Gratitude

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• From Rocket Men: The Daring Odyssey of Apollo 8 and the Astronauts Who Made Man’s First Journey to the Moon (2018)

  Sanford Barr, Stu Berman, Mitch Cassman, Dr. Michael Davidson, Dr. Samuel Goldman, Jordan Heller, Dr. Nolen Levine, Mitch Lopata, Donna Moy, Scott Novoselsky, John Packel, Tracy Patis, Victor, Sally, and Virginia Reyes, Scott Rosenzweig, Kevin Sanders, Dr. Dan Schwartz, and Dan Warsh. Ryan Holiday and Brent Underwood of Brass Check Marketing have been wonderful promoters for my books and have a very exciting company on their hands. Dr. Steven Tureff has been a blessing to my family for years. Joe Tighe was deeply kind and supportive during the writing of this book (and a keen reader, as well); I don’t know how to thank him enough. It was too late to remember Rachel Harris Doxey in my last book, so I’m doing it here and sending love to her family and friends; we miss you. My family always reads my work, cheers me on, and gives me wonderful (and honest) notes. Much love to Jane Glover (who read this book before anyone), Larry, Mike, and Sam Glover; the Wisniewski family; and to Ken, Steve, Carrie, and Chaya Kurson. Jane and Ken, my brother and sister, are better writers than I, but they are modest so I can live with it. My mom and dad, Annette and Jack Kurson, were the two best storytellers I’ve ever known; I hope I do them proud when I tell my kids stories on long drives and before bed, and in these books. A special thanks goes to my friend Dave Shapson. I met him on the day I arrived as a freshman at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1981. By 2:30 A.M. , I was homesick and unable to sleep, and wandered into Open Pantry, where I found Dave (the only customer in the store) thumbing through magazines about science and space travel. We spoke about our mutual love of astronomy and our admiration for NASA, and I understood it when he lamented that so many great innovations in technology and space would come after our lifetimes. Dave has been among my closest friends ever since, one of the most unique and thoughtful people I’ve met. He is, at once, a master storyteller, a brilliant cook, a wonderful musician, a great listener, and a first-rate thinker. He sees more beauty in the world, and especially in the ordinary, than anyone I’ve known. I knew Dave would be excited when I undertook this book project, but couldn’t imagine he would end up spending hundreds of hours to help me research, study, refine, and think it through. I never could have done this without him. Finally, thanks to Amy, Nate, and Will Kurson. My sons always read my writing and talk through the architecture of my thinking. They find planets with me on smartphone apps when we look into the evening sky. They know things I don’t know about the Moon. Amy is my best friend and soul mate.

• From Christianity: The First Three Thousand Years (2009)

  16 A. Vauchez, Sainthood in the Later Middle Ages (Cambridge, 1997), 147– 56. For one mid-twelfth-century example of papal anger at wholly gratuitous popular canonization, of a Swede who was killed while he was drunk, D. Harrison, ‘Quod magno nobis fuit horrori … Horror, Power and Holiness within the Context of Canonization’, in G. Klaniczay, Procès de canonisation au moyen àge: aspects juridiques et religieux. Medieval Canonization Processes: Legal and Religious Aspects (Rome, 2004), 39–52. 17 I am grateful to Fr Christopher Hill of the Parish of the Monastery of St Andrew in Moscow for our discussion of Orthodoxy. 18 A. Ivanov, Holy Fools in Byzantium and Beyond (Oxford, 2006), 244–55. 19 van den Bercken, Holy Russia and Christian Europe, 45, 122–6; S. Senyk, A History of the Church in Ukraine, I: To the End of the Thirteenth Century (Orientalia Christiana Analecta, 243, 1993), 442–3. 20 P. Engel, The Realm of St Stephen: A History of Medieval Hungary, 895– 1526 (London and New York, 2001), 101–3. 21 D. Ostrowski, ‘The Mongol Origins of Muscovite Political Institutions’, Slavic Review, 49 (1990), 525–42, at 525n. The origins of the name ‘Golden Horde’ are in any case uncertain. 22 Hughes, ‘Art and Liturgy in Russia’, 276–7. 23 Ibid., 277. 24 V. L. Lanin, ‘Medieval Novgorod’, in M. Perrie (ed.), The Cambridge History of Russia I: From Early Rus’ to 1689 (Cambridge, 2006), at 188– 210, esp. 196, 204, 206–7. 25 S.Rock, ‘Russian Piety and Orthodox Culture 1380–1589’, in Angold (ed.), 253–75, at 259. 26 S. Hackel, ‘Diaspora Problems of the Russian Emigration’, ibid., 539–57, at 540; on T’rnovo, see p. 473. 27 On liturgy, Ostrowski, ‘Mongol Origins of Muscovite Political Institutions’, 529, and on coinage, G. Alef, ‘The Political Significance of the Inscriptions on Muscovite Coinage in the Reign of Vasili II’, Speculum, 34 (1959), 1–19, at 5. 28 D. Ostrowski, Muscovy and the Mongols: Cross-cultural Influences on the Steppe Frontier, 1304–1589 (Cambridge, 1998), 16–19. Often the rulers of Muscovy, Lithuania etc. are Englished as ‘Grand Duke’, but this title seems inadequate for such major powers, and ‘Grand Prince’ better conveys their position. 29 Snyder, 17–18. 30 P. Walters, ‘Eastern Europe since the Fifteenth Century’, in Hastings (ed.), 282–327, at 290; van den Bercken, Holy Russia and Christian Europe, 132.

• From Rocket Men: The Daring Odyssey of Apollo 8 and the Astronauts Who Made Man’s First Journey to the Moon (2018)

  But being part of Apollo 8, it made everything else anticlimactic.” For Chris Kraft, it was simple: “It took more courage to make the decision to do Apollo 8 than anything we ever did in the space program.” —Weeks after the return of Apollo 8, Frank Borman went to work pumping gas at a local Gulf service station in Webster, Texas. He did it for free, along with his two sons, in exchange for use of the station’s garage bay and lift, where the Bormans could work on their cars. The station was owned by a family friend, Toke Kobayashi, a man who also raised world-class tomatoes for sale to restaurants in Chicago. Dressed in grimy jeans and a greasy T-shirt, Borman was almost unrecognizable to customers. One man who pulled in for gas began giving Borman a hard time, and for no good reason. Nearby, Borman’s younger son, fifteen-year-old Ed, knew this was trouble—his father never started a fight but wouldn’t take guff from anyone. Soon the men were near blows. Ed ran over and had to separate them, and it took every bit of his two-hundred-pound frame to do it. Even as Ed moved the belligerents apart, he found himself thinking: This guy has no idea he’s fighting with a man who just got back from the Moon . One day in 1969, as he was trying to figure out his post-NASA future, Borman’s phone rang. On the line was a man who said, “At the behest of Ross Perot, I have invested a million dollars in your name.” Perot wanted Borman to work for him by developing televised town hall forums in which the public could vote from home on issues of the day. The money, as the man said, had already been deposited. Borman was intrigued. Susan was not. “You will not do that,” she told her husband. “He’ll own you. You don’t know anything about this.” Borman gave back the money. He’d never made more than about thirty thousand dollars a year. Susan, who always received compliments on her fashionable wardrobe, would keep buying her clothes through secondhand stores and the Junior League thrift shop in Houston. More than ever, Frank was grateful for Susan’s wisdom and good judgment. And he made a lifelong friend of Perot in the process. After retiring from the Air Force in 1970, Borman joined Eastern Airlines, a position that required him to move to Miami. By now, his son Fred was at West Point, but seventeen-year-old Ed was a senior in high school and still living at home. Eastern wanted Borman to attend a three-month management program at Harvard Business School, a sure sign they had big plans for the former astronaut. Borman believed he needed Susan by his side in order to do his job well, so he asked his parents to stay with Ed for the year in Houston, and asked Susan to move with him to Miami.

• From Rocket Men: The Daring Odyssey of Apollo 8 and the Astronauts Who Made Man’s First Journey to the Moon (2018)

  Both sat for several hours over many days, and made me feel welcome in their homes. By the time I undertook this project, Susan Borman was too ill to talk, but I met her, and Frank supplied me with much background information from a private journal he kept about her life and times. Quotes from Susan that appear in the book are from interviews she did when she was well, along with accounts from Frank, her two sons, and others who knew her. It’s difficult to imagine having written this book without the extraordinary generosity of Chris Kraft, one of the most important figures in NASA’s history. At age ninety-one, Kraft welcomed me to his home in Houston for two full days of interviews about the flight of Apollo 8 and the bold series of decisions that led up to it. Like the astronauts, Kraft was in peak form and recalled details and events as clearly—and cared about them as much—as if they’d happened yesterday. During the course of reporting for this book, I also interviewed several other astronauts and NASA personnel who were ringside for Apollo 8. I would have loved to talk to more of them, but by the time I began work on the project, many had already passed away. Still, I was lucky. Over the decades, NASA and other organizations had the foresight to record interviews with a great number of people involved in the American space program. I made use of eighty or more of these oral histories, including those with astronaut Neil Armstrong (who was on the backup crew for Apollo 8) and NASA giants including Robert Gilruth, George Mueller, Samuel Phillips, and James Webb. In addition, I benefited greatly from the generosity of Charles Murray and Catherine Bly Cox, who supplied me with more than a dozen transcripts of interviews they conducted in the 1980s for their classic book Apollo: The Race to the Moon . Among other gems, it was their interview with Judy Wyatt that provided the detail about George Low’s subjects and verbs agreeing; and it was their interviews with Mission Control personnel that revealed that some NASA managers—only half jokingly—remained concerned that Apollo 8 might smash into the Moon even as the spacecraft closed in on the lunar surface. Every aspect of the Apollo 8 story—the conception, planning, and execution of the mission, the American space program, the Space Race between the United States and the Soviet Union, the Cold War—was exhaustively documented as it unfolded. Even papers once secret have now been declassified. I benefited from all of this. For my purposes, the single most important documentary source on the flight of Apollo 8 was the Apollo 8 Flight Journal, a Web-based transcript of the available recordings from the mission, along with corrections and a running series of astonishingly clear commentaries and explanations.

• From Rocket Men: The Daring Odyssey of Apollo 8 and the Astronauts Who Made Man’s First Journey to the Moon (2018)

  I’m grateful to them for their time and attention to detail, and for helping to make the manuscript as accurate as possible. In addition to primary sources generated by NASA, I consulted hundreds of books, magazines, newspaper articles, websites, documentaries, films, audio recordings, photographs, and podcasts. I found value in nearly all of them, but I returned to the following time and again for their excellence, clarity, and breadth of information: BOOKS Chaikin, Andrew. A Man on the Moon: The Voyages of the Apollo Astronauts . New York: Penguin, 2007. French, Francis, and Colin Burgess. In the Shadow of the Moon: A Challenging Journey to Tranquility, 1965–1969 . Lincoln and London: University of Nebraska Press, 2007. Kraft, Christopher. Flight: My Life in Mission Control . New York: Dutton, 2001. Murray, Charles, and Catherine Bly Cox. Apollo: The Race to the Moon . New York: Simon and Schuster, 1989. Siddiqi, Asif. Challenge to Apollo: The Soviet Union and the Space Race, 1945–1974 . alc Books, 2015. Woods, W. David. How Apollo Flew to the Moon . 2nd ed. New York: Springer, 2011. Zimmerman, Robert. Genesis: The Story of Apollo 8 . New York: Basic Books, 1998. WEBSITES nasa.gov thespacereview.com airandspace.si.edu airspacemag.com space.com collectspace.com MAGAZINES Aviation Week & Space Technology (all 1968 issues) Life (which had exclusive access to the astronauts and their families) DOCUMENTARIES AND VIDEOS “Apollo 8 Reunion 2008—An Evening with the Apollo 8 Astronauts” (Annual John H. Glenn Lecture Series) “Apollo 8 Reunion 2009” Cold War (24-episode television documentary, originally broadcast in the United States on CNN) Race to the Moon: The Daring Adventure of Apollo 8 (American Experience—PBS / Indigo Studios 2005) svs.gsfc.nasa.gov//4129 (a brilliant animated explanation of Earthrise, narrated by Andrew Chaikin) youtube.com/​watch?v=Vn00BvWwke0 (launch of Apollo 8) Please check my website (robertkurson.com ) for a more comprehensive list of sources used to research and write this book, along with copies of NASA documents and links to video, audio, and other multimedia sources. BY ROBERT KURSONShadow Divers Crashing Through Pirate Hunters Rocket Men [image file=Image00040.jpg] R OBERT K URSON earned a bachelor’s degree in philosophy from the University of Wisconsin and a law degree from Harvard Law School. His award-winning stories have appeared in Rolling Stone, The New York Times Magazine, and Esquire, where he was a contributing editor. He is the author of four New York Times bestsellers: Shadow Divers, the 2005 American Booksellers Association’s nonfiction Book Sense Book of the Year; Crashing Through, based on Kurson’s 2006 National Magazine Award–winning profile of the blind speed skier, CIA agent, inventor, and entrepreneur Mike May in Esquire; Pirate Hunters; and Rocket Men, which tells the story of the Apollo 8 mission to the Moon. He lives in Chicago. RobertKurson.com Twitter: @robertkurson [image "Penguin Random House Next Reads logo" file=Image00043.jpg] What’s next on your reading list?Discover your next great read! Get personalized book picks and up-to-date news about this author. Sign up now.

• From Christianity: The First Three Thousand Years (2009)

  including the women, a difficult matter for Europeans at the time – and its schools alongside its hospitals at Yantai (Chefoo) were designed to produce a new generation of children from Mission families who were to receive their education in China, rather than as was otherwise almost universally the norm, being sent back to Europe.86 In practice, the ideals were rather difficult to sustain. Such institutions as the Chefoo schools naturally require an infrastructure not that different in nature from other missionary societies, particularly when in later years the CIM claimed with some plausibility to be the largest missionary organization in the world – and it was odd that the Chefoo schools did not offer instruction in Chinese until 1917.87 Taylor spent much of his time on publicity tours in Britain, somehow producing both missionaries and money despite himself. Yet the rhetoric was important. Behind it was Taylor’s generosity of spirit: for instance, when his Mission suffered alongside others in the next great outburst of Chinese fury against foreigners, the Boxer Rebellion of 1900, he refused the compensation extorted from the imperial government for European organizations. And his missionaries followed Catholics into the expanses of China’s countryside, rather than targeting cities, the scene of most Protestant missionary activity. His organization did maintain the distinctive feature that its workers could not expect to get a regular salary, and it continued to be good at enrolling those who were not by temperament natural team players.88 Beyond China were two kingdoms which had retreated into deliberate isolation during the seventeenth century, but were now forced to open their borders: Korea and Japan. Their relationship had always been tense, and Korea’s experience of Japan was from repeated invasion; yet even given that history, the contrast in their reception of Christianity is extraordinary. When the American Commodore Perry brought his naval squadron to force openness on Japan in 1853, it was the beginning of a revolution in Japanese society which led to the restoration of imperial government in 1868, the end of two centuries of the Tokugawa shoguns’ monopoly on real power. The arrival of the Americans was also followed by the surprised recognition that against all the odds, in quiet corners, a form of Christianity had survived the repression of the once flourishing Catholic Church in the archipelago (see pp. 707–9). Yet this revelation did not lead and has never yet led to a new flowering of Christianity in Japan. When the Japanese enthusiastically made selections from the Protestant West, those included their purchase of Japanese-language Bibles in very large quantities, which nevertheless inspired very few to make the leap into Christian conversion. A clue to the popularity of Bibles is to be found in the fact that Samuel Smiles’s famous Self-Help also sold a million copies in its Japanese

• From Rocket Men: The Daring Odyssey of Apollo 8 and the Astronauts Who Made Man’s First Journey to the Moon (2018)

  Acknowledgments This book would not have been possible without the cooperation of the crew of Apollo 8. Frank Borman, Jim Lovell, and Bill Anders welcomed me into their homes for a series of interviews, then gave generously of their time for more than two years as I followed up with endless emails, calls, and questions. No matter how redundant or obvious or personal my queries, each man answered with kindness, patience, clarity, and humor. It is rare when pinnacle heroes measure up in private to their idealized public images, but the crew of Apollo 8 are the genuine article. I have never met three finer gentlemen. I’m grateful to Marilyn Lovell and Valerie Anders for granting me interviews in their homes, and for delving deep into their personal lives and experiences. One cannot understand the story of Apollo 8, or realize the true strength behind the astronauts and their historic mission, without knowing these amazing women. I spoke briefly to Susan Borman while visiting in Montana, but she was too ill by that time to conduct interviews. Still, I feel like I came to know her through the memories and writings her husband and sons shared with me, and by being in her presence, surrounded by people who love her. I’m grateful to her family for allowing me that. Many thanks to Chris Kraft, one of NASA’s most legendary figures, for the two full days of interviews he gave me at his home in Houston. Kraft is a wonderful explainer, but by his eyes alone it was clear he still believed the decision to fly Apollo 8 to be the most courageous the space agency ever made. Others from NASA, including astronauts, engineers, and managers, granted me interviews in person and by phone, every one of them helpful to me in understanding both the Apollo 8 mission and the social, political, and scientific context in which it took place. For this, I’m thankful to Jerry Bostick, Mike Collins, Walt Cunningham, Gerry Griffin, Fred Haise, Glynn Lunney, Ken Mattingly, Milt Windler, and Al Worden.

• From Rocket Men: The Daring Odyssey of Apollo 8 and the Astronauts Who Made Man’s First Journey to the Moon (2018)

  for “the precision of your joint work and your courage.” Telegrams for the astronauts poured in by the thousands. One, however, stood out from the rest. It came not from a world leader or celebrity or other luminary, but from an anonymous stranger. It had traveled over whites-only lunch counters in the South, through jungles in Vietnam where young men fell, over the coffins of two of the America’s great civil rights leaders. It had blown across streets bloodied by protesters and police, past a segregationist presidential campaign, into radios playing songs of alienation and revolt. It had made its way through ten million American souls who didn’t have enough to eat, alongside generations that no longer trusted each other, into a White House where a no-longer-loved president slept. It read: THANKS. YOU SAVED 1968. Epilogue As the world celebrated Apollo 8, most didn’t realize just how successful the flight had been. By NASA’s analysis, all mission objectives had been attained. The command and service modules had performed beautifully at the Moon. Deep space communications had been excellent. Mascons— the anomalies in lunar gravity—were better understood. Navigation over lunar distances was proved with exquisite accuracy. Lunar landmarks were confirmed for future missions. And the Saturn V rocket, which had been so troubled on only its second test, performed almost flawlessly on its third. Despite the breakneck pace at which they had been working since August, few at NASA took time off during the last hours of 1968, especially those responsible for analyzing photographs and movies returned by Apollo 8. Experts developed film by hand rather than by machine, a painstaking process that assured the film could be salvaged if mistakes were made. Anders was at home in Houston on December 29 when some of the pictures were developed—pictures unlike any mankind had seen before. Shots he took of Earthrise showed the bright blue-and-white marble of Earth rising over the Moon’s gray horizon, the only color in an all-black universe—a tiny, shining oasis in the cosmos. NASA selected the best one of Anders’s Earthrise photos, and on December 30, it appeared on the front pages of newspapers across the globe. Days later, it would run in full color in magazines and Sunday supplements. (Most everyone published the photo with the Moon’s surface horizontal, though Anders and his crewmates had witnessed Earthrise with the lunar surface both horizontal and vertical. To Anders, both perspectives were correct—there was no real up or down in space.) In the following year, the United States Postal Service would issue a new

• From Rocket Men: The Daring Odyssey of Apollo 8 and the Astronauts Who Made Man’s First Journey to the Moon (2018)

  one for me.” Despite the technical brilliance of the mission, Kraft wouldn’t abide insubordination, even if it was born of legitimate fear; he determined that none of Apollo 7’s crew would ever fly again for NASA. He felt differently about the crew of Apollo 8. Borman, Lovell, and Anders were consummate professionals, as rock steady as they came. He was certainly grateful for Lovell. Kraft had been ringside for Gemini 7, the grueling fourteen-day mission during which Lovell remained unflappable, even during problems that might have threatened the flight’s survival. Equally important, Lovell was as likable and optimistic a fellow as there was in the astronaut corps, and on man’s first journey away from his world, there could never be too much of that. Chapter Seven JIM LOVELL Every Saturday when he was five years old, James Arthur Lovell, Jr., went to the movies, always to see a Western. Sometimes he went with his father, but the best times were when he went alone. Walking untethered through Philadelphia as a little boy, he was free to discover new neighborhoods, invent new routes, pass strange faces, navigate a giant world by himself. Born in 1928, Jim grew up in the teeth of the Depression, but his father had work and the family didn’t want for much. All of that changed around the time Jim reached fifth grade; his parents separated, and not long after, his father died in an automobile accident. Needing to support herself and her young son, Blanch Lovell moved to be near her brother in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and took a job as a secretary for modest wages. By 1940, she and Jim were living in a tiny one-room apartment, their kitchen jammed into a closet, using a single toilet shared by everyone who lived on the floor. In 1940, an American kid could hardly walk into a drugstore without seeing a new kind of flying machine streaking across magazine covers: the rocket. Jim couldn’t get enough of the fins and flames and faraway planets painted in full color by the magazine’s visionary artists, or the stories of what these machines could do. Rockets didn’t just take a person from point to point, like airplanes. They flew into the future. Jim wanted to fly there, too. Soon he was reading books by the founding father of rocket engineering, Robert Goddard. The idea that these machines could reach beyond Earth’s atmosphere lit up Jim’s dreams. He read Jules Verne’s novel From the Earth to the Moon, and its sequel, Around the Moon, which tell of three adventurers who build a nine-hundred-foot space cannon that launches them in a projectile around the Moon. During their journey, the men avert a deadly asteroid strike, jettison a dead dog out the window, and succumb to a mysterious

• From Rocket Men: The Daring Odyssey of Apollo 8 and the Astronauts Who Made Man’s First Journey to the Moon (2018)

  above him, Apollo 8 was at precisely the distance at which it took light (and radio transmissions) one full second to reach Earth. If Jeffrey had seen his father flying by, the image would have come from history, not the present. By the looks of things, Apollo 8 was in cruise mode, so Valerie Anders decided to visit Mission Control—for a change of scenery, and to feel closer to Bill. There she took George Low’s hand and told him how grateful she was that Bill and his crewmates were being looked after so well. Low’s blend of intellect and calm had made him a favorite of Valerie’s, and his was the perfect hand to hold while she watched the green blip on the distant screen inch closer to the Moon. A few minutes later, she heard Bill announce that he was going to “take a little snooze here for a while” and then sign off. She smiled and whispered something to a NASA official, who walked over to the public affairs officer, who in turn walked over to Collins. Shortly after that, Collins radioed to Borman aboard Apollo 8. “Paul tells me Valerie is over here and wishes Bill a happy nap.” “Okay, thank you,” Borman answered. “Tell her that he makes us tired sometimes, too, will you?” Collins laughed. “Roger. I will deliver a modified version of the message.” — At 53 hours into the flight, the guidance and trajectory specialists in Houston were delighted by the precision of the journey. After Apollo 8 left Earth orbit, Houston had planned for up to four midcourse corrections for the coast to the Moon. But the first, accomplished during the brief test of the SPS engine about eleven hours into the flight, had been so accurate that the next two were dispensed with. Now, as they neared the Moon, only one tiny adjustment would be required, and that would use the spacecraft’s small control thrusters. The second live television broadcast was scheduled to begin in an hour. Despite the best advice from experts—on filters, lenses, switches, brackets, interior lighting, and exposure levels—Borman remained skeptical.

• From Rocket Men: The Daring Odyssey of Apollo 8 and the Astronauts Who Made Man’s First Journey to the Moon (2018)

  I owe a debt of gratitude to Dr. David M. Harland, Dwayne Day, Frank O’Brien, J. L. Pickering, David Shomper, and Asif Siddiqi, who explained to me the complex workings of space flight and lunar missions, the history of the Space Race, and NASA’s daring decision to fly Apollo 8. Warm thanks also to Clare Fentress and Andrew Billingsley for their superb research on this project; Charles Murray and Catherine Bly Cox for providing me with interviews they conducted decades earlier for their classic book Apollo: The Race to the Moon; Robert Feder, for his singular expertise on Walter Cronkite; Connie Moore at NASA; David Mosena and the staff at Chicago’s Museum of Science and Industry; and to Ed Borman, Fred Borman, Dydia Delyser, Mark Foster, Jay Lovell, Susan Lovell, Diane Murphy, Sam Skinner, Pam Smith, and Mary Weeks for invaluable interviews and other contributions that helped me tell the story of Apollo 8. A special thanks goes to Apollo historian W. David Woods, a world- class expert on NASA’s lunar missions, and author of the book How Apollo Flew to the Moon. I discovered David while listening to a podcast about the Apollo program; I’d never heard someone explain technical matters so clearly and visually. I reached out to David at his home in Scotland and was thrilled when he agreed to consult with me. For the next two years, he answered questions, explained myriad concepts, and offered suggestions, all with a literary sensibility and the warmth and patience of an old friend. Writers sometimes need lucky breaks; one of my biggest came when I found David. My publisher, Random House, continues to be like family to me. I have been extraordinarily privileged to work with Kate Medina, my editor, since 2005, and have learned much from her about writing, storytelling, kindness, integrity, and decency; she remains one of my favorite people in the world. Anna Pitoniak, my other editor for this book, was a revelation. From the start, Anna urged me to view things at new angles and dig into lesser-known elements of the story, all with a gentle grace and deep insight into human nature. She pushed me even when I was convinced I’d gotten things right, and in every instance it made my work better. On top of it all, Anna is a wonderful writer and a lovely person. I was very fortunate to work with her. At Random House, Tom Perry believed in this book from the start and has always believed in me; Sally Marvin has been my champion and

• From Rocket Men: The Daring Odyssey of Apollo 8 and the Astronauts Who Made Man’s First Journey to the Moon (2018)

  friend since 2000; Gina Centrello has warmly supported me since I arrived at Random House; Dennis Ambrose has deftly guided all of my books through production with patience and good humor. Thanks, too, at Random House, to Aaron Blank, Maria Braeckel, Emily DeHuff, Melanie DeNardo, Andrea DeWerd, Joelle Dieu, Benjamin Dreyer, Toby Ernst, Erica Gonzalez, Anna Belle Hindenlang, Emily Kimball, Leigh Marchant, Mary Moates, and Bridget Piekarz. Carlos Beltrán and Edwin Tse designed the gorgeous cover for this book; Elizabeth Eno created its beautiful interior design. My literary agent, Flip Brophy of Sterling Lord Literistic, and my film and television agent, Jon Liebman of Brillstein Entertainment Partners, are two of the best in the game, and have been part of my family for years; when they talk about business they are also talking about life, and I am better for all of our conversations. In Flip’s office, Nell Pierce has been a joy to work with. In Jon’s office, Nicki Beltranena has been incredibly insightful and hardworking, and helped to develop this book for the screen. Many thanks, also, to Brad Weston and Scott Nemes of Makeready for connecting early and intuitively with this book, for their passion, and for recognizing the story’s potential for television. I’m grateful to these people who read early drafts of Rocket Men or have otherwise encouraged and supported my writing: Bill Adee, Dick Babcock, Andrew Beresin, Gabrielle Brussel, Andy Cichon, Josh Davis, Kevin Davis, Katelynd Duncan, Jonathan Eig, Joe Epstein, Robert Feder, Brad and Jane Ginsberg, David Granger, Peter Griffin, Rich Hanus, Elliott Harris, Miles Harvey, Neil Hirshman, John Jacobs, Jon Karp, Len and Pam Kasper, Jennie Lee, Melody Margolis, Gil Netter, Jason Steigman, Gary Taubes, Randi and Rob Valerious, Mark Warren, and Bill Zehme. Thanks, also, to Ken Andre, Dr. Sanford Barr, Stu Berman, Mitch Cassman, Dr. Michael Davidson, Dr. Samuel Goldman, Jordan Heller, Dr. Nolen Levine, Mitch Lopata, Donna Moy, Scott Novoselsky, John Packel, Tracy Patis, Victor, Sally, and Virginia Reyes, Scott Rosenzweig, Kevin Sanders, Dr. Dan Schwartz, and Dan Warsh. Ryan Holiday and Brent Underwood of Brass Check Marketing have been wonderful promoters for my books and have a very exciting company on their hands. Dr. Steven Tureff has been a blessing to my

• From Rocket Men: The Daring Odyssey of Apollo 8 and the Astronauts Who Made Man’s First Journey to the Moon (2018)

  A Note on Sources The heart and soul of this book come from extensive interviews I conducted with Frank Borman, Jim Lovell, and Bill Anders, the three astronauts who flew on Apollo 8. I met with each man over the course of several days at his home, and followed up repeatedly by phone and email, compiling dozens of hours of recorded conversation. Despite their ages (Borman and Lovell were born in 1928, Anders in 1933), all three of them seemed to have as much energy, and were just as sharp, as when they became the first men ever to fly to the Moon fifty years ago. It was I who often struggled to keep up with them. Equally important to the book are the interviews I conducted with two of the astronauts’ wives, Marilyn Lovell and Valerie Anders. Both sat for several hours over many days, and made me feel welcome in their homes. By the time I undertook this project, Susan Borman was too ill to talk, but I met her, and Frank supplied me with much background information from a private journal he kept about her life and times. Quotes from Susan that appear in the book are from interviews she did when she was well, along with accounts from Frank, her two sons, and others who knew her. It’s difficult to imagine having written this book without the extraordinary generosity of Chris Kraft, one of the most important figures in NASA’s history. At age ninety-one, Kraft welcomed me to his home in Houston for two full days of interviews about the flight of Apollo 8 and the bold series of decisions that led up to it. Like the astronauts, Kraft was in peak form and recalled details and events as clearly—and cared about them as much—as if they’d happened yesterday. During the course of reporting for this book, I also interviewed several other astronauts and NASA personnel who were ringside for Apollo 8. I would have loved to talk to more of them, but by the time I began work on the project, many had already passed away. Still, I was lucky. Over the

• From Christianity: The First Three Thousand Years (2009)

  22. Africa at the End of the Nineteenth Century Amid the general European ascendancy, two ancient Christian Churches stood out as not having first arrived in Africa with the slave traders. Both were Miaphysite: the Copts of Egypt and the Ethiopians. The Copts emerged from three centuries of beleaguered existence to a new prosperity, thanks to the opening up of their country to Western Christian influence in the wake of French and British clashes over Egypt in the Napoleonic period. A triangular relationship developed between the Copts, Evangelical missionaries (particularly from the Church Missionary Society) and Muhammad Ali, the Albanian Ottoman soldier of fortune turned carpet-bagging ruler of Egypt from 1805, founder of a dynasty which survived the Ottoman fall to rule Egypt into the mid- twentieth century. All sides had something to gain. The Copts were alert to the possibility of outside help after such long isolation, the English missionaries were not only eager to save souls but excited at the prospect of contact with so venerable a Church untainted by popery, and the Muslim Muhammad Ali recognized how useful it would be to exploit a skilled indigenous people who could mediate with Western powers and provide a pool of administrative expertise. The CMS implemented a scheme to introduce European patterns of education; the Copts eagerly seized on the opportunity and were careful to take it over for themselves.

• From Bright Lights, Big City (1984)

  “A good policy,” you say. “Want some more wine?” She shakes her head. “I’m not much of a drinker anymore.” “That’s a good policy, too.” You are feeling magnanimous. “Are you doing any writing,” Megan asks. You shrug your shoulders. “I’ve been working on some ideas.” “Do it,” Megan says. “I want to see you walk back into that place someday to pick up a check in Fiction. I want to see you walk past Clara’s office into the Department. I’ll have a bottle of champagne waiting.” You don’t know how Megan has come to believe in you, since you don’t even believe in yourself. But you’re grateful. You try to picture the scene of your triumphal return to the magazine, but instead you find yourself admiring Megan’s bare feet drawn up beside her thighs on the couch. “What will you do in the meantime? Any job prospects?” “I’ve got some leads,” you say. “I could put you in touch with a few people,” she says. “What you’ve got to do is make up a good résumé—wide enough for journalism and publishing. I know an editor at Harper & Row who’d be happy to talk to you. I’ve already talked to Clara, and she says as far as the magazine is concerned, the parting was amicable and you’ll get a good recommendation.” You appreciate Megan’s wonderful efficiency, but getting fired really wore you out and you would just as soon put the question of new employment on hold. Right now you would like to drink some more of this wine and sink a little deeper into the upholstery. You would like to show Megan how grateful you are. You reach over and take her hand. “Thanks,” you say. “And don’t be afraid to ask for a loan to tide you over.” “You’re terrific.” “I just want to help you get back on your feet.” Not now, you think. You’d rather lie down. Bury your head in Megan’s lap and stay there for a week or two. The bed is just a few feet away.

• From The Art of Seduction (2001)

  tions, mute your own colors and let them look funny and radiant by comparison. In general, play the Charmer. The reward of seducing Crushed Stars is that you stir up powerful emotions. They will feel intensely grateful to you for letting them shine. To whatever extent they had felt crushed and bottled up, the easing of that pain releases intensity and passion, all directed at you. They will fall madly in love. If you yourself have any star or dandy tendencies it is wise to avoid such victims. Sooner or later those tendencies will come out, and the competition between you will be ugly. The Novice. What separates Novices from ordinary innocent young people is that they are fatally curious. They have little or no experience of the world, but have been exposed to it secondhand—in newspapers, films, books. Finding their innocence a burden, they long to be initiated into the ways of the world. Everyone sees them as so sweet and innocent, but they know this isn't so—they cannot be as angelic as people think them. Seducing a Novice is easy. To do it well, however, requires a bit of art. Novices are interested in people with experience, particularly people with a touch of corruption and evil. Make that touch too strong, though, and it will intimidate and frighten them. What works best with a Novice is a mix of qualities. You are somewhat childlike yourself, with a playful spirit. At the same time, it is clear that you have hidden depths, even sinister ones. (This was the secret of Lord Byron's success with so many innocent women.) You are initiating your Novices not just sexually but experien-tially, exposing them to new ideas, taking them to new places, new worlds both literal and metaphoric. Do not make your seduction ugly or seedy— everything must be romantic, even including the evil and dark side of life. Young people have their ideals; it is best to initiate them with an aesthetic touch. Seductive language works wonders on Novices, as does attention to detail. Spectacles and colorful events appeal to their sensitive senses. They are easily misled by these tactics, because they lack the experience to see through them. Sometimes Novices are a little older and have been at least somewhat educated in the ways of the world. Yet they put on a show of innocence, for they see the power it has over older people. These are coy Novices, aware of the game they are playing—but Novices they remain. They may be less easily misled than purer Novices, but the way to seduce them is pretty much the same—mix innocence and corruption and you will fascinate them.

• From Looking for Alaska (2005)

  Ilene is like a fairy godmother, only real, and also better dressed. Second, that I am amazingly fortunate to have Julie Strauss-Gabel as my editor at Dutton, and even luckier to have become her friend. Julie is every writer’s dream editor: caring, passionate, and inarguably brilliant. This right here, her acknowledgment, is the one thing in the whole book she couldn’t edit, and I think we can agree it suffered as a result. Third, that Donna Brooks believed in this story from the beginning and did much to shape it. I’m also indebted to Margaret Woollatt of Dutton, whose name contains too many consonants but who is a really top-notch person. And thanks as well to the talented Sarah Shumway, whose careful reading and astute comments were a blessing to me. Fourth, that I am very grateful to my agent, Rosemary Sandberg, who is a tireless advocate for her authors. Also, she is British. She says “Cheers” when she means to say “Later.” How great is that? Fifth, that the comments of my two best friends in the entire world, Dean Simakis and Will Hickman, were essential to the writing and revision of this story, and that I, uh, you know, love them. Sixth, that I am indebted to, among many others, Shannon James (roommate), Katie Else (I promised), Hassan Arawas (friend), Braxton Goodrich (cousin), Mike Goodrich (lawyer, and also cousin), Daniel Biss (professional mathematician), Giordana Segneri (friend), Jenny Lawton (long story), David Rojas and Molly Hammond (friends), Bill Ott (role model), Amy Krouse Rosenthal (got me on the radio), Stephanie Zvirin (gave me my first real job), P. F. Kluge (teacher), Diane Martin (teacher), Perry Lentz (teacher), Don Rogan (teacher), Paul MacAdam (teacher—I am a big fan of teachers), Ben Segedin (boss and friend), and the lovely Sarah Urist. Seventh, that I attended high school with a wonderful bunch of people. I would like to particularly thank the indomitable Todd Cartee and also Olga Charny, Sean Titone, Emmett Cloud, Daniel Alarcon, Jennifer Jenkins, Chip Dunkin, and MLS. TURN THE PAGE FOR A READERS GUIDE TO JOHN GREEN Readers Guide © 2019 by John Green Dear Reader, Looking for Alaska began for me in September of 2001. I’d just turned 24, and I was working at Booklist magazine as an editorial assistant and occasional book reviewer. One of my editors, the children’s book author Ilene Cooper, often encouraged me to actually write the boarding school story I was always pitching to her. She even gave me a deadline: March 1, 2002. Then on September 11, the World Trade Center was attacked. A few days later, my girlfriend and I broke up. I used to think that our breakup caused my nearly catastrophic period of depression that fall, but now I understand that my depression at least in part caused the breakup.

• From The Art of Seduction (2001)

  whole country round, who There he found that he could proceed no farther, since communications had come to the city in had been cut off, and so, without waiting for further orders, he rode back order to advance a suit-at-law. But before Love to Paris, without an escort, through enemy territory. He could meet with sought to vanquish the Pauline only briefly; Napoleon sent him right back to Spain. It was months gentleman by means of this before he was finally allowed to return, but when he did, Pauline immedi-lady's beauty, he had first won her heart by letting ately resumed her affair with him—an unheard-of act of loyalty on her her see the perfections of part. This time Napoleon sent Canouville to Germany and finally to Rus-this young lord; for in good sia, where he died bravely in battle in 1812. He was the only lover Pauline looks, grace, sense and excellence of speech he was ever waited for, and the only one she ever mourned. surpassed by none. • You, who know what speedy way is made by the fire of Interpretation. In seduction, the time often comes when the target has belove when once it fastens on the heart and fancy, will gun to fall for you, but suddenly pulls back. Your motives have begun to Prove Yourself • 327 seem dubious—perhaps all you are after is sexual favors, or power, or readily imagine that money. Most people are insecure and doubts like these can ruin the seduc-between two subjects so perfect as these it knew tive illusion. In the case of Pauline Bonaparte, she was quite accustomed to little pause until it had using men for pleasure, and she knew perfectly well that she was being used them at its will, and had in turn. She was totally cynical. But people often use cynicism to cover up so filled them with its clear insecurity. Pauline's secret anxiety was that none of her lovers had ever light, that thought, wish, and speech were all aflame really loved her—that all of them to a man had really just wanted sex or with it. Youth, begetting political favors from her. When Canouville showed, through concrete ac- fear in the young lord, led tions, the sacrifices he would make for her—his tooth, his career, his life— him to urge his suit with all the gentleness he transformed a deeply selfish woman into a devoted lover. Not that her imaginable; but she, being response was completely unselfish: his deeds were a boost to her vanity. If conquered by love, had no she could inspire these actions from him, she must be worth it. But if he need of force to win her. Nevertheless, shame, which was going to appeal to the noble sede of her nature, she had to rise to that tarries with ladies as long level as well, and prove herself by remaining loyal to him. as it can, for some time

• From The Art of Seduction (2001)

  tions, mute your own colors and let them look funny and radiant by comparison. In general, play the Charmer. The reward of seducing Crushed Stars is that you stir up powerful emotions. They will feel intensely grateful to you for letting them shine. To whatever extent they had felt crushed and bottled up, the easing of that pain releases intensity and passion, all directed at you. They will fall madly in love. If you yourself have any star or dandy tendencies it is wise to avoid such victims. Sooner or later those tendencies will come out, and the competition between you will be ugly. The Novice. What separates Novices from ordinary innocent young people is that they are fatally curious. They have little or no experience of the world, but have been exposed to it secondhand—in newspapers, films, books. Finding their innocence a burden, they long to be initiated into the ways of the world. Everyone sees them as so sweet and innocent, but they know this isn't so—they cannot be as angelic as people think them. Seducing a Novice is easy. To do it well, however, requires a bit of art. Novices are interested in people with experience, particularly people with a touch of corruption and evil. Make that touch too strong, though, and it will intimidate and frighten them. What works best with a Novice is a mix of qualities. You are somewhat childlike yourself, with a playful spirit. At the same time, it is clear that you have hidden depths, even sinister ones. (This was the secret of Lord Byron's success with so many innocent women.) You are initiating your Novices not just sexually but experien-tially, exposing them to new ideas, taking them to new places, new worlds both literal and metaphoric. Do not make your seduction ugly or seedy— everything must be romantic, even including the evil and dark side of life. Young people have their ideals; it is best to initiate them with an aesthetic touch. Seductive language works wonders on Novices, as does attention to detail. Spectacles and colorful events appeal to their sensitive senses. They are easily misled by these tactics, because they lack the experience to see through them. Sometimes Novices are a little older and have been at least somewhat educated in the ways of the world. Yet they put on a show of innocence, for they see the power it has over older people. These are coy Novices, aware of the game they are playing—but Novices they remain. They may be less easily misled than purer Novices, but the way to seduce them is pretty much the same—mix innocence and corruption and you will fascinate them.

• From The Art of Seduction (2001)

  the eyes saluted her most If their character is showy, we may be momentarily attracted, but the at-pleasantly. • "God save traction wears off; there is no depth, no contrary motion, to pull us in. The you, lovely woman!" • key to both attracting and holding attention is to radiate mystery. And no "Thank you," said the girl, and continued very one is naturally mysterious, at least not for long; mystery is something you bashfully, "may God have to work at, a ploy on your part, and something that must be used early Almighty, who makes all on in the seduction. Let one part of your character show, so everyone no-hearts glad, gladden your heart and mind! And my tices it. (In the example of Wilde, this was the mannered affectation con- Send Mixed Signals • 191 veyed by his clothes and poses.) But also send out a mixed signal—some grateful thanks to you! — sign that you are not what you seem, a paradox. Do not worry if this yet not forgetting a bone I have to pick with you." • underquality is a negative one, like danger, cruelty, or amorality; people "Ah, sweet woman, what will be drawn to the enigma anyway, and pure goodness is rarely seductive. have I done?" was courteous Rivalin's reply. • Paradox with him was only truth standing on its head to "You have annoyed me through a friend of mine, attract attention. the best I ever had. " • "Good heavens," thought — R I C H A R D LE GALLIENNE, ON HIS FRIEND OSCAR WILDE he, "what does this mean? What have I done to displease her? What does Keys to Seduction she say I have done?" and he imagined that unwittingly he must have Nothing can proceed in seduction unless you can attract and hold your injured a kinsman of hers victim's attention, your physical presence becoming a haunting men- some time at their knightly tal presence. It is actually quite easy to create that first stir—an alluring style sports and that was why she was vexed with him. of dress, a suggestive glance, something extreme about you. But what hap- But no, the friend she pens next? Our minds are barraged with images—not just from media but referred to was her heart, in from the disorder of daily life. And many of these images are quite striking. which he made her suffer: You become just one more thing screaming for attention; your attractive- that was the friend she spoke of But he knew ness will pass unless you spark the more enduring kind of spell that makes nothing of that. • "Lovely people think of you in your absence. That means engaging their imagina- woman," he said with all tions, making them think there is more to you than what they see. Once his accustomed charm, "I do not want you to be they start embellishing your image with their fantasies, they are hooked.