[FPSPACE] Wernher von Braun's papers sold

[LARRY KLAES]

October 15, 2008 / 10:20 p.m. CT (0320 GMT Oct 16)

Plans for the future sold: On Wednesday, Bonhams auction house sold a 
collection of rocket pioneer Wernher von Braun's papers for $132,000. The 35 
diagrams, letters, and sketches guided the creation of illustrations that 
accompanied a series of magazine articles published under the headline "Man 
Will Conquer Space Soon!". The series, which ran in Collier's between 1952 
and 1954, was noted for introducing von Braun's space exploration plans.

Bonhams Sale 16116 - Fine Books and Manuscripts, 15 Oct 2008

Los Angeles and New York

Lot No: 1205

35 Autograph Diagrams, Sketches, and Letters, most Signed ("Wernher von 
Braun" and "Wernher"), 4to, [Huntsville, AL?], 1952-1953, being the basis 
for Chesley Bonestell, Fred Freeman, and Rolf Klep's illustrations for the 
series "Man will Conquer Space Soon!" in Collier's magazine, the plans and 
diagrams on graph paper, all extensively annotated, mounted on album leaves 
with stamp hinges, 4 framed and glazed.

During the 1950s, von Braun pursued his own fascination with space 
exploration, a counterfoil to his official work on military rockets which 
had culminated in the V-2 rocket fired on England on September 7, 1944. Just 
days before Germany's official surrender, von Braun and his team defected to 
the encroaching American Forces and were brought to the United States to 
head up the country's rocket development team.

While working on the Redstone rocket, von Braun produced a series of 
articles that formed the centerpiece of the series "Man Will Conquer Space 
Soon!", published in Collier's between March 22, 1952 and April 30, 1954. 
His dream was for a space station that could serve as the starting point for 
manned lunar landings, the construction of permanent lunar bases, and 
ultimately a mission to put men on Mars.

The present plans and sketches are the source material for the illustrations 
by Chesley Bonestell, Fred Freeman and Rolf Klep that accompanied the 
series. Bonestell's cover for Collier's, March 22, 1952, showed the front 
portion of the "3-Stage Satellite Vehicle" discarding the second booster, 
while in orbit around Earth. Nine heavily annotated diagrams by von Braun in 
the present group describe this vehicle and its orbits from different angles 
and at varying levels of detail.

Full article and one of the sketches here:

http://www.collectspace.com/ubb/Forum36/HTML/000232.html