The First

Jeffrey Simon watched the world celebrate George Everson as the first man to walk on the moon, and no one knew he had done it first. In 1952, Simon and two others flew secretly on Project Pandora, touching lunar soil years before the public mission. He still has the moonstone in his pocket, the photograph that proves what they did. But as he sits in the crowd watching Everson's rocket rise, Simon makes a choice that will haunt him: he says nothing. The truth would only tarnish the moment, rob humanity of its pure wonder. This is a quiet, devastating story about what it costs to keep a secret, and whether some truths are better left buried for the sake of collective joy. The prose aches with the particular loneliness of the forgotten pioneer, the astronaut who touched the impossible and returned to anonymity. Ludwig writes with restraint and heart about men who gave everything for a moment that belonged to someone else.