"Drachen Riesen" (Dragon Giants) by Willy Ley. Stuttgart: Franckh'sche Verlagshandlung, (1953). Signed first ed.
Willy Ley (1906-1969) was a German-American science writer and space advocate who helped popularize rocketry and spaceflight both in Germany and in the United States. He was a rocket designer and co-founder of the world’s first rocket airfield in Berlin. In 1935, he fled Nazi Germany for Great Britain and then the United States.
Willy Ley also enjoyed writing about the mysteries of natural history and was one of the early chroniclers of cryptozoology. He wrote about Sea Serpents, Yeti and the possibilities of living dinosaurs. He also suggested that some legendary creatures (e.g. the Sirrush, the Unicorn and the Cyclops) might have been based on real species (or the misinterpretation of certain animals or their fossils or remains).
Many of his articles published in journals, newpapers and magazines were on cryptozoological topics. The German book “Drachen Riesen” (Dragon Giants) appears to be the German edition of Willy Ley’s “Dragons in Amber: Further Adventures of a Romantic Naturalist,” first published in the UK in 1951. It is an early example of Ley’s cryptozoological writings where he describes strange animals from yesterday and today and makes amazing connections between science and legend. He writes about extinct animals and animals from the distant past that are still living in hidden corners of the earth.
"Drachen Riesen" (Dragon Giants) by Willy Ley. Stuttgart: Franckh'sche Verlagshandlung, (1953). Signed first ed.
Willy Ley (1906-1969) was a German-American science writer and space advocate who helped popularize rocketry and spaceflight both in Germany and in the United States. He was a rocket designer and co-founder of the world’s first rocket airfield in Berlin. In 1935, he fled Nazi Germany for Great Britain and then the United States.
Willy Ley also enjoyed writing about the mysteries of natural history and was one of the early chroniclers of cryptozoology. He wrote about Sea Serpents, Yeti and the possibilities of living dinosaurs. He also suggested that some legendary creatures (e.g. the Sirrush, the Unicorn and the Cyclops) might have been based on real species (or the misinterpretation of certain animals or their fossils or remains).
Many of his articles published in journals, newpapers and magazines were on cryptozoological topics. The German book “Drachen Riesen” (Dragon Giants) appears to be the German edition of Willy Ley’s “Dragons in Amber: Further Adventures of a Romantic Naturalist,” first published in the UK in 1951. It is an early example of Ley’s cryptozoological writings where he describes strange animals from yesterday and today and makes amazing connections between science and legend. He writes about extinct animals and animals from the distant past that are still living in hidden corners of the earth.