« Recent and Forthcoming Titles
Craig Nelson
Rocket Men
The Epic Story of the First Men on The Moon
Viking, June 2009
Viking will publish ROCKET MEN in 2009, for the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing.
Everyone old enough to remember knows where they were on July 20, 1969, when Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin took their first steps on the moon. Nelson spent the better part of a year researching the project, which draws on a trove of documents unavailable to any previous Apollo 11 historian. ROCKET MEN is a riveting account of the greatest adventure of the twentieth century – and a reminder of just how remarkable an achievement it was.
“As a boy in 1969, I was fascinated when man landed on the moon. Now, forty years later, Craig Nelson has brought this gripping story to life. Relive the excitement in Rocket Men.”—James Bradley, author of FLAGS OF OUR FATHERS
“I grew up thinking man was destined to go to the moon. After reading Craig Nelson's Rocket Men, I now know how tenuous, scary, and human the Space Program actually was. This book gives us hope that America can once again find a way to accomplish the seemingly impossible.”—Nathaniel Philbrick, author of MAYFLOWER and IN THE HEART OF THE SEA
“A magnificent, very readable account ... brightly illuminat[ing].”—Booklist (starred)
“Extensively researched ... nail-biting detail ... feverish ... an exciting read.”—Publishers Weekly (starred)
“The definitive account of a watershed in American history. ”—Kikus Reviews (starred)
“I was there, kneeling, unable to breathe, before a television screen, watching Armstrong step off Eagle onto the regolith. I read [Rocket Men] in the same mood of boyhood wonder. So should you.”—Bryan Appleyard, The Sunday Times [London]
“An engaging contribution ... makes good use of NASA oral histories to amplify and adjust what one remembers [and] he never goes for long without executing some nice writerly flourish ... among Nelson’s achievements is the restoration of a certain grandeur to the Moon itself. ”—The New York Times Book Review
