From The Earth To The Moon

Set at the end of the American Civil War, From the Earth to the Moon is a forward-looking tale of space adventure. With no other pressing assignments the Baltimore Gun Club, at the urging of its President, Impey Barbicane, decides to build a gun large enough to propel a projectile from the Earth to the Moon. With a wager being placed on the outcome and the mission being elevated to a manned mission, a space race to the Moon begins.
Written almost a century before the daring flights of the astronauts, Jules Verne's prophetic novel of man's race to the stars is a story of rip-roaring action, humor, and wild imagination. With broad satire as well as scientific acumen, From the Earth to the Moon spins a tale set in 1865 about a group of men who decide to build a gun big enough to launch a rocket to the moon.