Wright Brothers, Wrong Story by William Hazelgrove

Wright Brothers, Wrong Story by William Hazelgrove

This book is the first deconstruction of the Wright brothers myth. They were not -- as we have all come to believe--two halves of the same apple. Each had a distinctive role in creating the first flying machine. How could two misanthropic brothers who never left home, were high-school dropouts, and made a living as bicycle mechanics have figured out the secret of manned flight? This new history of the Wright brothers' monumental accomplishment focuses on their early years of trial and error at Kitty Hawk (1900-1903) and Orville Wright's epic fight with the Smithsonian Institute and Glenn Curtis. William Hazelgrove makes a convincing case that it was Wilbur Wright who designed the first successful airplane, not Orville. He shows that, while Orville's role was important, he generally followed his brother's lead and assisted with the mechanical details to make Wilbur's vision a reality. Combing through original archives and family letters, Hazelgrove reveals the differences in the brothers' personalities and abilities. He examines how the Wright brothers myth was born when Wilbur Wright died early and left his brother to write their history with personal friend John Kelly. The author notes the peculiar inwardness of their family life, business and family problems, bouts of depression, serious illnesses, and yet, rising above it all, was Wilbur's obsessive zeal to test out his flying ideas. When he found Kitty Hawk, this desolate location on North Carolina's Outer Banks became his laboratory. By carefully studying bird flight and the Rubik's Cube of control, Wilbur cracked the secret of aerodynamics and achieved liftoff on December 17, 1903. Hazelgrove's richly researched and well-told tale of the Wright brothers' landmark achievement, illustrated with rare historical photos, captures the excitement of the times at the start of the American century.

William Elliott Hazelgrove is the best-selling author of ten novels, most recently, Rocket Man, The Pitcher, Real Santa, Jack Pine, The Pitcher 2, The Bad Author, and My Best Year. He has also written three narrative nonfiction books, Shots Fired in Terminal 2- A Witness to the Fort Lauderdale Airport Shooting Reflects on America's Mass Shooting Epidemic; Madam President- The Secret Presidency of Edith Wilson; Forging a President- How the Wild West Created Teddy Roosevelt; and Al Capone and the 1933 World's Fair. His books have hit the National Bestseller List, received starred reviews in Publishers Weekly and Booklist, and have been included in Book of the Month Selections, Literary Guild Selections, Junior Library Guild Selections, and ALA Editor's Choice Awards. He was the Ernest Hemingway Writer-in- Residence where he wrote in the attic of Ernest Hemingway's birthplace. He has written articles and reviews for USA Today and other publications. He has been the subject of interviews in NPR's All Things Considered along with features in the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, Chicago Sun Times, Richmond Times Dispatch, USA Today, People, Channel 11, NBC, WBEZ, and WGN.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9781633884588
ISBN 10	1633884589
Title	Wright Brothers, Wrong Story
Author	William Hazelgrove
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Hardback
Publisher	Prometheus Books
Year published	2018-12-20
Number of pages	288
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.