Camille Flammarion (1842-1925) began his career at 16 as a human computer under the great
mathematician U. J. J. Le Verrier at the Paris Observatory. He soon tired of the drudgery he
was drawn to more romantic vistas and at 19 wrote a book on an idea that he was to make his
own-the habitability of other worlds. There followed a career as France's greatest popularizer
of astronomy with over 60 titles to his credit. An admirer granted him a chateau at
Juvisy-sur-l'Orge and he set up a first-rate observatory dedicated to the study of the planet
Mars. Finally in 1892 he published his masterpiece La Planete Mars et ses conditions
d'habitabilite a comprehensive summary of three centuries' worth of literature on Mars much
of it based on his own personal research into rare memoirs and archives. As a history of that
era it has never been surpassed and remains one of a handful of indispensable books on the
red planet.Sir Patrick Moore (1923-2012) needs no introduction his record of popularizing
astronomy in Britain in the 20th century equaled Flammarion's in France in the 19th century.
Moore pounded out hundreds of books as well as served as presenter of the BBC's TV program Sky
at Night program for 55 years (a world record). Though Moore always insisted that the Moon was
his chef-d'oeuvre Mars came a close second and in 1980 he produced a typescript of
Flammarion's classic. Unfortunately even he found the project too daunting for his publishers
and passed the torch of keeping the project alive to a friend the amateur astronomer and
author William Sheehan in 1993. Widely regarded as a leading historian of the planet Mars
Sheehan has not only meticulously compared and corrected Moore's manuscript against
Flammarion's original so as to produce an authoritative text he has added an important
introduction showing the book's significance in the history of Mars studies. Here results a
book that remains an invaluable resourceand is also a literary tour-de-force in which the
inimitable style of Flammarion has been rendered in the equally unique style of Moore.
