The Bishop's Boys: A Life of Wilbur and Orville Wright [Paperback]

Tom D. Crouch (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 2003

The reissue of this definitive biography heralds the one-hundredth anniversary of the Wright brothers' first flight.

Brilliant, self-trained engineers, the Wright brothers had a unique blend of native talent, character, and family experience that perfectly suited them to the task of invention but left them ill-prepared to face a world of skeptics, rivals, and officials. Using a treasure trove of Wright family correspondence and diaries, Tom Crouch skillfully weaves the story of the airplane's invention into the drama of a unique and unforgettable family. He shows us exactly how and why these two obscure bachelors from Dayton, Ohio, were able to succeed where so many better-trained, better-financed rivals had failed. 50 b/w photographs

Editorial Reviews

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 10 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 magnificent 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., Nashua
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 608 pages
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company (April 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 039330695X
• ISBN-13: 978-0393306958
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.1 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #406,619 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Wright Biography!, December 31, 1999

By 

Douglas McIntyre - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Bishop's Boys: A Life of Wilbur and Orville Wright (Paperback)

For anyone really interested in the story of human flight, Tom Crouch's "The Bishop's Boys" is the book for you. Crouch has done a masterful job of telling the Wright's story, and what a story it is! Most legendary figures of history crumble when their lives are examined-- Wilbur and Orivlle Wright are more amazing the more you learn about them. Thanks to Crouch and "The Bishop's Boys", the entire story, warts and all, is finally put before the public in a well written, definitive, biography. I have studied and written about the Wright Brothers for years, and I always tell anyone who wants to learn more about these amazing brothers to read this book.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A stor of an amazing human achievement., June 15, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: The Bishop's Boys: A Life of Wilbur and Orville Wright (Paperback)

I've wanted to read Tom Crouch's book, The Bishop's Boys, ever since I visted Kitty Hawk, North Carolina for the first time while on vacation. I found the title intriguing. Even more intriguing was the idea that two parsonage children with little or no formal education beyond high school were responsible for the "world's first power-driven, heavier-than-air machine in which man made free, controlled, and sustained flight."

Mr. Crouch tells the tale in a way that does justice to both the men and the machine. By this I mean that neither overshadows the other. One comes to the end of the book convinced that the fates of both the men and the machine were inextricably intertwined. How this came to be is a story of wonder, some sadness, humor, and amazing human achievement.

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars How was the Airplane "Really" invented?, September 18, 2000

By 

Olaf O. Storaasli - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Bishop's Boys: A Life of Wilbur and Orville Wright (Paperback)

In this book, Tom Crouch culminates his exhaustive research on the history of manned flight. All the players (and would-be players) are included from the Wright Brothers viewpoint. Crouch carefully examines the involvement/viewpoints of Chanute, Beloit, Langley, Curtiss and a host of contemporaries from Kings to children with intricate details of the Wright family itself. It sets one back so well in time that one feels you are sitting in the same room with Wilbur, Orville and Milton, their father. One can even sense that Wilbur and Orville might differ on their view of important events (i.e. The Wrights might never have flown if Wilbur had not been knocked cold playing ice hockey near the Soldier's Home).

Milton's religious influence and the Wright family tradition is shown to have played a key role in shaping Wilbur's decision to do something meaningful with his life after giving up a likely education at Yale and career in the ministry in his Dad's footsteps as a result of the hockey accident.

To me the book has a happy and sad part:

The happy part (the first half) deals with Wright family, history, ideas, experiments, inventions and basically seeing how the brothers (particularly Wilbur) came up with all their ideas and diligently and painstakingly pursued them.

The sad part (the last half) deals with the agony felt by Wilbur (before his death) and Orville for the rest of his life fighting a multitude of court cases over what they viewed as clear patent infringements. Orville is viewed as extreme and difficult to get along with (according quotes from to Charles Lindberg).

Only after Orville's death and World War 2 did the Wrights force the Smithsonian to back down and recant many of their publications related Samuel P. Langley, Orville insisted were untrue. Finally, their 1903 "First Flight" aircraft was returned to the Smithsonian from the British Museum where Orville insisted it remain as a protest until the Smithsonian retracted their views. Such stong uncompromising right/wrong views of Orville and Wilbur are traced to the Bishop (father) in trying to uphold conservative values while their church was split do to relaxing traditional values. The Wright family tradition of honesty and integrity is evident from cover to cover.

This is an excellent read, and you'll be anxious to pursue reading numerous other Wright books and artifacts in museums cited at the end.