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Librarian's note: An alternate cover edition can be found here Two-time winner of the Pulitzer Prize David McCullough tells the dramatic story-behind-the-story about the courageous brothers who taught the world how to fly: Wilbur and Orville Wright.On a winter day in 1903, in the Outer Banks of North Carolina, two unknown brothers from Ohio changed history. But it would take the world some time to believe what had happened: the age of flight had begun, with the first heavier-than-air, powered machine carrying a pilot.Who were these men and how was it that they achieved what they did?David McCullough, two-time winner of the Pulitzer Prize, tells the surprising, profoundly American story of Wilbur and Orville Wright.Far more than a couple of unschooled Dayton bicycle mechanics who happened to hit on success, they were men of exceptional courage and determination, and of far-ranging intellectual interests and ceaseless curiosity, much of which they attributed to their upbringing. The house they lived in had no electricity or indoor plumbing, but there were books aplenty, supplied mainly by their preacher father, and they never stopped reading.When they worked together, no problem seemed to be insurmountable. Wilbur was unquestionably a genius. Orville had such mechanical ingenuity as few had ever seen. That they had no more than a public high school education, little money and no contacts in high places, never stopped them in their mission to take to the air. Nothing did, not even the self-evident reality that every time they took off in one of their contrivances, they risked being killed.In this thrilling book, master historian David McCullough draws on the immense riches of the Wright Papers, including private diaries, notebooks, scrapbooks, and more than a thousand letters from private family correspondence to tell the human side of the Wright Brothers' story, including the little-known contributions of their sister, Katharine, without whom things might well have gone differently for them.
Publication Year: 2015
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This book changed my perception of the Wright Brothers.
I thought of the duo in context of their American legend: a couple of guys who owned a Dayton bicycle shop, experimented with flight, and made history. The legend is true, as far as it goes, but there's so much more. Both boys, engineering geniuses, became fascinated with flight when their father brought home a toy helicopter for their amusement. Wilbur and Orville partnered to design, build, and sell their own bicycles, creating a popular store for the new invention and becoming modestly successful businessmen while they were still quite young. They took some of the income to fund their experiments in manned flight, which they pursued with single-minded dedication while a hired manager ran the bicycle business. They impressed the people of Kitty Hawk, NC, who initially considered them cranks, through their perseverance, industriousness, and intelligence as they neared their goal of controlled manned flight. They hired a brilliant mechanic, who stayed with them for decades, to build their engines when it was time to move on to the next phase. They impressed pretty much everyone they met, they became the toast of Paris for a while, and they built a business worth a considerable fortune. Later in life, Orville even got involved in the suffragette movement.
Oh, and they were also well-read, thoughtful, considerate, religious, decent men who remained loyal to their family and friends; they never let their success, or their fame, go to their heads.
In other words, Wilber and Orville Wright were awesome. So was their sister, Katharine, who held the family together. So was their mother, Susan, who filled their home with books. And so was their father, Milton, a bishop of his denomination who realized the dream of a lifetime when he went flying with one of his famous sons.
I loved this book. What a pleasure to peel back the onion on a pair of American icons and find a whole family of genuinely admirable people. I recommend this book to anyone with an interest in aviation, aviation history, or American history.
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