Entertaining astronomy. Perelman Ya.I.

Yakov Isidorovich Perelman (1882–1942) was neither a physicist, nor a mathematician, nor an astronomer-he graduated from the Forest Institute in St. Petersburg (now SPbGLTU). He was neither a writer nor a teacher, but he was in a correspondence with the largest scientists and writers around the world, worked on the compilation of new textbooks and tasks in mathematics and physics, read more than two thousand popular lectures, wrote about a hundred popular science books and countless Many magazine articles. He did not make any scientific discoveries or inventions-but participated in the development of the project of the First Soviet Anti-General missile, became the initiator of the introduction of maternity time in our country, one of the founders of the popular science literature genre and the author of the term “science fiction”. He did not have any scientific degrees and titles-but grateful readers in their letters invariably addressed him “dear professor!”.

all because in his works, Yakov Isidorovich set out complex scientific problems in his own a unique style, with amazing clarity and clarity; In the most seemingly dry and boring topics, he knew how to find bright, fascinating features, and they became extremely understandable even an unprepared reader. It is not surprising that the books of the “People’s Professor of the Soviet Union” withstood dozens of reprints, were translated into many languages, from English to Hindi, and their total circulation was currently tens of millions of copies. Perelman’s books - “Entertaining Astronomy” (1938), “distant worlds” (1919), “Rocket to the Moon” (1935), “To the stars on the rocket” (1934) and “Interplanetary Travel” (1935). Texts in modern spelling and (in some cases) with specified digital data are given according to relevant publications. When editing, we only replaced some obsolete numbers, made separate additions and notes, but, if possible, retained the spirit of the time when these texts were written - when the new discoveries were not properly interpreted, the aircraft was often called an airplane, and the English science fiction writer Herbert Wells pleased readers with their new works. The benefit of the scientific content of the articles of Yakov Isidorovich is selected in such a way that it is never able to become obsolete.

298 drawings in these books performed (in close contact with Perelman himself) the full -time artist of the Leningrad Publishing House Yuri (George) Dmitrievich Skaldin (1891–1951), artist of the ethnographic museum Georgy Borisovich Ibakh (1910–1938) and others