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David Lasser
Summary
David Lasser (March 20, 1902 – May 5, 1996) was an American writer and political activist. Lasser is remembered as one of the most influential figures of early science fiction writing, working closely with Hugo Gernsback. He was also heavily involved in the workers’ rights struggles of the Great Depression.
Lasser was born in Baltimore, Maryland, to Jewish immigrant parents from Russia. His family moved to Newark, New Jersey, where he grew up. He left high school at 16 to enlist in the Army in World War I, lying about his age. After being gassed on the front lines in France, he was honourably discharged as a Sergeant in 1919. Despite never graduating from high school, he was admitted to M.I.T., graduating with a B.S. in Engineering Administration.
In the late 1920s, Lasser moved to New York City, where his engineering background helped him land a job as managing editor of Hugo Gernsback's new science fiction magazine, Science Wonder Stories. Lasser and his writers, who included G. Edward Pendray, founded the American Interplanetary Society on April 4, 1930. They renamed it the American Rocket Society in 1934, and under the later leadership of Pendray, George P. Sutton and William H. Pickering, it became the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics in 1963.
Lasser used his expertise in science, engineering, and rocketry to write The Conquest of Space (1931). It was the first non-fiction English-language book to deal with spaceflight and detailed how a man could one day travel into outer space. The book was an inspiration to a generation of science-fiction writers, including Arthur C. Clarke. From 1929 to 1933, Lasser worked as the Managing Editor of Hugo Gernsback’s Stellar Publishing Corporation. He was responsible for editing all the issues of Science Wonder Stories and Wonder Stories Quarterly, as well as identifying and retaining promising writers. Lasser also edited Gernsback’s Wonder Stories from June 1930 to October 1933.
Lasser was at this same time a member of the Socialist Party and active in the unemployed movement in New York City.
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