posted 12-08-2010 06:13 AM               

Think of it as "Mad Men" meets "The Right Stuff" or "The Real Housewives of Cape Canaveral."

"The Astronaut Wives Club," Lily Koppel's second book (after "The Red Leather Diary"), has all of the above plus a dash of publishing excitement. After an extended auction, the book sold recently to Grand Central Publishing for a high-six-figure sum. "An imprint at every house in town" was interested in the book, said a source familiar with the deal.

Tentatively slated for release in spring 2013, "The Astronaut Wives Club" will follow the spouses of men in the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo programs, who lived in a Houston neighborhood they called "Togethersville."

The wives "drank together, popped pills together, consoled each other," Koppel, who's written for The Times, told Gatecrasher. While their husbands traveled in space - and cavorted with groupies known as "Cape Cookies" in Cape Canaveral, a no-wives zone - the women were left to maintain what Koppel calls the "facade of the perfect American family" for the fleet of cameras that invaded their homes.

The wives were proto-reality-stars. Life magazine purchased the exclusive rights to their stories for $500,000, divided among all the families. The deal also granted the astronauts life insurance policies, which no one else would provide. In return, the families lived with reporters camped on their lawns and crawling in through their windows -- essentially embedded in suburbia.

Meanwhile, the husbands returning to Earth had Don Draper-worthy existential angst. Some, like Buzz Aldrin, fell into depression and alcoholism. Most of the marriages split after the space effort. But while the astronauts lost track of one another, the wives stayed in touch. Even now, Koppel found, they gather for cruises and reunions.

Koppel's agent, Larry Weissman of Larry Weissman Literary, tells us there's already interest in the film rights to the book. He added, though, that he sees the story more as "a really smart TV series."

posted 12-08-2010 05:18 PM               

I have to be honest I felt it was going to be the worst of all 12 episodes as it didn't really concentrate on the mission aspect with those wonderful special effects so prevalent in most of the other episodes,but I was pleasantly surprised and it gave me a much clearer idea into what went on in the minds of the wives.

I learned some things I hadn't known before, such as Susan Borman's drinking problem, Pat White's suicide in the 80's, how many of the astronauts were away from home so much of the time (some scenes include Marilyn Lovell revealing to Jim that she is four months pregnant, and in 1972 telling him that all of their kids had their tonsils removed in 1965!)

The wives obviously rallied around the likes of Marilyn See, Pat White, Martha Chaffee after their husband's deaths, but it is clear that once their husband's were dead they no longer felt important, and gradually drifted apart from the other wives they had been friendly with for so long.

posted 12-10-2010 03:20 PM               

I remember watching "The Astronaut Wives Club" episode of "From the Earth to the Moon" and first thinking "Why aren't they covering Apollo 16 like they have the previous missions?". As I watched further, I realized that this was one of the better episodes of the series, for it involved a topic that has not been talked about as much as the science and the flying: the "war" at home, the struggles of the wives to raise children and run households with very little help from their spouses due to their training schedules, the struggles with the press, and the anguish of loss of a husband in the course of their duties.

After reading the posts on here, I got the chance to watch "Apollo Wives", which was a BBC doccumentary from a few years ago about the wives of many of the Apollo astronauts. It is a great doccumentatry, and I feel that it really brought home the emotions and events that took place behind the scenes during the race to the moon. It was interesting to hear their side of the story, how they coped with the issues that faced them. One of the more emotional moments was when Martha Chaffee talked about "the Fire", the loss of her husband, and how she talked to their children about what happened. I must admit that I found it interesting that while they showed excerpts from Beth Williams' interviews, they did not talk to her about the loss of her husband or much else about how events affected her.

posted 11-09-2012 12:37 PM               

In a thoroughly researched page-turner that transports readers back to the beginnings of our space race, bestselling author Lily Koppel reveals for the first time the stories and secrets of America's unsung heroes-the wives of our original astronauts.

As America's Mercury Seven astronauts were launched on death-defying missions, television cameras focused on the brave smiles of their young wives. Overnight, these women were transformed from military spouses into American royalty. They had tea with Jackie Kennedy, appeared on the cover of Life magazine, and quickly grew into fashion icons, donning sherbet-swirled Pucci dresses and lacquering their hair into extravagant rocket styles.

Annie Glenn, with her picture-perfect marriage and many magazine features, was the envy of the other wives; platinum-blonde bombshell Rene Carpenter was proclaimed JFK's favorite; Betty Grissom worried her husband was having affairs; Louise Shepard just wanted to be left alone; and licensed pilot Trudy Cooper arrived on base with a dirty secret. With each spectacular launch, they worried they might never see their husbands again. Together they formed the Astronaut Wives Club.

A fascinating, dishy and moving read, set against the backdrop of the Space Age and a country that would be forever changed by it, The Astronaut Wives Club tells the real story of the women who stood beside some of the biggest heroes in American history.

Lily Koppel is the bestselling author of The Red Leather Diary: Reclaiming a Life Through the Pages of a Lost Journal (Harper, 2008). She has written for the New York Times, the New York Times Magazine, the New York Times Book Review, the Huffington Post, and Glamour.

• Hardcover: 384 pages
  
• Publisher: Grand Central Publishing (June 11, 2013)
  
• ISBN-10: 1455503258
  
• ISBN-13: 978-1455503254

posted 02-21-2013 06:44 AM               

quote:

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Originally posted by garymilgrom:
What is a "dishy read"?

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posted 02-21-2013 11:59 AM               

quote:

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Originally posted by AstroAutos:
The wives obviously rallied around the likes of Marilyn See, Pat White, Martha Chaffee after their husband's deaths, but it is clear that once their husband's were dead they no longer felt important, and gradually drifted apart from the other wives they had been friendly with for so long.

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posted 02-21-2013 12:14 PM               

quote:

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Originally posted by garymilgrom:
Hart how are you reading this if the release is still months away?

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posted 02-21-2013 02:56 PM            

quote:

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Originally posted by Hart Sastrowardoyo:
I believe it is actually the Aldrins and then then...

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posted 02-22-2013 08:54 AM            

quote:

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Originally posted by Hart Sastrowardoyo:
To be fair, the copy is marked as an uncorrected proof.

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In all that time and for all those books, I never saw an error that was in the page proofs fixed in the final book.

Just saying.

posted 02-23-2013 09:06 PM               

After the news of Elliot's death had been so bungled by NASA and the press, Togethersville banded together more than ever, especially protecting its widows and wives from the outside world - which in the case of Ted Freeman's death had been devastating.

Of more import is this from a later chapter:

A few days she (Joan Aldrin) wrote, "Had a long talk with Buzz, but still don't understand what he was driving at. Who makes the first exit from the lunar module on lunar surface is still very much an issue. And B was upset because he heard, via that terrible institution, the grapevine, that Deke's opinion was that Neil should be the first for historic reasons if nothing else."

Apollo 11's commander, Neil Armstrong, was a civilian, and both NASA and President Nixon felt it was important for Apollo 11 not to be seen as a form of military action, of lunar conquest, especially with the Vietnam War still raging.

1. The way the LEM was designed, wouldn't Neil have been the first to leave, because he was closest to the hatch?

2. If Apollo 11 failed to land, and it was up to Apollo 12 to do so, both Conrad and Bean were military. (And Armstrong is ex-military. Or you can argue NASA is a civilian agency and nobody has military rank.)

3. If they didn't want the lunar landing to be seen as a form of conquest, then why plant the US flag and not the UN flag?

posted 06-02-2013 12:52 PM            

Fifty years after the space race, these perfect painted women couldn't seem less relevant. Koppel...does not explain her interest in the women or give any reason why she decided to write the book. She doesn't say much about her sources and there is no indication which are new quotes and which, if any, are taken from old "Life" articles. There is a feeling that most of the material from the Moon landings themselves is lifted from the famous and furiously bored description written for "Life" by Norman Mailer. This gives the book a sheeny, fictional feel that is as Valiumed and twee as the endless cast of coiffed Betty Drapers.

...Otherwise this is a fun, unusual read - but if feels more like a tie-in with Mad Men than actual history.

posted 06-09-2013 06:20 PM               

quote:

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Originally posted by ColinBurgess:
Although I haven't read it as yet, Walt Cunningham and I discussed this book at the recent Spacefest conference. He told me there were so many inaccuracies and false facts in several so-called "insider stories" that he personally found it to be a very poor book.

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Which is why I didn't want to write a review on it. I know more about shuttle than MGA, and thus couldn't write a review.

posted 06-12-2013 06:27 AM               

Based on the extensive review and article in The Times recently, there seemed to be a moralizing stance against (in this article at least), the behavior of deceased astronauts. Given that the book is based on interviews with wives and ex-wives I was using the word "narrative" to relate to the source of the book's material. Granted, a newspaper review can be sensationalized, but I'm still curious as to whether the book (and indirectly, the former wives) are selective in whom they choose the criticize.

posted 06-12-2013 09:44 AM               

I don't know what a classic sheath is and I hope this is not a book that assumes a female audience.

posted 06-12-2013 10:04 AM               

quote:

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Originally posted by garymilgrom:
Also the author states Mrs. Carpenter's first name Rene rhymes with keen and I've never heard that before.

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posted 06-16-2013 08:11 PM               

The men of NASA's Mercury, Gemini and Apollo programs were national heroes -- a few even became icons.

But they were husbands, too -- most of them fathers -- and the wives who stayed behind while their OTHER halves explored OTHER worlds -- were part of a sisterhood with an orbit all its own.

posted 06-17-2013 10:49 AM            

The Epilogue final chapter is especially disappointing as it recounts the Wives' last reunion from 1991 — that's over twenty years ago. Okay, so most readers aren't interested in a whatever-happened-to-what-are-they-doing-now type of account for each and every wife, but at least a fuller accounting of some of the more interesting women is certainly in order. Like Betty Grissom — her own account was written nearly forty years ago. I was left wondering what she has been doing since the '70s? Didn't really get much of an answer here.

Similarly, Rene Carpenter — perhaps the most interesting of the wives also seems to disappear after we learn she hosted a TV show way back in the '70s and did launch commentary on NBC. Well, for such an interesting personality would it have been too much trouble to fill us in on her life for the past four decades?

posted 06-30-2013 10:31 AM               

To back up the claim the book is superficial and does not contain new research or even reasons for the behavior it talks about, here's a quote describing a dinner at the White House with Rene Carpenter and Jackie Kennedy:

"The two mothers and their children ate a perfect meal. To cap off the evening they went downstairs to pay a surprise visit to the Oval Office. President Kennedy was working late. Jackie fixed his tie, and soon the First Couple escorted their guests to a waiting limousine and hugged them goodnight."

Again this is the author writing, not copying a period piece. And here's a description of a group of wives preparing for a post flight motorcade:

"The only decision to be made was 'to hat or not to hat.' Jackie had begun being seen formally without a hat, so the wives felt they were no longer obliged to wear them either. Trudy still wanted to wear one, but her friends tried to convince her otherwise."

To me this just parrots the vacuous writing during the time the Mercury astronauts were flying. I was hoping for more insight into what was really going on in these women's lives. Even the title of the book implies this kind of behind the scenes writing.

posted 07-10-2013 06:10 PM            

Plus a major factual error about Tereshkova being pregnant at the time of her flight — well, her daughter was born a full year after in June 64.

Still a nicely produced book, some things I'd never heard before.

posted 07-15-2013 06:08 PM               

There are several issues that I have with the book, the first of which being there were entire passages that I felt a sense of deja vu, in which I felt I had seen them before. Some of them seemed to have been ripped from previous books I had read, and made me wonder if there was a lot of copy/paste involved.

The second involved the factual errors involved in the book, which included that Tereshkova was pregnant at the time of the Vostok 6 flight. Really? That would make for another record, that being the longest human pregnancy in history, given that Yelena was born in June of 1964. Also, there was a mention of Pete Conrad flying on Gemini 7. I know Pete was short, but I don't think he could have been a stowaway with Frank and Jim for two weeks!

The thing that bothers me the most is what is missing and what is limited. No mention is given on the Gemini 8 emergency, the Gemini 9 EVA, and it seemed like Apollo 13 was not given as much time in the book as it should have. It seemed to me the book was wrapped up before it had a chance to flourish, and if more time had been given to review it (maybe, say, by some members of this group ) maybe it would have been a better read.