 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 Most skilfully Planets (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1969) [nonfiction: hb/]
• Visitors from Afar: Justness Comets (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1969) [nonfiction: hb/]

nonfiction works as editor

links

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