Brilliant Rocket Scientist Killed in Explosion screamed the front-pageheadline of the Los Angeles Times on June 18, 1952. John Parsons, a maverickrocketeer whose work had helped transform space flight from a derided sci-fifantasy into a reality, was at first mourned as a 37-year old genius lost to atragic accident.  But as reporters dug deeper, a shocking story emerged:Parsons had been a practitioner of black Magic.

George Pendle re-creates the world of John Whiteside Parsons in this dazzlingportrait of prewar superstition, cold war paranoia, and futuristic possibility. A lonely misfit born into a wealthy family, Parsons spent his childhood dreamingof space flight.  He launched rockets in his backyard, his imaginationfueled by "plulps" like Amazing Stories.  By his early twenties, hewas leader of Caltech's "Suicide Squad" -- a motley band of enthusiasticyoung men who founded the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the institution thattook America to the Moon and beyond.

Yet the wild imagination that fueled his science was also leading Parsonsinto the occult -- for if he could make rocketry a reality, why not magic? As his dabblings become devotion, fantasy's pull became stronger than reality's,and his lost both his work and his wife (not to mention his girlfriend, who ranoff with L. Ron Hubbard).

With a cast of characters that includes Aleister Crowley, Howard Hughes,Robert Heinlein, Theodore von Karman, and Albert Einstein, Strange Angelexplores the unruly consequences of genius.

From Publishers Weekly:
Pendle vividly tells the story of a mysterious and forgotten man who embodiedthe contradictions of his time. Throughout the 1930s, John Whiteside Parsons(1914–1952) was a pioneer of rocket science, a fixture at Caltech with anuncanny ability to understand and control the dynamics of explosions, thoughhe'd never completed an undergraduate degree. At the same time, Parsons was akey figure in the Los Angeles occult scene, presiding over a world ofincantations, black magic and orgiastic excess. Science journalist Pendle (Timesof London, Financial Times) follows Parsons on his journey through both scienceand the occult as he explored the connections between the two at a time whenscience fiction crashed into science fact (and when the practitioners of oneoften dabbled in the other. The book tells the story of the research that formedthe basis for both missile defense and space flight, but Parsons himself was atragic figure, left behind by both the science he helped to found and the womenhe loved. Marshaling a cast of characters ranging from Robert Millikan to L. RonHubbard, Pendle offers a fascinating glimpse into a world long past, a storythat would make a compelling work of fiction if it weren't so astonishinglytrue. 8 pages of b&w photos not seen by PW.
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From Booklist:
In a riveting tale of rocketry, the occult, and boom-and-bust 1920s and 1930sLos Angeles, science writer Pendle presents the first in-depth portrait of JohnWhiteside Parsons, a pioneer in rocket propulsion and an eccentric right out ofan Ed Woods movie. Pendle shrewdly places handsome and charismatic Parsons--aman of dramatic contradictions and an insouciance that led to his horrific deathat age 37 in 1952--on the cusp between the era in which rockets were dismissedas pulp science fiction fantasy (of which Parsons eagerly partook) and themilieu in which rockets and space travel became realities. A self-taught chemistwith an affinity for explosives, Parsons teamed up with Frank Malina and therest of the so-called Suicide Squad in the dangerous quest for dependable rockettechnology. Parsons became cofounder of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and anaerospace company, but he was also a member of the licentious Church of Thelema,a ludicrous invention of the English mystic Aleister Crowley. Equally cogent ininterpreting the scientific and personal facets of Parsons' alluringlyscandalous and confounding life, Pendle greatly enlivens the story of rocketry.Donna Seaman
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About the Author:
George Pendle writes about science for the Times (London) and the FinancialTimes, among other publications. He lives in New York City.