New York, N.Y. Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., 1972. First Edition [stated]. Presumed first printing. Hardcover. ix, [5], 258, xi, [3] pages. Footnotes. Appendices. Notes. Selected bibliography. Index. DJ has wear, tears and soiling. Inscribed by the author on the front free endpaper. Inscription reads: To George and Barbara, whose enthusiasm for my literary efforts encourages me to more! Nick, March 31, 1972. [Unlikely that this was inscribed to President and Mrs. George H. W. Bush, but possible given the author's prominence.] Includes Acknowledgments and Prologue, as well as Chapters on The Cradle of Reason, The Dream at War, Secret Scientists, Korolyov, Khrushchev and the Space Race, Conceding the Moon Race, Proposals, and The Press. Also contains Perspectives, as well as Appendix A, Appendix B, Appendix C, Notes, Selected Bibliography, and an Index. Eight black and white illustrations of scientists and rocket pioneers follow page 80. The Russian venture into space--from the nineteenth-century experiments in rocketry to the landings on the moon. This is the first book by a Westerner to trace the development of the Russian space program from its beginnings in the late nineteenth century through the enormous success of Sputnik to the crucial decision--secretly arrived at and skillfully concealed--not to continue in the race to place a man on the moon in the 1960's. Nicholas Daniloff (born December 30, 1934) is an American journalist who graduated from Harvard University and was most prominent in the 1980s for his reporting on the Soviet Union. He came to wider international attention on September 2, 1986, when he was arrested in Moscow by the KGB and accused of espionage. More