Strange Angel: The Otherworldly Life of Rocket Scientist John Whiteside Parsons - Tapa blanda

"A riveting tale of rocketry, the occult, and boom-and-bust 1920s and 1930s Los Angeles."
--starred review "Booklist "

"[A] rambunctiously funny, deliriously weird, and incredibly true story of a space-science pioneer turned lustful witch."
--author of CITY OF QUARTZ "Mike Davis "

PRAISE FOR STRANGE ANGEL

"Pendle weaves a fascinating yarn . . . he deftly and seemingly effortlessly leads his readers through the technical aspects of Parsons' work. You don't have to be a rocket scientist to enjoy it." --The Seattle Times

"Pasadena's famous Craftsman mansions disgorge their ghosts in this rambunctiously funny, deliriously weird, and incredibly true story of a space-science pioneer turned lustful witch."
--Mike Davis, author of City of Quatrz

"As a history of space travel, Strange Angel is a cornerstone. This is your book if you want to start reading up on the space age. Highly recommended." --Ray Bradbury

"A spellbinding story of a man with eccentricities that went well beyond a fascination with rocketry."
--American Scientist

This amazing book is set in a more brightly coloured universe than most scientific lives are.
--Daily Telegraph

"A fascinating glimpse, a story that would make a compelling work of fiction if it weren't so astonishingly true."
--Publishers Weekly

"This is your book if you want to start reading up on the space age. Highly recommended."
--Ray Bradbury

"Pendle weaves a fascinating yarn. You don't have to be a rocket scientist to enjoy it."
--Seattle Times

"An engaging treatment of a time when the modern world moved at the same speed as crazed mania."
--The Onion

"Elegantly written. Pendle, with his graceful, measured prose, skilfully steers us through the quagmire of Parson's personal life."
--Observer - UK

ROCKET SCIENTIST KILLED IN PASADENA EXPLOSION screamed the headline of the Los Angeles Times. John Parsons, a maverick rocketeer who helped transform the rocket from a derided sci-fi plotline into a reality, was at first mourned as a scientific prodigy. But reporters soon uncovered a more shocking story: Parsons had been a devotee of black magic.

George Pendle re-creates the world of John Parsons in this dazzling portrait of prewar superstition, cold war paranoia, and futuristic possibility. Fueled by childhood dreams of space flight, Parsons was a leader of the motley band of enthusiastic young men who founded the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a cornerstone of the American space program. But Parsons's wild imagination also led him into the occult- for if he could make rocketry a reality, why not magic?

With a cast of characters including Howard Hughes,
L. Ron Hubbard, and Robert Heinlein, Strange Angel explores the unruly consequences of genius.