Willy Ley

Science writer Willy Ley inspired Americans of all ages to imagine a future of interplanetary travel long before space shuttles existed. This is the first biography of an important public figure who predicted and boosted the rise of the Space Age, yet has been overlooked in the history of science.

Born in Germany, Ley became involved in amateur rocketry until the field was taken over by the Nazi regime. He fled to America, where he forged a path as a weapons expert and journalist during World War II, and as a rocket researcher after the war. As America’s foremost authority on rockets and space travel, he wrote many books and articles for science fiction magazines. He was a consultant for television’s Tom Corbett, Space Cadet and the Disney program Man in Space, thrilling public audiences with a romanticized view of what spaceflight would be like.

Yet as astronauts took center stage and scientific intellectuals such as Wernher von Braun became influential during the space race, Ley lost his celebrity status. He was ignored by younger historians who saw his style of popular writing as old-fashioned. This book returns Willy Ley to his rightful place as the energizer of an era—a time when scientists and science popularizers shared prestige and mixed ranks to make outlandish dreams come true.