German-American science writer and space advocate (1906–1969) who helped popularize rocketry and spaceflight in both Germany and the United States. TLS, one page, 7.25 x 10.25, PM Daily letterhead, September 23, 1943. Ley responds to a Miss Smith regarding a story. In part: “I received your letter of September 17th this morning and though I have a favorite story (you have my permission to use it any way you like) I am afraid that it is fairly well known, party because I have told it myself a score of times. It goes like this.” The second half of the letter contains the tale, set in Berlin after Hitler’s rise to power but before the war, about a young married couple. Upon learning they are to have a child, the husband begins pilfering pieces from work to construct a baby carriage. The story concludes: “Karl, clutching a screw driver, [sits] in front of a pile of metal parts. And he explains: ‘I don’t know what that is, Anna. Three times did I assemble that stuff and every time it turns out to be a machine gun.’” In fine condition, with creasing, faint edge toning, and show-through from a collector notation on the reverse. RRAuction COA.
