 | Dear Neil Armstrong In the years between the historic first moonlanding by Apollo 11 on July 20,1969, and his death at age 82 on August 25, 2012, Neil Armstrong receivedhundreds of thousands of cards and letters from all over the world,congratulating him, praising him, requesting pictures and autographs, andasking him what must have seemed to him to be limitless--and occasionallyintrusive--questions. Of course, all the famous astronauts received fan mail,but the sheer volume Armstrong had to deal with for more than four decadesafter his moon landing was staggering. Today, the preponderance of those letters--some 75,000 of them--are preserved in the archives atPurdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana. Dear Neil Armstrong: Letters to the First Man on the Moon publishesa careful sampling of these letters--roughly 400--reflecting the various kinds ofcorrespondence that Armstrong received along with representative samples of hisreplies. Selected and edited by James R. Hansen, Armstrong's authorizedbiographer and author of the New YorkTimes best seller First Man: The Lifeof Neil A. Armstrong , this collection sheds light on Armstrong's enduring impact and offers an intimate glimpse intothe cultural meanings of human spaceflight. Readers will explore what thethousands of letters to Neil Armstrong meant not only to those who wrote them, butas a snapshot of one of humankind's greatest achievements in the twentiethcentury. They will see how societies and cultures projected their own meaningsonto one of the world's great heroes and iconic figures. JamesR. Hansen is professor emeritus of history at Auburn University in Alabama. Anexpert in aerospace history and the history of science and technology, Hansenhas published a dozen books and numerous articles covering a wide variety oftopics, including the early days of aviation, the history of aerospaceengineering, NASA, the moon landings, the Space Shuttle program, and China'srole in space. His book First Man ,which is the only authorized biography of Neil Armstrong, spent three weeks asa New York Times best seller in 2005and 2018, and garnered a number of major book awards, including a nominationfor a Pulitzer Prize. Translations of FirstMan have been published in over twenty languages. A Universal Studios filmadaptation of the book hit the silver screen in October 2018, with AcademyAward winner Damien Chazelle ( La La Land )directing the film and actor Ryan Gosling starring as Armstrong. Hansen servedas coproducer for the film. Over the years Hansen has served on a number ofimportant advisory boards and panels, including the Research Advisory Board forthe National Air and Space Museum, Editorial Advisory Board for the SmithsonianInstitution Press, and Advisory Board for the Archives of Aerospace Explorationat Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. He also is a past vice presidentof the Virginia Air and Space Museum in Hampton, Virginia. For the past tenyears he has served on the National Air and Space Museum Trophy SelectionBoard. His experience as an academic and public speaker has been wide-ranging bothtopically and geographically; he frequently serves as keynote speaker,panelist, and lecturer on a wide variety of topics in the history of scienceand technology. |
