David Lasser
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David Lasser ( March 20, 1902 – May 5, 1996) was one of the most influential figures of the early science fiction genre and worked closely with Hugo Gernsback. He was also heavily involved in the workers’ rights struggles of the Great Depression.
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[edit] Early years
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 become one of the many under-aged youths who lied about their age to enlist in the Army in World War I. After suffering from shell-shock in France, Lasser was honorably discharged in 1919 and attended M.I.T., where he graduated with a B.S. in Engineering Administration.
In the 1920s, Lasser moved to New York, where he pursued his interest in the nascent fields of rocketry and science fiction. On 4 April 1930, he became the president of the American Interplanetary Society (renamed the American Rocket Society in 1934) which he founded with Gawain and Leatrice Pendray, both regular contributors to Science Wonder Stories.
[edit] Writing career
Lasser used his expertise in science, engineering, and rocketry to write a book called The Conquest of Space (1931). It was the first non-fiction English-language book to deal with spaceflight and detailed how man would one day travel into outer space. This book served as an inspiration to a future 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 and remained involved in the science fiction realm throughout his life.
[edit] Union activist
In 1933, Lasser founded the Workers Alliance for America, which he envisioned as a national union for the unemployed. It was at this point that his passion for workers’ rights became too much of a nuisance for his employers. Lasser was fired by Gernsback. Although President Roosevelt would recognize Lasser’s dedication to the workers’ cause by nominating him to join the Works Projects Administration, Lasser’s involvement with labor unions would bring him under FBI scrutiny in the early days of the Cold War. He was banned from further Federal service. He then served as economics and research director of the International Union of Electrical Radio and Machine Workers until his retirement in 1969.
Lasser's name would not be officially cleared until 1980, when he was sent a personal letter of apology by President Jimmy Carter.
David Lasser died in 1996 at the Remington Senior Care Facility in Rancho Bernardo, California. He was 96 years old and was survived by his third wife and a son.
[edit] Memorial
The American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) currently awards the Gardner-Lasser Aerospace History Literature Award to the best original non-fiction work dealing with aeronautics or aeronautical history. The award is named to honor David Lasser and Lester Gardner.
[edit] Published Works
(1931) The Conquest of Space
(1930) With vehicle perfected, science hopes to plumb mystery of outer space. New York Herald Tribune. 13 July.
(1931) By Rocket to the Planets. Nature Magazine. Nov.
