The Coming of the Space Age; Famous Accounts of Man's Probing of the Universe

New York: Meredith Press, 1967. First Edition [stated], presumed first printing. Hardcover. Very good/Good. xiv, 301, [3] pages. Signed by the Editor on the fep. Sir Arthur Charles Clarke CBE FRAS (16 December 1917 - 19 March 2008) was an English science-fiction writer, science writer, futurist, inventor, undersea explorer, and television series host. He co-wrote the screenplay for the 1968 film 2001: A Space Odyssey, widely regarded as one of the most influential films of all time. Clarke was a science fiction writer, an avid popularizer of space travel, and a futurist of a distinguished ability. He wrote many books and many essays for popular magazines. In 1961, he received the Kalinga Prize, a UNESCO award for popularizing science. Clarke's science and science-fiction writings earned him the moniker "Prophet of the Space Age". His science-fiction writings in particular earned him a number of Hugo and Nebula awards, which along with a large readership, made him one of the towering figures of the genre. For many years Clarke, Robert Heinlein, and Isaac Asimov were known as the "Big Three" of science fiction. Clarke was a lifelong proponent of space travel. In 1934, while still a teenager, he joined the BIS, British Interplanetary Society. In 1945, he proposed a satellite communication system using geostationary orbits. He was the chairman of the British Interplanetary Society from 1946 to 1947 and again in 1951-1953. Clarke emigrated to Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) in 1956, to pursue his interest in scuba diving. Clarke augmented his popularity in the 1980s, as the host of television shows such as Arthur C. Clarke's Mysterious World. He lived in Sri Lanka until his death. Among the contributors and topics in this outstanding compendium are: Peaceful Uses of Outer Space; Tracking Sputnik I by Nelson Hayes; Vanguard by Kurt Stehling; The First V-2 by Walter Dornberger; German Rocketry by Wernher von Braun; Autobiography: K. E. Tsiolkovski; Autobiography: R. H. Goddard; Autobiography: Hermann Oberth; The Caves of Venus by C. S. Lewis; Direct Contact with the Stars by Carl Sagan; God in Space by C. S. Lewis; The Fireflies by John Glenn; and Astronautics and Poetry by Arthur C. Clarke. On October 4, 1957, the rehearsal of a Philharmonic orchestra about to launch Peter and the Wolf suddenly stopped as its members quietly withdrew. They were from the Harvard and the Smithsonian Observatories and had just received the news that Sputnik I had been successfully launched...the Space Age had begun. Mr. Clarke has compiled a number of articles, letters, reports, editorials, etc., recalling vivid moments in our space program from that moment when we were "caught with our antennas down" to tapes of John Glenn's high flying voice. Kurt Stehling does a beautiful job of recording the fiasco of Vanguard TV 3 while a further disastrous moment captures a cameraman risking almost certain death photographing an errant rocket. Dr. Wernher von Braun gives his personal history of the development of German rocketry while the three fathers of Astronautics contribute autobiographies. There is an analysis and comparison of the U.S. and U.S.S.R. programs with an emphasis on goals by White House Space Council Consultant Dr. Charles Sheldon and a number of speculative pieces on everything from possible commerce to alien life to a proposed track meet on the moon to religious implications to interstellar culture. Excitement inherent in the subject and the challenge of its concepts should appeal.