Skip navigation

Former astronaut Buzz Aldrin working on memoir

'Magnificent Desolation' to explore his moon landing and struggles on Earth

Books Aldrin
Damian Dovarganes / AP
Astronaut Buzz Aldrin's new book "Magnificent Desolation: The Long Road Home from the Moon" will be published next year by Harmony Books, in time for the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 landing.
Special feature
Image: Toni Morrison
The lit list: Nobel Prize winners
From American author Toni Morrison to French novelist Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clezio, meet the writers who have won the highest literary honor.
Special feature
Image: Mary-Louise Parker
Life-changing lit: Celebs' fave books
From Mary-Louise Parker to LL Cool J, stars share the books that have influenced them most.
The Week in...  
  
Image: A security guard stands in front of columns of containers
Reuters
  The Week in Pictures
From a community effort to put out a fire to snow-covered vineyards, a look at some of the week’s most compelling images.
83818431
AFP - Getty Images
  Week in Sports Pictures
Dogs on the ski slopes, motorcycles in the harbor and more madness from the sports world.
Image: Britney Spears
AP
  The Week in celebrity sightings
Britney gets her Bambi, Cruise and Beckham do Broadway, Oprah plants a tree and more.
  Animal Tracks
Find a friendly hippopotamus, a well-dressed dog and more eye candy for animal lovers.
updated 10:45 a.m. ET Sept. 26, 2008

Former astronaut Buzz Aldrin, the second man to walk on the moon, is working on a memoir about his triumphs in space and the hard times back on Earth.

“Magnificent Desolation: The Long Road Home from the Moon” will be published next year by Harmony Books, in time for the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 landing.

“From the pinnacle of Apollo, my greatest challenge became the human one — overcoming alcoholism and living beyond depression — a challenge that required more courage and determination than going to the moon,” Aldrin, 78, said in a statement issued Thursday by Harmony.

Story continues below ↓
advertisement | your ad here

“I was 39 years of age, had achieved my grandest goal, and should have been on top of the world, but there were no roadmaps, and few signposts if any along the way that could lead me out of the quagmire into which I had tumbled. For 10 years, I floundered.”

Neil Armstrong and Aldrin were on Apollo 11's lunar module, which landed on the moon on July 20, 1969.

Copyright 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.