Strange Angel
The Otherworldly Life of Rocket Scientist John Whiteside Parsons
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Narrated by:
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James Langton
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By:
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George Pendle
About this listen
Now a CBS All Access series: “A riveting tale of rocketry, the occult, and boom-and-bust 1920s and 1930s Los Angeles” (Booklist).
The Los Angeles Times headline screamed: ROCKET SCIENTIST KILLED IN PASADENA EXPLOSION. The man known as Jack Parsons, a maverick rocketeer who helped transform a derided sci-fi plotline into actuality, was at first mourned as a scientific prodigy. But reporters soon uncovered a more shocking story: Parsons had been a devotee of the city’s occult scene.
Fueled by childhood dreams of space flight, Parsons was a leader of the motley band of enthusiastic young men who founded the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a cornerstone of the American space program. But Parsons’s wild imagination also led him into a world of incantations and orgiastic rituals - if he could make rocketry a reality, why not black magic?
George Pendle re-creates the world of John Parsons in this dazzling portrait of prewar superstition, cold war paranoia, and futuristic possibility. Peopled with such formidable real-life figures as Howard Hughes, Aleister Crowley, L. Ron Hubbard, and Robert Heinlein, Strange Angel explores the unruly consequences of genius.
The basis for a new miniseries created by Mark Heyman and produced by Ridley Scott, this biography “vividly tells the story of a mysterious and forgotten man who embodied the contradictions of his time . . . when science fiction crashed into science fact. . . . [It] would make a compelling work of fiction if it weren’t so astonishingly true” (Publishers Weekly).
©2005 by George Pendle. (P)2019 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved.Listeners also enjoyed...
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It began with plutonium, the first element ever manufactured in quantity by humans. Fearing that the Germans would be the first to weaponize the atom, the United States marshaled brilliant minds and seemingly inexhaustible bodies to find a way to create a nuclear chain reaction of inconceivable explosive power. In a matter of months, the Hanford nuclear facility was built to produce and weaponize the enigmatic and deadly new material that would fuel atomic bombs.
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Lacking in many aspects
- By ATM on 08-27-20
By: Steve Olson
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The Radioactive Boy Scout
- The Frightening True Story of a Whiz Kid and His Homemade Nuclear Reactor
- By: Ken Silverstein
- Narrated by: Jonathan Todd Ross
- Length: 6 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
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Growing up in suburban Detroit, David Hahn was fascinated by science. While he was working on his Atomic Energy badge for the Boy Scouts, David's obsessive attention turned to nuclear energy. Throwing caution to the wind, he plunged into a new project: building a model nuclear reactor in his backyard garden shed. Posing as a physics professor, David solicited information on reactor design from the US government and from industry experts. Following blueprints he found in an outdated physics textbook, David cobbled together a crude device that threw off toxic levels of radiation.
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Interesting story
- By Kevin Gunter on 07-16-19
By: Ken Silverstein
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The Man Who Loved China
- By: Simon Winchester
- Narrated by: Simon Winchester
- Length: 9 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
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No cloistered don, this tall, married Englishman was a freethinking intellectual, who practiced nudism and was devoted to a quirky brand of folk dancing. In 1937, while working as a biochemist at Cambridge University, he instantly fell in love with a visiting Chinese student, with whom he began a lifelong affair. He soon became fascinated with China, and his mistress swiftly persuaded the ever-enthusiastic Needham to travel to her home country, where he embarked on a series of extraordinary expeditions to the farthest frontiers of this ancient empire.
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turn your watch back 70 years
- By Andy on 05-22-08
By: Simon Winchester
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Genius & Anxiety
- How Jews Changed the World, 1847-1947
- By: Norman Lebrecht
- Narrated by: Jonathan Davis
- Length: 18 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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Norman Lebrecht has devoted half of his life to pondering and researching the mindset of the Jewish intellectuals, writers, scientists, and thinkers who turned the tides of history and shaped the world today as we know it. In Genius & Anxiety, Lebrecht begins with the Communist Manifesto in 1847 and ends in 1947, when Israel was founded. This robust, magnificent volume, beautifully designed, is an urgent and necessary celebration of Jewish genius and contribution.
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Post-anxiety
- By Amaze on 03-27-20
By: Norman Lebrecht
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Knowing What We Know
- The Transmission of Knowledge: From Ancient Wisdom to Modern Magic
- By: Simon Winchester
- Narrated by: Simon Winchester
- Length: 14 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
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From the creation of the first encyclopedia to Wikipedia, from ancient museums to modern kindergarten classes—this is Simon Winchester’s brilliant and all-encompassing look at how humans acquire, retain, and pass on information and data, and how technology continues to change our lives and our minds. Throughout this fascinating tour, Winchester forces us to ponder what rational humans are becoming. What good is all this knowledge if it leads to lack of thought? What is information without wisdom?
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Colorful anecdotes but tiring after a while.
- By reader on 05-03-23
By: Simon Winchester
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Hidden Figures
- The American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Mathematicians Who Helped Win the Space Race
- By: Margot Lee Shetterly
- Narrated by: Robin Miles
- Length: 10 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
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Before John Glenn orbited the Earth or Neil Armstrong walked on the moon, a group of dedicated female mathematicians known as "human computers" used pencils, slide rules, and adding machines to calculate the numbers that would launch rockets and astronauts into space. Among these problem solvers were a group of exceptionally talented African American women, some of the brightest minds of their generation.
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Great Story of a History Obscured
- By Cynthia on 09-18-16
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J.R.R. Tolkien
- The Making of a Legend
- By: Colin Duriez
- Narrated by: Simon Vance
- Length: 6 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
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J.R.R. Tolkien's creations, imagination, and characters captured the attention of millions of readers. But who was the man who dreamt up the intricate languages and perfectly crafted world of Middle-earth? Tolkien had a difficult life, for many years: orphaned and poor, his guardian forbade him to communicate with the woman he had fallen in love with, and he went through the horrors of the First World War. An intensely private and brilliant scholar, he spent over 50 years working on the languages, history, peoples, and geography of Middle-earth,
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Very insightful
- By Luke B. on 10-27-20
By: Colin Duriez
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Hughes: The Private Diaries, Memos and Letters
- The Definitive Biography of the First American Billionaire
- By: Richard Hack
- Narrated by: Dan Cashman
- Length: 17 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
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Howard Hughes was a true American original: legendary lover, record-setting aviator, award-winning film producer, talented inventor, ultimate eccentric, and, for much of his lifetime, the richest man in the United States. His desire for privacy was so fierce and his isolation so complete that even now, 25 years after his death, inaccurate stories continue to circulate, and many have been published as fact. Hughes explodes the illusion of his life and exposes the man behind the myth. He was a playboy whose sexual exploits with Hollywood stars were legendary.
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GOOD READ
- By Randall on 04-25-09
By: Richard Hack
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"The Rest of Us"
- The Rise of America's Eastern European Jews
- By: Stephen Birmingham
- Narrated by: Mel Foster
- Length: 18 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
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The wave of Eastern European Jewish immigrants who swept into New York in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries by way of Ellis Island were not welcomed by the Jews who had arrived decades before. These refugees from czarist Russia and the Polish shtetls who came to America to escape pogroms and persecution were considered barbaric, uneducated, and too steeped in the traditions of the "old country" to be accepted by the more refined and already well-established German-Jewish community. But the new arrivals were tough, passionate, and determined.
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Book 3 of 3
- By Etoile NEOhio on 11-15-22
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The Bomber Mafia
- A Dream, a Temptation, and the Longest Night of the Second World War
- By: Malcolm Gladwell
- Narrated by: Malcolm Gladwell
- Length: 5 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
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Malcolm Gladwell, author of New York Times best sellers including Talking to Strangers and host of the podcast Revisionist History, uses original interviews, archival footage, and his trademark insight to weave together the stories of a Dutch genius and his homemade computer, a band of brothers in Central Alabama, a British psychopath, and pyromaniacal chemists at Harvard. As listeners hear these stories unfurl, Gladwell examines one of the greatest moral challenges in modern American history.
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Listen to the same story on his podcast for free
- By Dustin on 04-28-21
By: Malcolm Gladwell
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The Hypomanic Edge
- The Link Between (A Little) Craziness and (A Lot of) Success in America
- By: John D. Gartner
- Narrated by: Stephen R. Thorne
- Length: 10 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
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Bringing his audacious and persuasive thesis to life, Gartner offers case histories of some famous Americans who represent this phenomenon of hypomania. These are the real stories you never learned in school about some of those men who made America: Columbus, who discovered the continent, thought he was the messiah. John Winthrop, who settled and defined it, believed Americans were God's new chosen people. Alexander Hamilton, the indispensable founder who envisioned America's economic future, self-destructed because of pride and impulsive behavior.
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Keep striving for greatness
- By Tina on 03-06-20
By: John D. Gartner
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Geniuses at War
- Bletchley Park, Colossus, and the Dawn of the Digital Age
- By: David A. Price
- Narrated by: John Lee
- Length: 5 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
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Planning the invasion of Normandy, the Allies knew that decoding the communications of the Nazi high command was imperative for its success. But standing in their way was an encryption machine they called Tunny (British English for “tuna”), which was vastly more difficult to crack than the infamous Enigma cipher.
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ok not great
- By JTA98 on 12-09-21
By: David A. Price
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The Age of Radiance
- The Epic Rise and Dramatic Fall of the Atomic Era
- By: Craig Nelson
- Narrated by: George Newbern
- Length: 14 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
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From the New York Times best-selling author of Rocket Men and the award-winning biographer of Thomas Paine comes the first complete history of the Atomic Age, a brilliant, magisterial account of the men and women who uncovered the secrets of the nucleus, brought its power to America, and ignited the 20th century.
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Strong finish
- By David's Opinions and Reviews on 05-04-14
By: Craig Nelson
What listeners say about Strange Angel
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Roderick Molasar
- 09-08-22
If Parsons had only lived to the age of 53.
He would have witnessed our first manned Lunar Landing. He died far too young, dang it.
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- wahwah
- 10-29-22
One of the most captivating stories ever
Jack Parsons is one of the most interesting historical figures to grace this earth and also the moon. He's the Forrest Gump of the early 20th century. He was present at so much of the big historical moments. His story is a modern day Gilgamesh or Odyssey. His life story drew me in more than any other biography I have ever encountered. The narrator is great. He has a pleasant voice. I cannot recommend this enough. I went back and re-started it immediately after I finished because I know I missed some stuff.
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- Nichole
- 01-22-23
Loved it!!!
An amazing book. So great to listen to my favorite book! I will definitely be relistening many many times!!!
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- Colt Nichols
- 10-27-19
Biography of rocketry and the occult
This seemed to be equal parts biography, local Pasadena history lesson, and a glimpse of the occult in the 1930s, with rocketry as the underlying theme tying all together. I thoroughly enjoyed it since Im a rocket enthusiast, but I gave it 4 rather than 5 stars because I felt the story often diverged into too many unecessary details, such as sometimes feeling more like a biography of Allister Crowley towards the end, for instance. Anyone interested in rockets or the occult, and particularly both, will definitely enjoy this.
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- Tom Green
- 02-25-21
truth is stranger than fiction
what a ride. this is the dirty laundry of the space race. werner von braun almost looks saintly in comparison.
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- William
- 01-20-24
Genius and Madness
John Whiteside Parsons was better known as Jack Parsons, but “better known” is probably a relative term. If you’ve never heard of him before, neither had I, but George Pendle has given us his biography. He died in 1952 at the age of 37 in a mysterious accident caused by some explosives he was mixing in a garage workshop. There were many rumors, wondering if it was truly an accident, or possibly suicide, or maybe even a well-concealed murder and after his death, more details of his involvement with the occult and mysterious rituals sullied his reputation even further.
And yet his life was truly extraordinary in so many ways and his influence on the modern world was so great that his biography is certainly worth reading. He was born in 1914 and grew up in Pasadena, California, an only child in a very wealthy family. He was spoiled and chauffeured to school in a limousine, but his family lost most of its wealth in the depression and he was not even able to afford to finish college. He also had trouble completing all the course work, being easily distracted, but was clearly very smart. He developed a fascination with the idea of travel into space through reading Jules Verne and he became convinced that it could be done. And he began experimenting even in his youth, getting expelled from several schools for accidental explosions. His first real job was at an explosives manufacturer, but he used the time and experience to experiment with the different burn rates of various explosives and searched for alternatives to the slower burning types that are used in munitions and that would be useful in rockets. And this at a time when “rockets” meant the fireworks that the Chinese were famous for inventing and a fantasy of science fiction writers, not something true scientists would take any stock in.
He soon became well known for his expertise in explosives, even called on to help with crime investigations or to testify at trials. And he soon gathered a following of other dreamers and what we would now call “geeks” around him who continued to experiment and try new ideas for rocket designs and various fuels. He eventually became a one of three men invited to join the California Institute of Technology's rocket research group, which they later named the “Jet Propulsion Laboratory” because rockets were still looked on by most as just toys. He later received a grant from a wealthy donor to fund more serious experiments. As news came of Germany’s experiments with rocketry surfaced, and then America’s war preparations, he formed a company and was able to convince the military that rockets could even assist aircraft in short takeoffs. They had demonstrated their effectiveness with several types of planes by 1939. Soon after that, his group launched the first airplane flight that was powered only by rockets and by 1944 were supplying the military with 20,000 per month. With the end of the war, the military began to lose interest and planes were becoming more powerful. Eventually General Tire and Rubber took a controlling interest in his company and later Parsons was convinced to sell his stock for a pittance, partly because it was feared that his religious interests would become a problem for the company.
During all of this, Parsons, like many other early scientists, had become very interested in magic and in the occult. He joined a religious group, the Thelemas, that promoted free love, alcohol and drugs, and midnight magic rituals. One of those who became involved in his group was L. Ron Hubbard. His relationship with Hubbard ends with Hubbard leaving the country with Parson’s “wife” Sara and most of his life savings. Hubbard later went on to mix some of the rituals, the ideas, and the “science” into a new “religion” which he called Scientology. After leaving his company, he did various other work in rocketry and missiles but was accused of being a subversive because of his involvement in occultic practices and was stripped of his security clearance. He eventually got it back and got a job with Hughes Aircraft and then was offered a job by the new nation of Israel which was trying to develop a rocket program. When he was working on some technical reports for Israel, he was accused of espionage and his security clearance was removed again. He never worked in rocketry again.
When he died, the police report stated that it was an accident. He was know to have sweaty hands and he was mixing some explosives in a coffee can and it was likely that it slipped from his hand. Some said that it was an execution by someone in the government or maybe from Hughes for possibly taking company secrets to give to Israel Others said, however, that he was depressed and that it was suicide, though Pendle thinks that is very unlikely since he and his wife were leaving that day for a vacation and he was rushing to finish up a batch of explosives for a client before they could leave. When you think of space and rockets, there are a lot of names that pop up but his is not one of them, at least not in popular culture. He was mostly forgotten. But his hand is behind so much of today’s aerospace industry. He believed in rocket and jeg propulsion when those ideas were considered wild fiction suitable for only those who didn’t understand science. He invented the solid fuel that is still used in many rockets and missiles today. He was self-taught, never having even graduated from college, much less having any advanced degree. And he kept at it even when no one else believed. And he had good company. Interestingly, among Wernher von Braun’s papers, it was discovered that he long had a subscription to the American magazine Astounding Science Fiction and even when the US and Germany went to war, he kept that subscription using a mail drop in neutral Sweden. Both of them got many of their ideas and inspiration from the stories and the drawings from that magazine.
Pendle describes Parsons with care and without judgment. He paints the portrait as he saw it, realistic, with flaws amidst beauty. His portrayal shows the oft seen fine line between genius and madness. He takes little effort to explain how it all fit together other than what seems obvious from what you can see.
The story is disturbing in many ways. You see a man who was not evil in the sense that we normally think. He was generous with others and seemed as comfortable with relative poverty as with wealth. He had a hard time saying no. He had a goal and he pursued it with vigor. His fascination with the occult is hard to fathom and raises many unanswerable questions. It is a story both interesting and sad. This isn’t a book for everyone. Almost anyone would be disturbed, to put it mildly, by his personal life. It is hard not to be reminded of C. S. Lewis’ Space Trilogy. But his work as a rocket scientist deserves to be known. Pendle has done a good job. Whether the book is for you is another issue.
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- another know it all
- 12-09-19
interesting
clearly written as non fiction, this is a factual account and reads a little dry. it was interesting to me as a boomer having heard almost all the names mentioned but not really not knowing much about the man behind the name or accomplishment.
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- Kindle Customer Bobbie
- 07-05-21
Very good Story
This is not what I usually listen to But it is a real great telling and the speaker is wonderful
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- Fred C. Michael
- 01-22-23
Fascinating and Strange Indeed
Although there are parts which detail the processes of both chemical and mechanical experimentations which might be too tedious for a reader not interested in such things, the story of Jack Parsons and his associations with the worlds of science, occult and the grey area between the two, truly is otherworldly.
I’m tempted to read it again because there’s so much there. The history of Los Angeles, rocketry, and his obsession with magic make this book a true, strange new worlds to explore.
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- Scott
- 10-13-19
Excellent biography of John Parsons
This was a very interesting history of the 1920-1940’s LA/Pasadena scene, rocketry in the U.S., and John (Jack) Parsons, as well as some of his contemporaries such as L. Ron Hubbard. I very much enjoyed learning about this period and the rather fascinating role that John Parson’s played.
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6 people found this helpful