Pretty cool either way.
From web site: "Solar Sails in Science Fiction"
http://www.planetary.org/solarsail/science_fiction.htm
"Appropriately, the first great writer of truly scientific fiction was also the first to suggest the possibility of solar sails. In Jules Verne's 1865 novel From the Earth to the Moon,..."
"Then in May 1951 the leading SF magazine of its time, Astounding Science Fiction, published a detailed account of how solar sails could be assembled in orbit and used for space travel. The account was a nonfiction article, "Clipper Ships of Space," by an engineer named Carl Wiley. ..."
"Now we come to the author who is most often given credit for introducing solar sails into science fiction: the great hard-SF writer, Arthur C. Clarke. His first story of solar sailing was published four years after "The Lady Who Sailed The Soul" (in Boy's Life, the magazine of the Boy Scouts of America, March 1964). Originally titled "Sunjammer," the story is technically much more detailed than Cordwainer Smith's accounts. But its use of solar sails is rather less spectacular: instead of carrying thousands of settlers to new planets, the story's seven "sun yachts" engage in a competitive race from Earth orbit to the Moon. "
There are several other authors mentioned. Clarke is the most famous to me. Anderson, also developed it. I think they missed some references in Heinlein, but I'm probably wrong about that.
Solar sails will probably be of some use at some time in the long distant future. Cool stuff.
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