Customer Reviews

The Illustrated West With the Night

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It is debateable whether or not Beryl's husband helped to write this story. He was a writer and must have inluenced her in some ways. However, there are books other than "The lives of Beryl Markham" that give insight to the depth of his inluences upon her writing and also present Beryl's opinion on this subject. In Beryl's "African Stories" compiled by a woman who interviewed Beryl it becomes clear that Raoul's writing style did not match the writing style of this book. Raoul focused on scandal and tried to write his own story about Beryl in which scandal played a large part to help make the book popular. In Beryl's opinion the scandals of her life were unimportant details. Horses and African life were her truths and the details surrounding these truths were what she wanted to convey to the world. She used artisitc liscence. One surely should be able to to use this skill if one is writing about ones own life. Stories are not required to be as reality shows are today. The book is not titled "West With The Night A True Story". It was not meant to be taken with a grain of salt. It was meant to immerse the reader, take them to a different place if you will and make them feel as though they lived it. Allow the book to be what it is, enjoy the fine writing and let it take you to where you may have never been before. Read further and discover more. It is a facinating mystery touched by so many factors many of which we may never know because the one person who could tell us whether or not she wrote the book is dead and gone.

This is the illustrated edition of West With the Night, published by Stewart, Tabori & Chang, 1994. A handsome, quality book with a sewn binding, dustcover, and hardback boards that are quarter-cloth, 3/4's pictorial (clouds.) I think it is pretty! Heavy weight paper with something like over 125 illustrations integrated into the flow of the text.

Beryl Markam's controversial "West with the Night" gives a vivid, personal view of life in colonial Kenya. A geat aviator and race horse trainer, Beryl Markham gives new life to women everywhere.

I've recently read the "autobiography" "West With The Night" for a Hight School history class. While I found Markham's book to be a beautifuly spun story of growing up in colonial Kenya and life in the early 1900s, this book left me with more questions than answers. On digging deeper, I found that this book was written by her third husband, Raoul Schumacher. Also, I found that many interesting and scandalous parts of her life had been omitted from this historical tale. However, these things do not change the fact the "West With the Night" is a completly enrapturing tale of a very strong, determined woman. I only advise that you take this story with a grain of salt; and then go read the book "The lives of Beryl Markham" by Errol Trzebinski to get the real deal.

Beryl Markham was one of the most fascinating women that ever lived. The fact that she was a pilot, and one of incredible skill and accomplishment, was doubly rewarding for me. Her story and life knocks the socks off Amelia Earhart, in my opinion, and I am not trying to downplay Amelia's accomplishments, but in many ways Amelia was martyred by her death whereas Beryl lived to a ripe old age. We men say that he who dies with the most toys wins, I would say that Beryl died with one of the most fulfilled lives of any of the aviatrixes.

Hemingway bowed to the skill and craft of this book, a great read.