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Konrad Gesner ... 1929Liṿyanim, ṭilim ṿehe-ḥalal ha-ḥitson, c1964.Wikipedia, September 27, 2013 (Willy Ley; a German-American science writer, spaceflight advocate, and historian of science who helped popularize rocketry, spaceflight, and natural history in both Germany and the United States; the crater Ley on the far side of the Moon is named in his honor; born Willy Otto Oskar Ley on October 2, 1906 in Berlin, Germany; he studied astronomy, physics, zoology, and paleontology at the University of Berlin; after publishing Die Fahrt ins Weltall (Travel in Outer Space) in 1926, Ley became one of the first members of Germany's amateur rocket group, the Verein für Raumschiffahrt (VfR--Spaceflight Society) in 1927 and wrote extensively for its journal, Die Rakete (The Rocket); he also wrote hundreds of short articles about rockets for German and foreign newspapers; he fled Germany for Great Britain and ultimately the United States in January 1935; in 1936, he supervised operations of two rocket planes carrying mail at Greenwood Lake, NY; he began publishing scientific articles in American science fiction magazines, beginning with The Dawn of the Conquest of Space in the March 1937 issue of Astounding Stories; he had a regular science column called For Your Information in Galaxy Magazine from its premiere in October 1950 until his death; his book Rockets--the Future of Travel Beyond the Stratosphere (1944) describes the early rockets at VfR; his works from the 1950s and 1960s are regarded as classics of popular science and include The Conquest of Space (1949), The Conquest of the Moon (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; 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, such as Exotic Zoology (1959); he was a member of the all-male literary banqueting club the Trap Door Spiders; he died on June 24, 1969 in his home in Jackson Heights, Queens) |