Willy Ley: Prophet of the Space Age by Jared S. Buss (review)

Willy Ley: Prophet of the Space Age is the first book-length biography of a mid-twentieth-century influential popularizer of science and technology, who is particularly well known among space historians as one of the field's "founding fathers." That fact alone makes this an important contribution to cultural studies and space history. Since Ley was an influential writer both in Germany and the United States, reflecting and negotiating the contemporary Zeitgeist of both countries, this book also speaks directly to German and German-American studies. That said, while Jared S. Buss engages the scholarship of all of these fields, his main goal is to highlight Ley's contribution to the history of science, a field that has largely ignored popularizers like Ley.

Willy Ley was a highly sought-after, self-taught expert in several scientific and technical fields. Born in 1906 in Berlin, he could not afford to attend university fulltime. In the process of educating himself in anatomy, zoology, and astronomy, he adopted neo-Humboldtian views, embracing "enchantment, wonder, and spiritual connections to nature" (26). During this period, he came across technical treatises in the emerging field of rocketry, and decided that he was better equipped to explain its mechanics and significance than his contemporaries. Ley's success with his first published works on the subject confirmed his self-assessment and started his Atlantic-crossing career as "the man behind the curtain" (50): an expert science and technology writer and editor, a technical consultant for films, and a radio host and science explainer for popular youth TV programs. Among space historians, he is renowned for his contributions to space advocacy, especially for his popular primer, Rockets, Missiles, and Space Travel that went through twenty-one printings (under various titles) from 1944 to 1969, and his promotion of space exploration during and following the launch of the first satellite, Sputnik I, in 1957.

Despite joining the Nazi Party from 1925–1928, Ley moved to the United States in 1935 to escape what he then deemed an emerging anti-intellectual environment. In the first years in his new home country, he tried to fulfill his dream of designing and building rockets, but soon earned his living with his writing. During World War II, he gained a reputation as someone who could explain German "wonder-weapons" to his American audience, correcting false and sensationalist descriptions, while urging readers not to panic. After that, he grew into a prolific writer and educator, influencing public perceptions and understandings of natural history and space exploration in the coming decades. Ley died just weeks before the Apollo 11 moon landing in 1969.

Buss's biography offers a solid chronological account of Ley's intellectual and political journey. He describes how Ley's early interests were nurtured in the German post-World War I environment and how he moved from celebrating the German nationalist project to condemning totalitarianism and its detrimental effects on science. By the early 1930s he had become an advocate of internationalism and the open pursuit of science. Once in the United States, Ley's lack of academic credentials did not hinder his activities; indeed, it fit within traditions of American antiauthoritarianism and resistance to hierarchies of knowledge. In Buss's description, Ley inspired just as much enthusiasm and awe in his audience for the natural world as for technological endeavors by connecting fantasy and mystery to reality and scientific fact. In Ley's mind, science, technology, and nature were deeply intertwined. And unraveling this peculiar blend, Buss argues, is key to understanding Ley's influential works on spaceflight that form the basis for the sometimes naive and overly celebratory approach to space exploration still prevalent among many enthusiasts today (10).

Buss used archival sources from Germany and the United States and spoke to Ley's daughters, Sandra and Xenia, who also shared photos of their father. The most enlightening source to provide insights into Ley's character...