Robert Godwin

From The Space Library

Contents 1 Early Life and Education 2 Music Business 3 Publishing 4 Apogee Books 5 Media 6 Books 7 Films 8 Comments and reviews 8.1 Music: 8.2 Space

Early Life and Education

Robert was born in England in 1958. Educated at St Oswald’s College in Shropshire where he studied mathematics and physics. His first job in the UK was as an electro-plater working on Rolls Royce jet turbines.

Music Business

In 1975 Robert attended a Led Zeppelin concert appearance in London which began a life-long obsession with the band and their music. That same year he briefly worked as a member of the road crew for the rock band Scorpions.

He moved to Canada in 1978 and took over the operational management of a chain of eleven English pubs. In 1981 he would establish the most popular night club in Canada, The Orient Express. In 1982 Robert co-produced an outdoor concert in Canada which attracted over 20,000 people. Later that year he was asked to fill a vacancy at Toronto's prestigious George Brown College which he did under contract for a year; teaching management.

In 1983 he moved into music management. Robert helped some of the artists who played at his club to get worldwide recording contracts. Moving from management into production, he assisted in the recording of several popular albums and worked at Musicland Studios in Munich Germany, Metalworks in Toronto, as well as Sunset Sound and United Western in Los Angeles. In 1984 Robert turned his love of Led Zeppelin into the first of a long string of books about the band. He quickly established a reputation as one of the world's leading experts on the subject. He followed this success with books on other artists which interested him, including the archetypal British space-rock group Hawkwind. This led to a continuing friendship and business relationship with Hawkwind and their science-fiction guru, world-famous author, Michael Moorcock.

In 1987 Robert opened his own record label, Griffin Music, which by 1992 would be voted best independent label in America by several major US newspapers. Over the next few years Griffin Music would release many classic rock acts' back-catalogs, notably, the BBC In Concert series, Anderson - Bruford - Wakeman and Howe, Motorhead, Thin Lizzy, Mike Oldfield, Olivia Newton-John, Hawkwind, Nazareth, David Bowie, and many other household names.

Publishing

By 1995 Robert sold his interest in Griffin Music and briefly dabbled in the merchandising business where he acquired a coveted license from Lucasfilm to manufacture Star Wars memorabilia. Later that year he incorporated his private publishing company, Collector's Guide Publishing, and went into full-time publishing. Building on the success of his Led Zeppelin books Robert began to sign up authors and subsequently published and edited dozens of books on many aspects of pop culture including music, collectibles and movies. These books have won accolades from around the world and have sold in at least 80 countries.

Apogee Books

In 1998 Robert was invited by his brother, Richard, to attend a celebration in honor of the crew of Apollo 7. During that event Apollo 11 astronaut Buzz Aldrin asked Robert to publish a book to honor his fellow astronauts and to commemorate man's first voyage to the moon. Working with advice from his friend, noted space-author, Andrew Chaikin, he launched a space book imprint.

In partnership with his brother, Robert subsequently worked with almost every surviving Apollo astronaut on his acclaimed book series "The NASA Mission Reports". Robert's space series has included contributions by Sir Arthur C. Clarke, Tom Hanks, Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, David Brin, Ron Howard, Senator Harrison Schmitt, Eugene Cernan, Wally Schirra, Dave Scott, Walt Cunningham, Dr Marc Garneau, Eileen Collins, Bonnie Dunbar and many more astronauts and space scientists. Robert created the first ever Virtual-Reality digital panoramas from the Apollo lunar photography and his acclaimed film Apollo 11 - Moonwalk was the first time that the mission of Apollo 11 was shown from multiple camera angles simultaneously.

Media

Robert has appeared on dozens of radio and television programs in Canada, the USA and England as an expert on, not only music, but also space exploration. His books have been discussed on CNN, the CBC, the BBC and CBS 60 Minutes.

In 2001 Robert's company co-sponsored a party at the Playboy Mansion in Los Angeles to honor Sir Arthur C. Clarke, in attendance were movie directors James Cameron and Oliver Stone, actors Patrick Stewart, Bill Paxton and Morgan Freeman, astronauts Buzz Aldrin, Jim Lovell and Robert Crippen as well as many other celebrities from different walks of life. A film about the history of science fiction and space exploration, directed and created by Robert, was one of the evening's highlights.

Apogee Books created an average of one new space book a month for more than fifteen years. CG Publishing garnered contracts to document aspects of space history from both NASA and the Russian space corporation Energia. Robert worked regularly with many of the world's leading space advocacy groups including The National Space Society, The Space Frontier Foundation, The Mars Society, The X-Prize Foundation, The British Interplanetary Society, The Planetary Society, Space Day and many more. Through revenues generated from the sale of their books Robert and Richard donated funds to an asteroid impact research project called The Watch, which led to Apogee Books sponsoring a U.S. Senate round-table on the subject of catastrophic impacts. The round-table raised political awareness on the subject and assisted in more long-term funding for asteroid research.

In November of 2007 the IAU Working Group for Planetary System Nomenclature honored Robert and his brother Richard by naming a main belt asteroid "4252 Godwin". He is an advocate of the Space Frontier Foundation and is currently Space Curator at the Canadian Air & Space Museum

Books

• The Illustrated Led Zeppelin Collection (1984)
• The Collector's Guide to Led Zeppelin (1987, 1990, 1994, 1998)
• The Illustrated Collector's Guide to Kate Bush (1992/2005)
• The Illustrated Collector's Guide to Hawkwind (1993)
• Led Zeppelin - The Press Reports (1997, 2000, 2003, 2005)
• The Making of Led Zeppelin IV (1998/2008)
• Space Toys of the 60's (Editor - 1999)
• The NASA Mission Reports (series of books currently at 26 titles 1998 - 2008) (Winner of the Space Frontier Award 2002)
• Rocket & Space Corporation Energia (translated from the Russian by Robert - 2001)
• The Conquest of Space (Editor - 2002)
• Treasures from the Misty Mountains - A guide to Tolkien (Editor - 2002)
• Dyna-Soar Hypersonic Strategic Weapons System (2003)
• The Rocket Team (Editor - 2003/2008)
• The Collector's Guide to Heavy Metal (Foreword - 2004)
• The REAL Space Cowboys (Editor - 2005)
• Edison's Conquest of Mars (Editor and introduction - 2005)
• Apollo 11- Space Pocket Guide (2005)
• Mars - Space Pocket Guide (2006)
• Project Apollo The Test Program - Space Pocket Guide (2006)
• Project Apollo Exploring the Moon - Space Pocket Guide (2006)
• Russian Spacecraft - Space Pocket Guide (2006)
• A Columbus of Space (Editor and Afterword) (2006)
• The World Peril of 1910 (Editor and Afterword) (2006)
• The Scientific Adventures of Baron Munchausen (Editor and Afterword) (2006)
• The Einstein Theory of Relativity (Editor and Foreword - 2006)
• Saturn V - The Complete Test & Construction Records (Editor and co-author - 2006)
• The Lunar Exploration Scrapbook (2007)
• Space Shuttle Fact Archive(2007)
• Space Race (2007)
• Around the World in 65 Days with George Griffith (2008)
• New Horizons (2011)
• Arthur C Clarke A Life Remembered with Fred Clarke (2013)
• 2001 The Heritage and Legacy of the Space Odyssey with Frederick I Ordway III (2014)

Films

• Apollo 11 - Moonwalk - Director/Producer (1999)
• 100 Years of Spaceflight At The Movies (For the Arthur C Clarke dinner at the Playboy Mansion) - Director/Producer (2001)
• A Celebration of Apollo (Apollo 17 anniversary, for The American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics) - Producer (2003)
• The Rocket Team (DVD) - Producer (2003)
• Saturn V Test Movies - Producer (2005)
• Apollo 11 - The Launch Film/ Apollo 11 The Crew Interviews - Producer/Animator (2009)
• Apollo 12 - 40th Anniversary - Producer (2009)
• Apollo 17 - Last Man (Apollo 17 40th anniversary) - Producer (2012)
• 2001: The Science Of Futures Past - Producer/Animator (2013)

Comments and reviews

Music:

• "I'm always impressed with Robert's work." John Paul Jones - Led Zeppelin
• "Outrageously exhaustive!" Guitar World
• "Exceptional. A marvel." FMQB
• "A massive fix of facts." New Musical Express
• "The way that publishing should be heading." Record Collector

Space

• "We have had nothing but compliments on the Apollo 17 film. Thank you." Senator Harrison Schmitt - Apollo 17
• "Your work is important to the future of space exploration." Chris Kraft - Mission Control chief NASA
• "Keep up the good work!" Fred Haise - Lunar Module Pilot Apollo 13
• "It's about time someone did this right." Jim Lovell - Commander Apollo 13
• "I have watched it three times and still find it thrilling. (Apollo 11 film) You did a great job!" Wendell Mendell Mgr. Human Exploration NASA
• "...deserves a place in every scientific library..." Sir Patrick Moore
• "A fascinating and fun book." Tom Hanks
• "A unique reference." Library Journal
• "A treasure for the serious student of space exploration." Captain Edgar Mitchell - Apollo 14
• "Should be on the desk of everyone working on the next lunar lander." Captain Richard Gordon - Apollo 12
• "Marvelous. I'm afraid I'm going to lose a lot of sleep."Sir Arthur C Clarke
• "Invaluable" Astronomy
• "The most ambitious look at our space program to date." Playboy
• "I believe your books are the best reference material that someone could use." Guenter Wendt NASA Pad Leader Cape Canaveral