S P A C E L I G H T
INDEX
Name: BONESTELL, Chesley Knight Jr.
Aged: 98
Born: January 1, 1888
Where: San Francisco, California
Died: June 11, 1986
Where: Carmel, California
Interred: Cremated, ashes scattered over the Pacific Ocean.
Married: Mary Hilton (born Sept 22, 1889)
When: ? (divorced)
Married2: Ruby Helder
When: 1922 (died c1938)
Re-Married: Mary Hilton
When: 1940 (died Aug 22, 1961)
Married3: Hulda von Neumayer Ray
When: Sept 1962 (died 1998)
Awarded: International Fantasy Award for The Conquest of Space, 1951; Hugo for Special Achievement, 1974; Award and Medallion from the British Interplanetary Society in 1976; Asteroid 3129 was named "Bonestell" in 1986, as well as a crater on Mars; Inducted into the International Space Hall of Fame, 1989; Elected to the Society of Illustrators Hall of Fame, 1997; and many others.
Chesley Bonestell
"When Armstrong put his foot on the moon, I broke down
and cried...wept...tears poured down. It was the realization of
something I had been hoping for, for a large part of my life."
Chesley was one of the four men most responsible for bringing the wherewithall of space travel and rockets to the moon into America's consciousness. Our dreams of . . . the stories about . . . and the urges to explore outer space began in 1949 with Willy Ley's book, The Conquest of Space, illustrated by Bonestell. That was soon followed by other articles and books from Wernher von Braun, astronomer/writer Fred Whipple, and Willy Ley telling of rockets, space stations, and colonies. The culmination was a series of absolutely awesome articles for Collier's in 1952. And Chesley Bonestell illustrated them all with artwork that was photographic and breathtaking. The world had not seen such a thing before. We were motivated, and motivated on a grand scale!
Bonestell (bahn-uh-stell) studied architecture as a young man and worked on such important projects as the Chrysler Building in New York and the Golden Gate bridge. Depression took its toll on architects and in 1938 Chesley began working as a motion picture special effects artist. His architectural training served him well and within a few years, Bonestell was the matte artist in Hollywood.
Bonestell worked on such ground breaking movies in the SF genre as Destination Moon, War of the Worlds, and When Worlds Collide. His knowledge of camera angles and other motion pictures techniques led Chesley into a complex sequencing of canvas pre-sketches that gave the viewer of his paintings a sense of being there in 3 dimensions. We were taken to Saturn or Mars or onboard a space station. It was as if the finger of God was beckoning. The Nation followed.
While not a science fiction fan, Bonestell sold magazine covers across thirty years to Astounding, Galaxy, and Fantasy & Science Fiction --- with at least 40 to the last alone between Dec 1950 and March 1978.
A long, productive life of 98 years allowed Chesley Bonestell to see all of the wonders that we have seen. But had he not seen them first, long years before us, we may never have seen them at all.
Almost all of Bonestell's original work is in private hands and not exhibited . . . and despite meticulous efforts to logue and account for all of his work . . . some are missing and some destroyed. However, the Chesley Bonestell Gallery has made many of his works available for viewing on the Internet. Any search engine will take you there.
Thumbnail from a photo by Ansel Adams.
BIOGRAPHY:
OBITUARIES: here.
