Peaches go with cream, fish go with chips, rocketry research goes with the occult.
Something catch your eye? Something about rockets and the occult? Really?
Yeah, really.
Time to go down the rabbit hole.
Jack Parsons was born in Pasadena, in 1914, and christened Marvel after his dad but after dad scooted town Marvel Jr's Ma started calling him John, which soon became Jack.
That's a shame because Jack's life had more of the Marvel comic in it than anything Jack.
Jack, as I will call him, grew up in a wealthy family living on Orange Grove, Pasadena, known also as Millionaires Row. Jack spent his pocket money on the sci-fi mags that were on every corner news-stand, Amazing Tales and other pulp wonders were his reading.
Jack and friend Ed Forman decided to use the undeveloped land at the end of Orange Grove to set off fireworks, including rockets.
Now we see the rabbit hole in the distance...
Jack loved the complexity of chemicals the rockets needed to shoot into the sky..equally complex was Jack and he fell down the rabbit hole.
In 1941 Marxism lost its lustre for Jack so he and wife Helen turned towards the Thelema movement founded by Alesteir Crowley, the self-proclaimed 'wickedest man in the world' Jack soon became Crowley's right hand man and started playing with lit candles to impress people.
And then...and then...the rabbit hole gets longer and darker.
Jack's full embrace of the occult and the obviously late nights it involved led to some shaky mornings at work. Jack fell foul of his employers and they dumped him.
Jack then dumped his wife Helen in favour of her younger sister, who then, in turn dumped Jack for none other than L. Ron Hubbard, (then still churning out science-fiction paid by the word, his idea of making money from a 'new religion' soon to be named Scientology was still in the future.)
Now Jack is spiralling down the rabbit hole, probably head first.
To lose the job you love at the cutting edge of rocketry research (Jack's work is still, grudgingly, recognised by NASA) because you are Alesteir Crowley's disciple is one head-twist, to then lose your partner to another man, who also rips you off financially, is another. (In a way I'm glad Jack never knew the man L. Ron Hubbard would become, too much salt in the wound there!)
Jack was not daunted, he experimented with rocketry and the occult with equal energy and obsession until one morning in 1952 when it went wrong.
Theories abound about how and why but what is true is that Jack was fatally injured in a massive explosion at his house/laboratory.
Jack co-founded the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, now part of NASA and known as JPL, for me 'JPL' stands for 'Jack Parsons Lives.'
So, the books! There are two biographies of Jack, I've read both, the beautiful thing is that one fills the gaps in the other so by reading both you get the full world of Jack.
George Pendle's is authoritative and the full title "Strange Angel: The Otherworldly Life of Rocket Scientist John Whiteside Parsons" (ISBN 9780753820650) suggests the emphasis given to rocket science.
John Carter's "Sex and Rockets: The Occult World of Jack Parsons" (ISBN 9780922915972) has a different emphasis, as does the jacket,( not surprising given that it's published by the always intriguing Feral House ...not for the nervous!)
Scribble down those ISBN's and visit your local bookshop! My local has them both on the shelf...can you guess why;)
Another rabbit hole soon...
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