Norman Mailer: MoonFire, The Epic Journey of Apollo 11 - Hardcover

Mailer, Norman

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 383652077X ISBN 13: 9783836520775

Publisher: TASCHEN, 2010

Synopsis

The epic journey of Apollo 11: A unique tribute to the defining scientific mission of our time   It has been called the single most historic event of the 20th century: On July 20, 1969, Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins met John F. Kennedy’s call for a manned Moon landing by the end of the 1960s. A decade of tests and training, a staff of 400,000 engineers and scientists, a budget of billions, and the most powerful rocket ever launched all combined in an unprecedented event watched by millions the world over. And no one captured the men, the mood, and the machinery like Norman Mailer.

One of the greatest writers of the 20th century, Norman Mailer was hired by LIFE magazine in 1969 to cover the Moon shot. He enhanced his reportage in the brilliantly crafted book, Of a Fire on the Moon, which is excerpted here. Equally adept at examining the science of space travel and the psychology of the men involved—from Saturn V rocket engineer Wernher von Braun, to the crucial NASA support staff to the three astronauts—Mailer provides provocative and trenchant insights into this epoch-making event.

Illustrating this volume are hundreds of photographs and maps from the NASA vaults, magazine archives, and private collections. These images document the development of the agency and the mission, life inside the command module and on the Moon’s surface, and the world’s jubilant reaction to the landing. This edition includes an original introduction by Colum McCann and captions by leading Apollo 11 experts, explaining the history and science behind the images, citing the mission log and publications of the day, and postflight astronaut interviews.

About this title

About the Author:

Norman Mailer (1923–2007) was one of the 20th century’s greatest and most influential writers, as well as one of America’s most renowned and controversial literary figures. The best-selling author of a dozen novels and 20 works of nonfiction, he also wrote stage plays, screenplays, television miniseries, hundreds of essays, two books of poetry, and a collection of short stories. A two-time Pulitzer Prize winner, he lived in Brooklyn, New York, and Provincetown, Massachusetts.

Review:

"A Moby-Dick of space... the gift of a genius." "The greatest event of the last century as told by one of America's greatest writers of the last century."

About this edition

• Publisher: TASCHEN
• Publication date: 2010
• ISBN 10: 383652077X
• ISBN 13: 9783836520775
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 348