Rocket Girl: The Story of Mary Sherman Morgan, America's First Female Rocket Scientist

by George D. Morgan, Joe Barrett (Narrator)

In 1938, a young German rocket enthusiast named Wernher von Braun had dreams of building a rocket that could fly him to the moon. In Ray, North Dakota, a young farm girl named Mary Sherman was attending high school. In an age when girls rarely dreamed of a career in science, Mary wanted to be a chemist. A decade later the dreams of these two disparate individuals would coalesce in ways neither could have imagined. World War II and the Cold War space race with the Russians changed the fates of both von Braun and Mary Sherman Morgan. When von Braun and other top engineers could not find a solution to the repeated failures that plagued the nascent U.S. rocket program, North American Aviation, where Sherman Morgan then worked, was given the challenge. Recognizing her talent for chemistry, company management turned the assignment over to young Mary. In the end, America succeeded in launching rockets into space, but only because of the joint efforts of the brilliant farm girl from North Dakota and the famous German scientist. While von Braun went on to become a high-profile figure in NASA's manned space flight, Mary Sherman Morgan and her contributions fell into obscurity--until now.

Genres: Nonfiction, Biography, History, Science, Space, Biography Memoir, Feminism

Audible Audio

First published July 9, 2013

Reviews

[Grace · Rating 1 out of 5]

Mary Sherman Morgan's story is empowering and interesting. I'd love to learn more about her. But, this book is proof that you probably shouldn't pen your mother's biography, insert yourself into the narrative, or make so much of it about you. I tried to overlook all of the times George Morgan's narrative veered to himself and present day, jarring me from the real story. I was even willing to overlook the choppiness of the writing and the comma splices. Until page 278...

"...Like throwing a baby shower for a girl who had been gang raped, the whole circus would turn a blind eye to what got them there in the first place."

Really? What the...?

He couldn't come up with a better analogy?

That was the last time George Morgan jarred me from the narrative. I almost stopped reading the book after that sentence, but with less than 20 pages to go and the knowledge that Mary Sherman Morgan was already so obscure, I read on. For her.

If the gang rape sentence hadn't happened, this would have probably been a three star review.

[Sydney · Rating 2 out of 5]

Although this was an incredibly interesting topic, I found the way in which this book was written to be very jarring. The author frequently mentions how difficult it was to find out about his mother's life and the part she played in the space program, so to read scenes and chapters where he writes whole dialogues and goes through what's going on in her mind was very disconcerting. I understand that he was trying to make the story more interesting by imagining scenes from her life, but it bothered me. I would have prefered it to be just a straight biography. I guess I'm boring, but I don't mind that kind of writing if the person is interesting enough, and I think Mary Sherman Morgan might have qualified.

[Jean · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have read a number of books in the past year about women and minorities in the space field. In June of 2013 a NASA astronaut class was, for the first time, 50 percent women. I read a book a few years ago about Sally Ride on the 30th anniversary of her flight. Also, read of the 50th anniversary of Valentine Tereshkova’s historic space flight. This year I read the books “Rocket Girls” and “Hidden Figures”. It has been a long hard battle for women to be accepted in the field.

This book is about Mary Sherman Morgan who played a key role in the launch of the first satellite, Explorer 1 in 1958. The book is written by her son. He tells of her life on a farm in North Dakota to running away to go to college. Morgan was gifted in chemistry and mathematics. Morgan was the first women hired in a technical position at North American Aviation in the late 1940s. She was a chemist at the Plum Brook Ordnance Works during World War II. Mary had to overcome poverty, emotional abuse, sexism and government bureaucracy to achieve her goals. She developed a reputation as an expert in developing propellant combinations for rockets and missiles.
She was assigned to solve a critical problem: develop an alternative to the alcohol and liquid oxygen (LOX) propellants used on the Jupiter Rocket that would improve its performance enough to allow it to launch a satellite. She developed Hydyne.

The author does not follow a chronological arc. Instead he skips around in time and interweaves her life with Werner von Braun and Soviet rocketry pioneer Sergei Korolev. The author calls it “creative nonfiction”. I understand there was not a lot of information about Mary so he filled up space with the famous people she worked with. I found it interesting to learn about this early pioneer in the rocket fuel area. The book is 336 pages long and was released in 2013. I bought the book from Amazon in eBook format. I read it on the Kindle app for my iPad.

[Meredith · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book. It gave great insight (admittedly, sometimes necessarily creatively embellished) about not only a woman working in the male-dominated world of engineering in the 1950's, but it was also: an eye-opening account of the U.S. at the beginning of the Cold War and the nascent space race; a great reminder of just how much our technology has changed since then, and, by default, how society has changed with the technological advances; AND it was also a moving story about a woman's fight to overcome a horrible childhood to follow her own dream. As the author states at the end, I will never look at history in quite the same way again.

One star was subtracted because some of the creative embellishments were a bit too obviously written to purposefully create a "cute" moment or an overly sympathetic response from the reader. The more egregious examples of this (only a few!) were a bit jarring while I was reading them, moving the book out of 'informative non-fiction" mode, and somewhat joltingly into Lifetime network/Oprah Book Club touchy-feeliness. To use an example from the book, honey, water, and oil may be nice enough each on their own, but when poured in the same glass, they don't mix up too well. Not a book killer, by any means, but just enough to create a distraction.

[Olga · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm very glad this book was written. Mary Sherman Morgan's story is very inspiring.

I enjoyed reading it very much, but I do wish there would be more Mary Sherman Morgan in this book than there was; there were many questions left unanswered. Like, what was the real reason Mary left her job at the peak of her career? The official reason was to take care of her kids, but judging from her earlier zeal to continue her education and career, even sacrificing her first-born child to do it, this seems unlikely. Despite her enigmatic nature, her husband must have known the real reason; why wasn't it included in the book? Or perhaps she initially quit to take care of her children but wanted to come back later, why didn't she? The author poses these questions himself at the beginning of the book, so I was disappointed that they were left unanswered.
Also, I felt that the portrait of Mary as a character was incomplete and at times--a bit contradictory. Like she was shy and awkward, but outgoing and talkative at the same time. Or that she was self-assured and proud, but insecure and modest at the same time; sometimes a kind and loving mother and sister, sometimes cold and self-centered, focused on her career and bridge interests. Of course people can act differently in different situations, but I think that if the author had only shared more personal details about Mary, like her life outside of work, her style, things that made her laugh or cry, things that she had actually said or listened to, etc., the portrait would be much more complete.

Overall I liked the book, and it was a pleasure to read. I liked that it was in creative nonfiction form; that instead of a cold consecutive fact-listing (as is the case with many historical space books) we were placed in the story next to Mary, and as a female rocketeer myself, I found many passages (about the rocketry and woman-in-rocketry aspect) surprisingly very accurate, almost nostalgic, as if Mary had written them herself.
I would recommend this book to anyone interested in the history of spaceflight.

[Hope · Rating 4 out of 5]

As children, we all think we know everything that matters about our parents. George Morgan and his sisters knew almost nothing about their mother: her family, her childhood, what she did before them were all closed for discussion. Most of the adults they knew worked at Rocketdyne with her and their father, so their work was secret. They picked up bits and pieces from adult conversation, as children do, but they had no idea that she invented the rocket fuel that powered America's first satellite into space, nor that she did this after Werner von Braun and his team had given up.

At her funeral, George sat at a table of his mother's former colleagues from Rocketdyne, hoping to learn a bit about her, even after her death. One after the other, they urged him to tell his mother's story, to make sure the world knew about her achievements. She single-handedly saved the American space program, they told him.

His research was slow and difficult. Official records of her high school graduation, her brief college career, were missing. Frustrated, he finally wrote the story as a play rather than a documentary, and it was eventually performed at a California college.

The novel was the next step. If he couldn't write his mother's history, he would write the story of his research into her history. This approach resulted in a fascinating book and a picture of an amazing woman. We all owe her a debt of gratitude for moving the space program forward, and for opening more doors to women.

[Marni · Rating 2 out of 5]

In the author’s note at the end of the book, George Morgan tells readers that this is “creative nonfiction,” written to bring out what little information he had in a readable style. The author uses lots of adjectives, and he must feel that that a page without a simile is like a day without sunshine. I liked his first one: “Cutting the grassy plain in two, like a finger run through fresh paint, was a road.” Others sound forced: “Now the number of ‘written record’ claimants is starting to lengthen like a bread line in a Soviet Moscow winter.” I’m not sure what word to use to describe this one, late in the book: “Like throwing a baby shower for a girl who had been gang-raped…”

A more interesting story, it seemed to me, was one he started, with the first sentence of the book, but did not finish: “This is a story about a mother who never talked to her children.”

The organization of the book is odd, as though chapters were moved around late in the process. In chapter 24, he writes to the readers, “I’ll let you uncover this revelation the same way I did.” But this secret was already revealed, in detail, in chapter 9.

[Joyce · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've listened to a number of books this year about the role played by women in careers usually dominated by men. I wonder if they would have been published had this not be the year of the woman, a time when it seems right to spotlight these overlooked women. Here it's Mary Sherman Morgan, a North Dakota farm girl who never finished college but "single-handedly saved America's space program" by coming up with a formula for rocket fuel that actually worked. It's a fascinating story--she had a rough childhood and was a woman of many secrets, which her son/biographer didn't uncover until researching this book and the earlier play based on her life. I enjoyed it for the look at her life but also for the unique perspective on the space race--Morgan talks about German efforts in WWII, the acquisition of German rocket scientists like Wernher von Braun, the Russian efforts to launch a satellite and their eventual success as the first country in space--and also the science which was surprisingly understandable. An interesting biography, primarily anecdotal, as there simply aren't many records, but no less compelling for that.

[Beth · Rating 2 out of 5]

A brilliant idea very poorly executed. This book is marketed as non-fiction but unfortunately large portions of it are entirely made up by the author, which is only acknowledged at the end. Not only are there reams of dialogue that are entirely fabricated, when you get to the author's note at the end you discover that one person was made up! Add to this the fact that large sections of the text are completely irrelevant and this book could easily have been a third of the size and would have been much better for it. I really wanted this book to be good as I wanted to know more about Mary Sherman Morgan but after reading it I can't be sure which bits of what I read are backed up by fact. Disappointing.

[Charlene · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the most beautiful books I have ever read. George Morgan didn't know a whole lot about the mother who gave up her promising career to raise him. Instead of being bitter, he embraced all the dichotomies of his life, and really life in general, and worked hard to uncover who his mother was, who she truly was. This is book is the result of an honest look at what he found.

I remember reading Lynn Margulis' words about her life. She said you can either be a great scientist or a great mother, but you cannot be both. In order to make great discoveries, you need the time and freedom to truly devote yourself to your craft. In the 1950s, Mary Sherman Morgan tried to do just that. If she were a man, the book would not have been about what type of mother she was, whether she had sex before marriage and gave up a baby for adoption, or whether she needed to leave her career so she could raise more children. If she were a man, it would have been heroic if she created a new rocket fuel that allowed the USA to launch a satellite and came home at the end of a long day and gave the children a little hug before bed or tucked them in. No one expected more from an important man who had an important job in the 1950s. But, it was so different for the women who broke the glass ceiling and paved the way for the rest of us.

Mary Sherman (Morgan) lived on a farm and was the child of people who surely did not value her for her intelligence. In fact, she was punished for it, kept from school, and was expected to do chores instead of homework. In order to devote herself to chemistry, Mary had to make an elaborate plan to run away from her home, try to find a way to pay for college (even though she didn't even have money for a jacket), and figure out how to work and go to school. When in the workplace, she had to be the lone woman in a sea of brilliant men. Despite all the roadblocks, this genius woman invented a rocket fuel that would ensure the satellite could be launched without blowing up. It took a special mind to figure out how to create such a fuel. Men had tried to figure it out but Mary Sherman Morgan was the best man for the job.

In the telling of his mother's story, and her place in history, George Morgan really tried to get into her mind. He grew up knowing a distant mother, who was not very affectionate, who spent what seemed like a sad and lonely life shuffling cards (imo, she must have missed working and being useful in the larger world, but idk); and yet, George wrote with such a balanced view. He appreciated who his mother was to the world, even though she could not be what he needed. The way he strung together words and conveyed the life of Mary, the way he let her be who he imagined she was, seemed like the most beautiful prose I had ever read. Often he imagined her conversations. He took the actual events and weaved them with what he knew about her to reconstruct the conversations. I was so captivated by his writing style, I wished the book would go on forever.

I cannot believe this book took me this long to read. I guess after reading Hidden Figures, I thought this would be too much of a repeat. But can you really ever get enough of revolutionary women who changed the world? This should have been at the top of my list long ago. I don't know who I love more, Mary for her brilliant brain and contribution to the world or George for writing such an amazing book from such a unique perspective. Exquisite!

[Cenline · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is by far the most extraordinary biography of a scientist/engineer I have ever read.

Mary Sherman Morgan overcame countless obstacles–including poverty, ignorance, physical and emotional abuse, sexism, war, unemployment, exploitation, and government bureaucracy–to become the lynch pin of America's fledgling space program in the 1950's. And after ensuring that her company was firmly established and that the rockets were well on their way to outer space, she purposely retired to intentional obscurity. Upon her death, the New York Times refused to publish her obituary because it was unverifiable.

This biography, written by her son, is Mary Sherman Morgan's first introduction to the world. Through intensive research and interviews with the engineers who built America's first rockets, George Morgan documents the story of a determined young woman who changed the world then refused to take credit for it. But equally interesting is the glimpse into the culture and workings of the pre-Sputnik space program. So much of the documentation has centered on NASA and the astronauts on the moon that the engineers who put them there have largely been forgotten.

Ironically, this book's motivation is its greatest flaw: the lack of information available on Morgan and her co-workers severely impacts the biography. The author even goes so far as to label parts "creative nonfiction". There are plot holes. Events and comments are never explained or placed in context. In many ways, this reads as a rough draft for a documentary, and I sincerely hope that someday a documentary is made; but for right now, this book is a first, incomplete attempt at remembering something which has already largely been forgotten. I just wish there had been more to learn about this amazing woman.

Highly recommended for fans of biography and the space era.

[Kiri · Rating 4 out of 5]

It starts out a bit slow, but this book builds up fire and power just like the slow heavy liftoff of the rockets featured within. I'm iffy about "creative" nonfiction that attempts to relate a necessarily embroidered view of real historical events, and this author is unabashed about the task he chose to tackle: to describe the life and achievements of a woman otherwise lost to history. That is, he had little to no primary sources for anything about her. The fact that this woman was his mother creates even more opportunity for bias, sentimentality, and stretching-of-truth.

Yet the book manages to give a delightful account of a talented, focused woman who played a major, though unheralded, role in the U.S.'s recovery (with JPL's Explorer 1) from Russia's PR triumph with Sputnik. Her story is woven throughout the book, but its true backbone is the chronicle of those space race events that provide a solid context for her efforts.

The tantalizing hints of Mary Sherman Morgan's personality, as revealed by a single note in her hand and by others' memories of her, suggest that she was a complex, fascinating, and not terribly personable woman -- just the type to rivet my attention.

Great read.

[Daniel · Rating 4 out of 5]

An insightful and intriguing account of the early space race, beginning with the pre-WWII work of Werner Von Braun and culminating with the successful launch into orbit of Explorer I atop a modified Redstone ICBM.

Mary Morgan, a runaway from a spartan life in rural North Dakota and the lone woman in a field of engineers within North American Aviation, develops the fuel cocktail that enables the Redstone to reach orbit.

Her gift for mathematics and chemistry is offset by her penchant for avoiding the limelight.

Her son wrote the book and had to recontruct much of her personal life and relationships because of no documentation. Previously unknown to him, he found he had an older sister and met her in person.

[Ruth Fichter · Rating 5 out of 5]

George, you have written a wonderful book! For those who want to know MORE about Mary (I'm referring to several reviews I have read), I can only say, the trouble with THAT is/was Mary herself. Her reticence was what made this such a difficult book to research and write in the first place. Some people may find it hard to believe, but MANY parents never talked much to their children back in the day, and Mary was an extreme example of this. Also, government agencies, some businesses, and MANY families did NOT keep the kind of records we do today. Glad I was able to be of SOME help with the research even if in only a small way. God bless you, "little brother!"

[Jo Oehrlein · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting weaving of the stories of Werner Von Braun, the Soviet space race, Mary Sherman Morgan's life, and more-or-less the present for the author (who is Mary Sherman Morgan's son).

I'm not 100% how much I got to know Mary through the book, but I did get an appreciation for her work and a part of the Soviet-US space race I didn't know about before.

[Cindy Wiedemer · Rating 4 out of 5]

I actually really enjoyed this book. It's a "creative non-fiction" as per the authors own words. It's sad that Mary went to such lengths to erase herself from history, and leads anyone reading about her to wonder why. While I personally don't know much about the original space race and drive to get into space, but the author is able to simplify many technical aspects for casual readers such as myself. I did find the bouncing between present and past, between the USA, Russia, Germany confusing at times and felt some of the memories of history really filled no purpose to the story such as the memory of the kittens, however that aside, I enjoyed the book and would recommend anyone interested in the first woman rocket scientist to dive in to her unique and interesting story.

[Linda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mary Sherman was raised in a small North Dakota farm town. In High school, she wanted to be a chemist. Very little is known about this quiet yet brilliant woman who helped create the rocket fuel that powered the US's earliest missiles. Her tenacity is incredible.
This story was slowly and carefully gathered and told by her son, George. Mary's life was and is a puzzle with many missing pieces, yet George does a good job at telling his mother's story.
I enjoyed the audio narration of this book.

[Kelly Hacker · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this book! I concede that is may be difficult to prove all of the claims that are presented in this book. However, the author is very clear that he is presenting what he knows to the best of his ability in order to best tell the story of his mother as he and her friends knew and remembered her. Totally recommend if you're looking for an easy intro to the a very complex topic.

[M W · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.25⭐️ While this was an informative insight into Mary’s life, the author, her son, wrote it in a confusing way. He didn’t always follow a chronological order of events, and he would also throw random chapters of his own childhood or adulthood stories that I didn’t really care about. Nevertheless, Mary was an amazing woman, and I’m glad I got to learn more about her.

[Sarah A · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this book on and off for a while. I loved the facts about this amazing woman and am glad that the book was written and that people are starting to know who she is. I was fascinated by how much of the story was down the road from where I live (I live near Canoga Park!). However I did struggle with some of the author's style and choice of words.

[Leah K · Rating 1 out of 5]

Author states at the end it's "creative non-fiction"...that's putting it mildly. Fascinating woman but definitely should have been written by someone else besides her own son. I'll give it a 1.5 star rating.

[Judi · Rating 4 out of 5]

The title really should be "Rocket Girl: The Woman who Saved the Space Race Before it Began" or something like that. Mary Sherman Morgan's story goes well beyond her work with rockets. She's the female Homer Hickam and then some! While George Morgan's writing is a far cry from Hickam's lyrical, almost mythical, writing the story of his mother is one that should be on the same level of national consciousness as Mary Johnson and Grace Hopper.

[Olivia Chancellor · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fascinating story about a woman who greatly contributed to the space mission. This book would likely be very inspirational for young women looking for a role model in the aerospace industry. That being said the author notes that the book is “creative nonfiction” which meant much of what you read is somewhat fabricated to help tell the tale and the book would randomly switch between eras amongst the chapters which at times made it difficult to follow.

[Tracy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting; I listened to it and didn't care much for the reader, nor the writing style but liked the story enough to give it four stars.

[Nicholai Mannerzim · Rating 5 out of 5]

Interesting piece of history and a mystery storey wrapped up as one.

[Katie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Summary: This was a fascinating story that deserved to be told, but sources weren't always there to support it and the writing quality was uneven.

I read a lot about women in history already, so for Women's History Month I'm starting to make a tradition of reading about women in science. Mary Sherman Morgan is an incredibly impressive woman to read about - a female rocket scientist who played a critical role in getting the first American satellite into orbit. Even though she only had a high school diploma and being a woman was counted against her, her supervisor was willing to put her forward as the best person for the job. And she delivered, creating fuel that met exacting specifications where some the most brilliant minds in rocket science had tried and failed.

Wow was this a mixed bag of a book! Morgan's story was incredible and inspiring. It deserved to be told. Unfortunately, a lack of sources means there wasn't enough material to make a full book out of just her story or to tell her story with complete accuracy. Much of the book was devoted to famous male rocket scientists. This added interesting context about the space race, but was disappointing when I hoped to learn about a female scientist. A lot of the book was also devoted to the author's experience researching his mother's life. It included his memories of how his mother wasn't particularly warm and caring as well. I enjoyed the personal connection this provided and I like hearing about an author's research. At the same time, I hated that this female scientist was being evaluated for her mothering skills in a book ostensibly about her career.

The dialogue the author made up was also good and bad. One inspiring scene where Morgan confidently demonstrated her technical expertise particularly stands out to me. The dialogue was delightful, making the technical details of her work entertaining. It seems some scenes like this were probably true in spirit to what really happened, as the author talked to people who were there. Other parts seemed completely made up. Unfortunately, the author didn't provide enough information for it to be clear how well supported all the content was.

The writing was just as hit or miss as the content. In some places, the author employed writing techniques I was taught in high school. This felt amateurish to me. I could see too much of his technique. At other times, the writing was engaging. Throughout, the author did a great job including both small details to bring people to life and larger details to provide context. However, two phrases in particular stood out to me as unforgivably bad. One was simply humorously bad, like the sort of thing that might be nominated for the award for worse sex writing. The other used sexual violence as a really weird analogy for the origins of space flight in military technology. Honestly, this second phrase was the turning point for me, where I decided I simply couldn't give a book of such spotty quality four stars, no matter how inspiring and fun and science-y some of the dialogue was.

I don't know what to tell you about this one! There were things I loved and things I hated, but regardless, I think Mary Morgan has a story worth knowing. I just wish the book telling her story was as impressive as her work.

 This review was originally posted on Doing Dewey

[Diane · Rating 4 out of 5]

Firstly, please accept my apology for the lack of HTML, but it is late and I'm doing this on my iphone. I heard of this biography of a woman lost to history who was the critical developer of the fuel that finally got our first rocket launched into space. The idea intrigued me and brought to mind older iterations of this phenomenon, e.g. "Anonymous was a woman" or Virginia Woolf opining that if Shakespeare had a sister, she would be found dead at the crossroads. So ROCKET GIRL: THE STORY OF MARY SHERMAN MORGAN had me from the get-go. The story opens with a vivid, if brief, description of her family and childhood in remote, hard-scrabble North Dakota. And the family demeanor is infused with the actions and emotions of people stuck in constant despair. Her father is a tough taskmaster, her mother is remote and appears to speak only to support his most recent act of tyranny. Her older brothers were bullies and douchebags, up to and including physical abuse of Mary. Her father refuses to send her to school until the sheriff appears and Mary begins her education three years late. Despite the lack of family support, she comes alive and thrives here. And she shines in mathematics and science. She sneaks off to a college in the dead of night without telling anyone in the family of her plans. Her adventures at college and early departure for a tnt-manufacturer begin to color in the contours of Mary. Work at that portion of the company dries up as WWII ends. She moves to California and her trials and triumphs there are the heart of the book. I will leave the joys of trial and error, dogged accomplishments at creating this rocket fuel as well as the deafening silence which follows for you to absorb and reflect. The book is written by her son and he interweaves his own story of trying to reconstruct the life of his quiet mother. The author is primarily a playwright which is evident from his writing. Happily, I love the theatre so although I felt it might not have been the way to go, I didn't obsess over it. Here are some things that bothered me: typographical errors, ending the book with his own journey of discovery. Write a blog, dude. This book is Mary's opportunity to shine. Give her a bow and stop writing. And some of the details he creates to bring color to the story ring false. Having said all that, do read this book and meet Mary Sherman Morgan. She's definitely a find. Nit-pickers, please note this is biography and hence, no such thing as spoilers here. Nothing I've written here should mar the experience of reading the book. And I truly hope it entices you to read Rocket Girl,

[Jennifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

I saw this book at the bookstore and was intrigued, but something about it made me hesitate, and I decided to check it out from the library instead. While I did enjoy this book, I think I'm pretty happy with this decision.

Mary Sherman Morgan's story was fascinating. Born to poor, abusive parents on an isolated farm in North Dakota, who had to be compelled by the state to send her to school. After graduation, she runs away from home to attend college to study chemistry. After a few years, she is recruited/pressured to drop out to "join the war effort," where she stars making TNT in a factory staffed almost entirely with women. After the war, of course, munitions jobs dry up and the ladies are pressured to retire and make way for the men returning home to look for jobs. Mary applies for and gets a job at North American Aviation anyway, where she builds such a reputation for herself that when the U.S. Army sends a colonel asking for NAA's best man to solve a propellant problem that Dr. van Braun can't crack, it's Mary who gets the job. And it's Mary who eventually solves it, playing a crucial part in the first launch of an American satellite into orbit (and getting the American space program back on track.)

This book is both fascinating and frustrating. Mary was an intensely private person, averse to photographs, who didn't leave much evidence of her life behind, not even min the form of stories shared with her son, who authored this book. George shares his search for any sort of documentation of his mother's career, which turns out to be mostly non-existent. (The documentation, not the career.) Much of her story is pieced together by interviews with Mary's co-workers, who don't want her legacy forgotten after her passing.

The book also seems torn between aspirations of what it wants to be. After I read a few favorite ringing passages to my husband, he said, "That's very theatrical." And I laughed. Of course it was, I just hadn't put the word to it yet. George Morgan is a playwright, and this book grew from a play he wrote about his mother. And as much as George tries to establish his mother's place in the space race, it's also intensely personal, in places more a memoir of his search for information. But as a memoir, it also leaves questions strangely unanswered, like why his father can't or won't fill in more details of his mother's personal story.

Despite any of these shortcomings, this is still a compelling story, and one that needs to be shared.

[Jenny Clark · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very inspirational. Ib enjoyed the fact that the author told his own story as well as his mothers. The journey to find all the information is woven in very well. I also enjoyed the fact that the storys of Korolev and von Braun are added in. It is amazing that Mary was able to keep her job despite the fact that she never finished college.
The one thing I do dislike is the embellished ending, though it is fitting since that was a thing Mary had always wanted to see and it did happen at one point, just not then.
I think I shall have to find more of my Discover magazines and go through the suggested books haha. That's the only reason I had ever heard of this book.

[Jared Millet · Rating 4 out of 5]

Toward the end of the book, the author raises a very valid question: How many important people have been completely forgotten by history? His mother, the subject of this book, is a case in point. Mary Morgan was the inventor of the rocket fuel that put Explorer I, America's first satellite, into orbit. She did this as an un-degreed "analyst" in a company full of engineers, after escaping from a miserable childhood on a farm in North Dakota where her family didn't even want to send her to school. That she achieved so much against the pressures of family and social expectations is a tribute to her dogged persistence as much as it is to her brilliance. An altogether interesting read.