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Wilbur And Orville: A Biography Of The Wright Brothers

Wilbur And Orville: A Biography Of The Wright Brothers

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Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Riveting Story
Review: The first 100 or so pages or so pages are an extraordinary account of the Wright brothers development of the first airplane and controled flight. It was interesting to learn why Kitty Hawk NC was selected as a test area; plenty of wind, no trees and sand to land on. Also that development of first plane could be done on the profit from summer earnings from a bicycle shop. Overall this is an excellent and detailed documentary of the Wright brothers achievment and also the impact of the business considerations which followed.

Ken Kraetzer
White Plains, NY

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Riveting Story
Review: The first 100 or so pages or so pages are an extraordinary account of the Wright brothers development of the first airplane and controled flight. It was interesting to learn why Kitty Hawk NC was selected as a test area; plenty of wind, no trees and sand to land on. Also that development of first plane could be done on the profit from summer earnings from a bicycle shop. Overall this is an excellent and detailed documentary of the Wright brothers achievment and also the impact of the business considerations which followed.

Ken Kraetzer
White Plains, NY

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: The thrill of discovery... "October Sky" with grownups...
Review: There are thousands of books produced each year on history and biography that are written by people with a preeminant knowledge of their subject but whose intellect suppresses their passion or perhaps simply masks the truth that they just don't know how to write -- how to let their passion soar upon the page.

In that respect Donald Howard has done with "Wilbur and Orville" what only the greatest of biographers can do. He opens the roof on a cloistered and inscrutable family and allows you to share with two of its members the adventure of a lifetime. You bear witness to the achievement of manpowered flight, not as an Archimedean moment of "Eureka!" but as a result of a dogged pursuit of knowledge through trial and failure.

The great genius of Wilbur Wright and his brother is one of unstinting determination. Failure is not defeat but only the next small problem to solve. They knew that experimentation without failure yields only a partial truth -- that failure and success are irrevocably intertwined. Only those with the persistence not to be discouraged by the false thread will find what they seek.

As a former aeronautics librarian for the Library of Congress, Donald Howard does a tremendous job in defining precisely the nature of the Wright brothers' achievement and in defending them from later detractors who crawled from the woodwork to lay their own partial claims to invention. In truth, the Wrights leaned heavily on the experimentations of others, letting the failures of others serve as a practical classroom. What they invented was not the first machine to rise from the earth under its own power, but the first that could sustain itself and be navigated across the skies.

As we near the one hundredth anniversary of their first flight, it is an opportunity to reflect and remember those two young men whose vision opened the skies and made our world a smaller, less alien place to live.

This is THE definitive biography! If you read only one book on their lives (although there are other recent good ones), let this be it. This is the great tale of discovery -- Jack Kerouac's "On the Road" but with a spiritual quest infused with the miracle of invention. It is not just their quest, their discovery. It is mine. It is yours. Just as Kerouac lies awake thinking and dreaming of Dean Moriarty, I think and dream of Wilbur Wright.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Great Approach To A Many-Times-Told Tale
Review: This is a fine account of the Wright Brothers' lives and achievements. It reads easily, and sets correct some of the myths that have grown around Wilbur and Orville (such as the vignette about building the little sled).

And I really liked the line in the Preface (...) stating that this particular biography wasn't going to delve into an extensive exploration of the Wright Brothers' ancestry, that some brief information about their family history was going to be presented in the first few paragraphs, and could easily be skipped by the reader. That's definitely my kind of biographer.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Great Approach To A Many-Times-Told Tale
Review: This is a fine account of the Wright Brothers' lives and achievements. It reads easily, and sets correct some of the myths that have grown around Wilbur and Orville (such as the vignette about building the little sled).

And I really liked the line in the Preface (...) stating that this particular biography wasn't going to delve into an extensive exploration of the Wright Brothers' ancestry, that some brief information about their family history was going to be presented in the first few paragraphs, and could easily be skipped by the reader. That's definitely my kind of biographer.


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