Wings of Madness by Paul Hoffman
Now in paperback, an "unforgettably good book [told] with compassion and sympathy" (Simon Winchester, New York Times) about an eccentric aviator and the thrilling early days of flight.
From Paul Hoffman, the acclaimed author of The Man Who Loved Only Numbers, comes this engaging true story of the man who was once hailed worldwide as the conqueror of the air--Alberto Santos-Dumont. Because the Wright brothers worked in secrecy, word of their first flights had not reached Europe when Santos-Dumont took to the skies in 1906. The dashing and impeccably dressed aeronaut stunned and delighted Paris, barhopping around the city in a one-man dirigible he invented, circling above crowds and crashing into rooftops.
Yet Santos-Dumont was a frenzied genius tortured by the weight of his own creation. Wings of Madness is a riveting, brilliantly told story of this tormented man who helped to usher in the modern age and who epitomized the increasingly tortured spirit of the twentieth century--it is elegant, fascinating, and deeply moving.
From Paul Hoffman, the acclaimed author of The Man Who Loved Only Numbers, comes this engaging true story of the man who was once hailed worldwide as the conqueror of the air--Alberto Santos-Dumont. Because the Wright brothers worked in secrecy, word of their first flights had not reached Europe when Santos-Dumont took to the skies in 1906. The dashing and impeccably dressed aeronaut stunned and delighted Paris, barhopping around the city in a one-man dirigible he invented, circling above crowds and crashing into rooftops.
Yet Santos-Dumont was a frenzied genius tortured by the weight of his own creation. Wings of Madness is a riveting, brilliantly told story of this tormented man who helped to usher in the modern age and who epitomized the increasingly tortured spirit of the twentieth century--it is elegant, fascinating, and deeply moving.
Charles Hudson is Franklin Professor of Anthropology and History Emeritus at the University of Georgia and author of Knights of Spain, Warriors of the Sun: Hernando de Soto and the South's Ancient Chiefdoms. Paul E. Hoffman is Paul W. and Nancy W. Murrill Professor of History at Louisiana State University and author of Florida's Frontiers. David G. Moore teaches archaeology at Warren Wilson College in Asheville, North Carolina, and is the author of Catawba Valley Mississippian: Ceramics, Chronology, and Catawba Indians. Robin A. Beck Jr. is currently Visiting Scholar at the Center for Archaeological Investigations, Southern Illinois University, Carbondale. Christopher B. Rodning is currently Visiting Assistant Professor at the University of Oklahoma and the coeditor of Archaeological Studies of Gender in the Southeastern United States.
| SKU | Unavailable |
| ISBN 13 | 9780786885718 |
| ISBN 10 | 0786885718 |
| Title | Wings of Madness |
| Author | Paul Hoffman |
| Condition | Unavailable |
| Binding Type | Paperback |
| Publisher | Hyperion |
| Year published | 2004-06-16 |
| Number of pages | 384 |
| Cover note | Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary. |
| Note | Unavailable |