Burgess was at the time the science correspondent for the Christian Science Monitor and was I think the doyen of the science press corps, although Walter Sullivan of the N.Y. Times was better known and extremely popular. Everyone I know respected Eric.

Carl's team did all the detail work and got most of the credit for the plaque, but I never heard Eric complain about that. I do know that Eric was mighty proud of the idea, and indeed he should have been, and I didn't think there was much controversy among the science press corps about where the idea came from. Carl had long been a friend to the science press, and indeed a personal friend of many of its members, and was the most approachable of the NASA planetary science team, so it was logical that Eric would approach Carl about it.

I remember Richard Hoagland as a part of the science press, but though I am aware that these memories are old, I don't recall him having had any more (or less) part in the notion of the message than Niven and I, namely applauding the idea when Eric broached it to us. Frankly, I don't even remember Hoagland being at that particular lunch. I was with National Catholic Press (Twin Circle magazine), which had a circulation of more than a million, and may have been science correspondent/science editor of Galaxy Science Fiction at the time as well (the dates are a bit hazy). Niven was with me as an associate.

Interestingly, a number of science fiction writers were more or less accepted as science press at JPL, and Science Fiction Writers of America members who showed up got regular press credentials. I had helped arrange that when I was President of SFWA. Arthur C. Clarke, who was a friend of then JPL Director William Pickering, approved the idea when I took it to the JPL press people.

===========

I got the idea of sending you this note because I am digging for data on the Mars Thing from Google Mars in today's news, and ran across your bit about Hoagland.

Jerry Pournelle

Return to Hoagland article