Willy Ley
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Willy Ley (October 2, 1906 - June 24, 1969) was a German-American science writer and space advocate who helped popularize rocketry and spaceflight in Germany and the United States.
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[edit] Biography
Ley was born in Berlin and studied to become a paleontologist. However, he developed an interest in spaceflight after reading Hermann Oberth's book Die Rakete zu den Planetenräumen ("By Rocket into Interplanetary Space"). He soon published his own book on the subject, Die Fahrt in den Weltraum ("Travel in Outer Space") in 1926.
In 1927, he became one of the first members of Germany's amateur rocket group, the Verein für Raumschiffahrt (VfR - "Spaceflight Society") and wrote extensively for its journal, Die Rakete ("The Rocket"). With Oberth, he also acted as a consultant on Fritz Lang's film Frau im Mond ("Woman in the Moon").
The VfR disbanded in 1933 amidst controversy within its membership over the interest the military was taking in their activities. Ley decided to flee the Nazi regime and went to the United States in 1935, where he became a naturalized citizen in 1944.
He continued to write extensively on spaceflight in terms that the lay person could understand. His book "Rockets - the Future of Travel Beyond the Stratosphere" (1944) describes the early rockets at VfR and more futuristic projects to reach the moon using a 3-stage rocket "as high as 1/3 of the Empire State Building" - a very good estimate of the height of the Saturn V rocket designed 20 years after. His works from the 1950s and 60s are regarded as classics of popular science and include The Conquest of Space (1949), The Conquest of the Moon (with Wernher von Braun and Fred Whipple, 1953), and Beyond the Solar System (1964). His book, Rockets, Missiles, and Space Travel, (1957) was cited in the Space Handbook: Astronautics and its Applications, a staff report of the Select Committee on Astronautics and Space Exploration of the U.S. House of Representatives, which provided non-technical information about spaceflight to U.S. policy makers.[1] He also acted as science consultant for the Tom Corbett, Space Cadet series of children's science fiction books and TV series, as well as the 1959 feature film entitled "The Space Explorers."
Ley was best known for his books on rocketry and related topics, but he also wrote a number of books about animals. One notable book was Exotic Zoology (1959), which combined some of his older writings with new ones. This is of some interest to cryptozoology, as Ley discusses the Yeti and sea serpents, as well as reports of relict dinosaurs. The book's first section (Myth?) entertains the possibility that some legendary creatures (like the sirrush, the unicorn or the cyclops) might be based on actual animals (or misinterpretation of animals and/or their remains).
Ley died in Jackson Heights, Queens just a month before Neil Armstrong became the first man to set foot on the moon. The Ley crater on the far side of the Moon has been named in his honor.
[edit] Books
(Partial list)
- (1941) The Lungfish and the Unicorn; an Excursion into Romantic Zoology. Modern Age Books.
- (<1944) The Days of Creation; a Biography of Our Planet. Unknown publisher.
- (<1944) Bombs and Bombing. Unknown publisher.
- (<1944) Shells and Shooting. Unknown publisher.
- (1944) Rockets; The Future of Travel Beyond the Stratosphere. Viking Press.
- (with Wernher Von Braun and others) (1953). The Complete Book of Outer Space. Maco Magazine Corporation.
- (1955) Salamanders and other Wonders. Viking Press.
- (with Wernher Von Braun) (1956). Chesley Bonestell. Viking Press.
- (1957) Rockets, Missiles, and Space Travel. Viking Press.
- (1959) Willy Ley's Exotic Zoology. Random House. ISBN 0517625458.
- (1964) Beyond the Solar System. Viking Press.
- (1964) Missiles, Moonprobes, and Megaparsecs. New American Library.
- (1965) Ranger to the Moon. Signet. ISBN 1251026680.
- (1966) Watchers of the Sky: an Informal History of Astronomy From Babylon to the Space Age. Viking Press.
- (1967) Willy Ley's For Your Information: On Earth and in the Sky. DoubleDay.
- (1968) The Poles. LIFE Nature Library.
- (1969) Another Look at Atlantis and Fifteen Other Essays. DoubleDay. ISBN 051714543X.
