posted 06-27-2007 07:59 PM               

All the guys submitted chapters on various subjects. The chapters covered most major aspects of the program, from the selection process to training to hardware development (the capsule) to the spacesuit, etc.

But covering each Mercury mission? The publishers didn't have to. Project Mercury was officially a success with MA-7 (a mission described as "The Confirmation" [of MA-6] in the book). And readers were clamoring for a good contemporaneous account.

posted 01-05-2010 10:20 AM               

We Seven: By the Astronauts Themselves

The pioneer astronauts who took America into space tell their personal stories about the challenges they faced -- their fears, joys, friendships, and successes.

Chosen from hundreds of crackerjack pilots for their fitness, intelligence, and courage, the original Mercury Seven astronauts risked their lives to cross the space frontier. In We Seven, they take readers behind the scenes to show them their training, technology, and teamwork, and to share personal stories, including the lighter moments of their mission. They bring readers inside the Mercury program -- even into the space capsules themselves. We Seven straps you in with the astronauts and rockets you along for the ride.

Share Alan Shepard's exhilaration as he breaks through the earth's atmosphere. Endure moments of panic with Gus Grissom when his hatch blows, stranding him in the open sea. Race with John Glenn as he makes split-second life-or-death maneuvers during reentry, and feel his relief when he emerges safe but drenched with sweat.

Despite such heroism, Project Mercury was more than the story of individual missions. It defined the manned space flight program to come, from Gemini through Apollo. In We Seven, America's original astronauts tell us firsthand -- as only they can -- about the space program they pioneered, and share with us the hopes and dreams of the U.S. at the dawn of a new era.

• Paperback: 352 pages
  
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster (January 12, 2010)
  
• Language: English
  
• ISBN-10: 1439181039
  
• ISBN-13: 978-1439181034

posted 01-08-2010 05:53 PM               

I have heard that the book was extensively ghost-written for the guys based on interviews with them by Life magazine staff members. The Mercury 7 had signed an exclusive contract with Life for their personal stories.

posted 08-06-2012 10:56 PM               

For those who have had these signed by any of the Mercury astronauts, what page have you had them sign on? The main title page is mostly black, so would have to be signed with a silver sharpie or something like that. Have most of you had the book signed on that page, or one of the blank pages before that?

posted 08-04-2013 04:26 PM               

Published as Project Mercury was thrilling the Free World at the height of the cold war, WE SEVEN was written by the original seven astronauts (and edited by LIFE magazine's John Dille). For researchers and space enthusiasts, the chapters offer valuable contemporaneous, first-person accounts of Project Mercury--from the men, to the machines, to the systems.

Particularly valuable are the accounts of the historic 1959 selection process (and selection medicine) at Lovelace Clinic and Wright-Patterson A.F.B. There are painstakingly technical accounts of the engineering and design work on the hardware in addition to first-person accounts of spaceflight itself, from the days when astronauts flew alone and then only briefly--for a lifetime of fame.

First military tests pilots and then engineers, the Mercury astronauts were not professional writers. The editor does a brilliant job of preserving the distinctive voices of the individual astronauts, while showcasing the highly technical subjects the men describe in WE SEVEN, a bestseller when it was first published in 1962.

A must for any spaceflight history library.