Features
- Cover Type: Paperback with 608 pages
- Published by: W. W. Norton & Company April 2003
- Written in: English
- ISBN 10 Number: 039330695X
- ISBN 13 Number: 978-0393306958
-
Book Dimensions:
9.1 x 6.1 x 1.1 inches
- Weighs: 1.6 pounds
From Publishers Weekly
Milton Wright, father of Wilbur and Orville, was an itinerant churchman embroiled in controversies who bequeathed to his sons firmness of purpose, stubborn independence and overweening pride, qualities that were to inform their lives. After the bachelor brothers perfected the world's first practical airplane, their extreme secretiveness and haughty manner alienated potential business partners. Determined to protect their invention, the duo became litigious, undertaking a string of patent-infringement lawsuits that consumed their energies and very possibly contributed to Wilbur's death at age 45 in 1912. Orville, who finally reaped a fortune from the sale of the Wright Company, spent his last years tinkering on small-scale projects. He died in 1948. Crouch ( A Dream of Wings ) interweaves family drama with the history of aviation in a riveting saga of ingenuity, competing claims, public adulation and technical innovation. More than ten years in the writing, with benefit of cooperation from the Wright family, this comprehensive biography throws light as well on Will and Orv's long-suffering sister Katherine, head of the household (their mother died in 1889), who held the family together while their father crisscrossed the country. The book also contains fresh glimpses of rival pioneers--American, French, German--and their awesome flying machines. There have been a number of fine biographies of the Wright brothers; this one ranks with the best. Photos. BOMC selection. ( June ).
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Library Journal
This book is both a biography of these great American heroes and a history of early aviation. Crouch discusses the Wrights' early life in Dayton, which was dominated by their father, the controversial Bishop Wright. He provides a detailed account of the development of the airplane, with its problems of aerodynamics, control surfaces, and propellers. The Wrights' business efforts to capitalize on their technology--fraught with struggles for patents, disputes over contracts, and feuds with the Curtiss corporation--is particularly enlightening. A well-researched book which uses often overlooked original source material, this will have wide interest for general readers and those interested in flying history. BOMC selection.
- William A. McIntyre, New Hampshire Vocational-Technical Coll. Lib., NashuaCopyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Reader ReviewsTom Crouch does an excellent job in telling the readers not only about the lives of Wilbur and Orville Wright, but about what made them tick, as well. A large chunk of the beginning is devoted to the story of their parents, especially their father, Milton Wright. The father, a preacher and bishop in the United Brethern denomination, stuck to his guns about certain beliefs, even when they led to scisms and lawsuits. Knowing this helps explain to the readers why the brothers did some things, particularly regarding the patent lawsuits, that seem selfish or greedy. Crouch gives us a portrait of the two that neither puts them on pedestals or demeans them, but shows them as humans. The one drawback, at least for readers more interested in people than in their inventions, was that some of the information regarding the early planes could get awfully technical at times. I understood most of it, but it was a struggle, and it slowed the pace somewhat. Unfortunately, you probably can't have a decent biography of the Wrights without this information, and some might even enjoy it.
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