First Man : The Life of Neil A. Armstrong

First Man: The Life of Neil A. Armstrong is James R. Hansen's 2005 authorized biography of Armstrong, the only authorized biography Armstrong ever sanctioned and the source text for Damien Chazelle's 2018 film starring Ryan Gosling. Hansen, an Auburn University historian of technology, spent six years interviewing Armstrong, his family, his Korea-era squadron mates, his X-15 colleagues, and the entire surviving Apollo astronaut corps.

The book's strength is the procedural texture. The chapters on Armstrong's X-15 test-flying career are some of the best aerospace-engineering writing in any astronaut biography. The Apollo 11 chapters are precise without becoming hagiographic. Hansen also takes seriously the late-Armstrong years (the Cincinnati professorship, the legal battles over commercial use of his name, the Janet-and-Carol marriages) in ways that other Armstrong volumes glide past. The 769 pages earn their length.

Recommended for readers of aerospace history (Tom Wolfe's The Right Stuff, Andrew Chaikin's A Man on the Moon), for readers who liked the 2018 film and want the source, and for anyone looking for books like First Man in the authorized-astronaut-biography tradition. Five solid stars and the standard reference on Armstrong.