Project Mars

To my surprise I find that Wernher von Braun's novel 'Project Mars'
has been published recently:

http://www.apogeespacebooks.com/Books/ProjectMars.html

This book probably ought to be subtitled THE MOST IMPORTANT SCIENTIFIC
APPENDIX EVER PUBLISHED!

The novel, its not the worst SF I have ever read, but its true I doubt
if even in 1950 anyone would have published this in the US.
Strange, the introduction is not signed, the translator wrote it?
Anyway this preface does not mention that when von Braun submitted
this to a German publisher in 1950 and the novel was rejected, but the
publisher/editor, thought the Appendix was dynamite!

That is how the small but famous book Das Marsprojekt, The Mars
Project, ..... the Colliers Magazine Series, the Disney Series and
Exploration of Mars came to be. Possibly, the Colliers Series provided
a lasting kick that got the Apollo program invented.

http://home.flash.net/~aajiv/bd/colliers.html

The 'scientific appendix' IS the most interesting thing here! Fairly
short , but the raw technical details are all there, I some amount of
reworking and of course added narrative when issued as THE MARS
PROJECT.

I notice a curious mix of Bonestell's in the book, some from Colliers
and some from Exploration of Mars, not a good job referencing these
paintings.

The 'Publisher's Introduction' seems ignorant or choose to neglect the
fact that John Campbell and his boys (Heinlein, Asimov, Clarke......)
had banished BEMS and Brass Bras to the realm of third string SF mags
starting about 1938! Realistic space flight Science Fiction was common
currency in 1950.
In fact, tho not about a Mars expedition, A. C. Clarke's Prelude to
Space was published in 1951, and as a novel its just about as dull as
von Braun's , but does have a more professional narrative.