Hike and the Aeroplane [Hardcover]

Sinclair Lewis (Author), Stephen R. Pastore (Illustrator)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1999

Sinclair Lewis's first book, edited in a new and only edition by renowned Lewis expert, Stephen R. Pastore. Fully illustrated.

Editorial Reviews

Review

A magnificent re-ssue of Sinclair Lewis's first punblished book (1912) and newly illustrated for a new generation. None of this book has lost its appeal and wonder and it is a wonderful addition to anyone's library of childrens classic books --Librarians Journal --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 219 pages
• Publisher: Yalebooks; 1 edition (January 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1893173062
• ISBN-13: 978-1893173064
• Product Dimensions: 11.1 x 8.4 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #9,246,137 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Fantastic Journey Back to the Future, March 17, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Hike and the Aeroplane (Hardcover)

This book was such a surprise! I love Sinclair Lewis but I never expected such a great young reader's book from him. It's a terrific view of what he thought the future might be: lots of hope in technology and the ultimate triumph of good over evil. I don't know what the original book looked like, but this one is BEAUTIFUL!!!!

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A boys' adventure tale About the early days of aviation, July 8, 2005

By 

T. Patrick Killough "All about Patrick" (Black Mountain, NC United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Hike and the Aeroplane (Library Binding)

During three weeks in 1911 Sinclair Lewis dashed off HIKE AND THE AEROPLANE, then played down its value ever after. Admittedly, it is "only" a boys' adventure tale. But who says that stories of the Hardy Boys or Frank Merriwell at Yale must totally lack literary merit? Any father or grandfather who has spun yarns knows the youthful market for stories in which his son or grandson is the hero of adventures with characters named "Confidential Wolf," or about "When Jason first grew wings" or "How Maria's dolly stopped a bank robbery." They are spontaneous and they can be spun out indefinitely.

Is HIKE AND THE AEROPLANE just another shaggy dog story? Yes, in a way. But one told by Sinclair Lewis, a future master. The novel is about two 16 year old California military boarding school boys and their chance encounter with an inventor of a working tetrahedral airplane that can fly 200 miles per hour with a 230 horsepower engine (an idea explored earlier by Alexander Graham Bell). The boys, Gerald ("Hike") Griffin and his lovable overweight sidekick Torrington ("Poodle") Darby, help the inventor land a million dollar contract with the U.S. Army Signal Corps to purchase his amazing flying machine. Along the way they save people from drowning on a yacht run aground and thwart a corrupt army captain and his private sector manufacturing partner in crime. Hike (shades of the future BIlly Mitchell) imagines the day when his tetrahedral plane will sink a battleship. The boys also help a wealthy and virtuous U.S. army lieutenant save his ranch in Mexico from rebels led by the disgraced evil captain. This they do with the ever reliable tetrahedral aeroplane called "Hustle," a portable machine gun and a squad of Mexican federales. At the end of the story, Hike, a sophomore left half-back playing in the big Thanksgiving Day football game against San Dinero, has broken into the clear. But, he denies himself for the sake of the team and laterals the game winning football to a personal rival. He is then elected sophomore class president.

The story is a good-hearted, undemanding hoot, a fairy tale and morality tale. It deserves to be reissued for today's youngsters to enjoy.

When I was ten years old I could not get enough of the 15 potboilers churned out by R. Sidney Bowen beginning in 1941 with DAVE DAWSON AT DUNKIRK and continuing with DAVE DAWSON WITH THE R.A.F. Teenage American Dave had a faithful young English sidekick named Freddy Farmer. Just like Hike and Poodle. Boys who read books love adventure stories with young heroes.

What else is there to like about HIKE AND THE AEROPLANE? California ways of talking and behaving.

Before the Valley Girls of California and their "valley talk" there were already speech and behavior peculiar to California. Sinclair Lewis tells us that the novel's hero Gerald Griffin won his nickname "Hike" in a football game when he "hiked" his way to a touchdown, meaning he made a very long run down the field. We also learn that it was rude of other sophomore boys to break in on Poodle Darby's private cabin when he was writing verse. For Poodle was "sporting his oak," as dons did at Oxford University when they closed the heavy oaken outer doors of their room while tutoring to show that they did not wish to be disturbed. We are also informed that Californians regularly used gold coins rather than paper bills, which Poodle did even around Washington, D.C. And California boarding schools were more likely to produce teams for rugby than for football. I used to think that pausing dramatically and then adding ... "not" at the end of the sentence was a linguistic coinage even more recent than valley talk. For instance, "She is so charming ... NOT!" Well in 1912 one vicious kidnapper said to his captive (Hike), "Now I guess you'll run tetrahedrals -- not, young smart Aleck" (Ch. XII) And the abundant schoolboy slang of the novel has to be read aloud to be savored.

On a profounder level, there are lyric passages by soldiers, American and Mexican alike, as well as by young Hike himself, lamenting human nature's all too easy turning to violence and sketching a vision of a future U.S. Army too busy building great engineering works for the good of mankind to plan for wars of aggression.

Finally, this yarn is about the early history of aviation. It makes you want to know more of the rivalry between Alexander Graham Bell and the Wright Brothers. You learn how inventors built kites as a stage toward engine-powered flight. You see flying and football as akin.

Only three years after HIKE AND THE AEROPLANE Sinclair Lewis returned in fiction to the theme of aviation in THE TRAIL OF THE HAWK (1915). Lewis knew aviation and loved it.

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