Customer Reviews

Light This Candle: The Life & Times of Alan Shepard--America's First Spaceman

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

To anyone but a true student of spaceflight history, this might be regarded as a superb biography of an extraordinary man, and it certainly comes very close. Neal Thompson has a punchy, smooth-running style, which obviously reflects his lengthy career as a professional journalist, but just like a journalist it seems he kept his manuscript to himself and well under wraps, and I believe this has proved a sad downfall for an otherwise excellent book. People who know their spaceflight stuff are thick on the ground, but it is very obvious that no one was consulted in order to simply verify the so-called facts about Shepard's NASA career in this book. There are so many elementary errors inherent in this part of the story that it must call into question the reliability of other areas such as his military service, and he deserves better.

The author's descriptions of early spacecraft are incorrect; so too his explanations of the dynamics of space flight and the space environment. I know helicopter pilot Jim Lewis well enough to say that he would be absolutely furious with Thompson's baseless assumption that Gus Grissom blamed Lewis for nearly letting him drown after the hatch blew on his spacecraft. Quite the contrary - Lewis was elsewhere making a valiant but ultimately unsuccessful attempt to save Liberty Bell 7. Any fundamental study of this dramatic event would reveal that Lewis's helicopter did not in fact retrieve Grissom as stated in the book, and his was not the only helicopter on the scene - there were actually three involved. I also feel that far more effort should have been made to research the Mercury flight of Scott Carpenter, rather than reiterating bitter and biased recollections dominating Chris Kraft's account of this flight in his own book. Carpenter successfully brought home a flawed, badly malfunctioning spacecraft, but where is this story? It seems a much-misrepresented confrontation between two personalities is a better scenario to present than the program-saving heroics and expertise of a gentle, courageous astronaut.

The author says he elicited the help of Alan Shepard's family in writing this book, and while I do not doubt the veracity of this statement, I wonder if they feel betrayed by many of the vapid sex "revelations" he felt obliged to relate, which only serve to make this book a poor man's "Right Stuff." I, for one, did not care to know the intimate details of Alan and Louise Shepard's first night together as man and wife. This was just guesswork, voyeuristic journalism at its most revolting, and has no place in such a serious biography. It would also, I am sure, have proved very distressing to the daughters, and such odious reporting is precisely why Shepard would not divulge his life story before he died, and why family members have never cooperated with journalists or biographers before now - and probably never will again. The author also rebuts the whole Shepard/Glenn conflict matrix he carefully makes throughout the book by saying that Shepard was panicked into seeking Glenn's counsel on a delicate matter. This goes absolutely against the grain of both personalities, as pointed out numerous times in his own book. Research and sources please, Mr. Author, not the presentation of presumptions as facts based simply on third-party and questionable hearsay.

My sincere wish is that the author had just allowed someone with a solid knowledge of spaceflight dynamics and history to read the text before he rushed this book into print, because the presence of numerous errors and typos only serves to diminish the full impact of what might have been a truly good biography.

An Australian called Clive James once penned a great book called "Unreliable Memoirs," and I'm afraid this is an alternate title I would have to apply to this book. Nevertheless, it still merits 4 out of 5 for readability, and for finally bringing us the incredible (albeit author-flawed) story of America's first man in space. We can only hope that a corrective rewrite is in the offing. Then, I'm sure, I can probably add that fifth star to the overall rating.

On the one hand, this is a long-overdue biography of an American hero who never did make things easy for biographers. It shows us where Shepard came from, and how he wound up riding a fifteen-minute lob over the Atlantic, and playing golf on the moon, and it makes for fascinating reading.

Unfortunately, the book is somewhat marred by numerous errors of detail that any expert on manned spaceflight history could have caught, and the occasional annoyingly awkward turn of phrase that any competent copy editor should have caught. Together, these give the author a less-than-authoritative tone. Then, too, even the typography of the book is slightly annoying: for the chapter titles and the page headers, somebody picked a truly ugly and amateurish-looking font, one that doesn't belong in any book.

I had been meaning to read this long-overdue biography of Alan Shepard, and I happened to pick it up in a cruise ship library. As I read it I was surprised at the number of factual inaccuracies--there is at least one glaring non-technical error per chapter, which calls into question almost everything else between the covers. Numerous reviews here mention more problems with technical aspects of the book that I was unaware of, but which do not surprise me given the apparent lack of proofreading and fact-checking.

An example: upon finding the book, I leafed through it and found the section on Apollo 14. There it mentioned that John Glenn had "almost killed himself when he lost control of the pace car at the Daytona 500 and slammed into a flatbed trailer crowded with journalists." This sentence boggled my mind, for it contained two errors: the pace car was at the Indianapolis 500, and John Glenn was a passenger while a local Dodge dealership owner was the driver. The book is just full of examples of this kind of sloppy reporting.

Edit: I see that at least the paperback edition correctly says Indianapolis 500, but it still incorrectly implies that Glenn was driving the pace car.

I second Colin Burgess's insightful review. Thompson's description of the flight portions of Apollo 14 is derived almost exclusively from Barbree and Benedict's unreliable "Moonshot" and, consequently, bears only a passing resemblance to reality. The critical events related to the abort switch and landing radar simply did not happen as described. In my work on the Apollo Lunar Surface Journal, I have always found it useful to check astronaut memories against other sources. I can only wish that Thompson had exercised such care.

I was looking forward to reading this bioagraphy having read most of the biographies of the American Astronauts that are out there along with many histories of the Space Program. Having grown up in the 60's and 70's I also followed the program intently. However, upon reading this I was both disappointed and sceptical about the accuracy of what the book contained. Factual error after error constantly gnawed away at any faith that what I was reading was to be believed. Others have pointed out errors I missed like Grissom's pick up though I suspected things weren't as I recalled (I knew there was more than one helicopter), so I'll add these corrections: The developement of the Saturn 5 was not a result of the Apollo 1 fire ( the Saturn 5 was always the vehicle intended for the lunar flights and were being built); Glenn's landing bag did,'t deploy (this is never made clear); the Soviets did not rendezvous two two man spacecraft ( they only launched two single passenger Vostoks in similar orbital planes that resulted in their passing within a few miles of each other and the Gemini 8 docking is never mentioned). The author has obviously read most of the same books I have and and used them for most of his research and many incidents recounted bore a striking resemblance to scenes from Tom Hank's "From the Earth To the Moon" series.
All in all a bit of a disappointment

"Light This Candle" delivers all that is promised. It reveals a complex man, driven to be the best. It provides added insight into the egos, triumphs, and tragedies of the early space program. Author Neal Thompson has done a masterful job of ferreting out the details of Alan Shepard's life from a wide range of sources without having had the opportunity to personally interview this man with a facade of cold steel. Thompson's effort shows us a man who does have warmth and compassion on the inside, but one must earn the privilege to experience it. Thompson writes with a casual style that reads well although he occasionally structures complex sentences to make you work a bit.

Those who are knowledgeable of the space program may be somewhat bothered by numerous technical inaccuracies while others insulted by the occasional use of gross profanity and blasphemy. Mature readers generally know that military pilots like to punctuate their speech with shocking profanity to boost their macho image. Young readers do not need encouragement to do likewise. The errors do not detract from the characterization of Alan Shepard but gutter language depreciates us all. This should be a best seller, at least among aviation and space aficionados.

I feel this great book rates only four stars (rather than five) only because some of the technical information was badly in error. It is clear to me that this book is for folks interested in the "astronaut human relations" aspects of the Mercury program and is filled with lots of great gossip about our original seven astronauts. I read WE SEVEN when it was first published in 1962 and it was pure NASA "PR" as far as granting grades to the astronauts for "WORKING AND PLAYING WELL WITH OTHERS". Although technically, WE SEVEN was a very perfect book, NASA PR ruled in those early days. We now know that the astronauts were very human and although willing to put their lives on the line, capable of making an error at times.

Since this book was very enjoyable to read I give it four stars. I do not recommend it for people who will get distracted by the erroneous technical information it contains, which reflects negatively on the authors knowledge of space science and orbital mechanics.

Great gossip includes:

1) When Shepard was selected by NASA for the first suborbital flight, Glenn went on a letter writing campaign to NASA managers to be substituted for Shepard. Glenn was really upset with the selection and Shepard's alleged womanizing!

2) When Shepard worked with Slayton as managers, they bumped Cooper so Shepard could jump line for a flight to the Moon.

3) Cooper quit NASA partially as a result of Shepard's line jumping.

4) Scott Carpenter was essentially drummed out of the astronaut core as a result of his (250 mile) overshoot, and a particular flight controller who was very unhappy with Carpenter's performance.

5) Much more!

Not much about Al Shepard that isn't already in other books
and movies. And just plain wrong on obvious things like
Grissom's pickup --which is on tape. How do you screw
something like that up? Short on technical details
and a lot of rehash on the Glen rivalry.

The constant repetitive mentioning of Al's sexual business is a bit weird.
Especially since only two real instances are mentioned in the book,
and neither of them involved sex. The supposed suppressed T.J. scandal
(John Glenn saves the day) is total horsecrap too, never happened.

I am a "space nut". I have read numerous books, seen numerous vhs and dvd stories of everything from the start of the space age to the shuttle flights. I have never had a more inspiring feeling than upon finishing "Light this candle". It started a little slow with all the early life details of Shepard but, helped later in the book with how & why he reacted to many (and I mean many) tough situations that he faced in his unbelievable life. Being a space nut, I was happy to see little details explained in the book that are lacking in other books I have read. Such things as Shepard talking about laying in the LEM following an EVA on Apollo 14. He and Mitchell were supposed to be sleeping but Shepard talked about the "eerie silence" and hearing the A/C unit click on and off. Also, feeling like they were going to tilt over and falling out of the bunk when he thought the LEM was sliding down the edge of the crater. All of these things made it a "tough to put down" book that I would HIGHLY recommend.
I used to think of Al Shepard as an egotistical, bi-polar, spoiled fly-boy that I wanted no part in learning more about. I would have rather stuck to anyone of the other 6 Mercury astronauts. BOY WAS I WRONG! This book might have turned me to thinking that Al Shepard is the most interesting of the original 7.

Surprise of surprises. Amid the clutter of hastily-written self-serving memoirs from the early days of the space program, finally there appears something akin to solid history and literary proficiency. Neal Thompson was a Baltimore reporter when Alan Shepard died in 1998 of leukemia. Assigned to write an obituary, Thompson discovered that no first rate biography of the United State's first spaceman was then in print. Sensing an opportunity, Thompson, a free lance writer, began a six-year research project and produced a highly respectable treatment of a very private man. What had been known about Shepard were primarily his great successes and his notable shortcomings. Johnson tackles the great middle--and the puzzle that was Alan Shepard now begins to make sense.

In truth, there is probably misunderstanding about all of the early astronaut heroes, as if each was assigned a role in a bigger cosmic drama. Scotty Carpenter will always be the house philosopher, Gordo Cooper the hotdog, Gus Grissom the curmudgeon. Shepard's role was to be first, the best, the winner of a grueling marathon to ride the Redstone rocket--tiny by today's standards--for fifteen minutes on May 5, 1961. Given the unpredictability of the rockets of that era, the greater risk to the astronaut was on the ground than in space. This fact was appreciated in 1961, and being chosen number one was a statement from his superiors about his fortitude as much as his mastery of flying and technology.

Alan Shepard was born in 1923 in Derry, NH, to a somewhat removed, demanding father. Young Shepard inherited a fierce competitiveness and an independence that allowed him to pursue personal goals with little concern about his impression on others. This latter quality, to his advantage, is what set him apart from his archrival John Glenn, who did worry about public relations. Shepard was one of those rare men who had his cake and ate it, too: he achieved remarkable career goals while entertaining himself along the way with what can only be called oppositional defiance. In a strange twist of history, he actually pulled off the mischief that has always been attached to others like Gordon Cooper.

In this regard Thompson studies Shepard's military misbehavior and his philandering. The author's account of the future astronaut's brushes with military authority is detailed and rather surprising. One comes away with a sense that the New Hampshire flyboy's skills as a naval test pilot must have been noteworthy, outweighing numerous dangerous incidents of "flat-hatting" or strafing civilians on the ground. His cheating on his virtuous and devoted wife Louise--a spouse of the Lady Bird Johnson mold--is a blotch that time will probably not erase. Thompson does observe that Shepard's amorous sorties off the reservation were adolescent in nature; the astronaut apparently never engaged in any sort of long term relationship in which Louise was displaced.

Although there is in this work a lot about Shepard to dislike, the author clearly strove for a balanced presentation. Shepard appears to have made his peace with Glenn at the time of the Freedom Seven flight. After retirement he demonstrated a better than average interest in philanthropy and seems to have worked harder in his later years to enrich his marriage with Louise. Perhaps best known is his decade long battle with Meniere's Disease, and later with a form of leukemia. In some ways the Meniere's was more of a psychological jolt, coming as it did at the beginning of the Gemini, and ultimately, the Apollo Programs. Whatever his colleagues felt about him, Shepard was widely respected in the NASA management circle for outstanding cape com work in the troubled Carpenter and Cooper flights. With Glenn, his chief rival, out of the picture due to a head injury and political considerations, Shepard was the logical choice to command the maiden voyages of these new craft--and by implication become the first man to walk on the moon.

But this was not to be. For nearly a decade Shepard lost his license to fly any type of aircraft due to balance impairment [and other less known medical problems brought to light by the author.] Did he take this forced grounding graciously? Admittedly not. But the author assesses this period of Shepard's career with more depth than other commentators. He notes, for example, that Shepard had burned his bridges with the Navy by joining NASA and could not return to what seemed to be a straight road to admiralty status. While the Navy was no longer an option, Shepard was proving himself to be a better than average business man and becoming independently wealthy. Freed of aviator-astronaut responsibilities, he could have lived a highly lucrative lifestyle.

But he stayed with NASA, a nasty Don Quixote. Only a man in similar straits like Deke Slayton, himself medically grounded from space travel, could have understood and tolerated his subaltern's angry depression which alienated other astronauts in the program and at times rendered him a public relations nightmare. What sustained him through his bureaucratic Siberia was the desire to return to active status, but perhaps more strongly a desire to conquer his own medical problem. Shepard would admit that his selection for the first Mercury flight was the professional highlight of his career. Reinstatement to flight status for Apollo was for him a personal triumph of a different sort,

Shepard was due for some luck. Experimental surgery put him on line for Apollo 13, but management bumped him to 14 to absorb training and thus he avoided the near catastrophic events of unlucky 13. Shepard seemed grateful to be back--choosing for his Apollo 14 crew Stu Roosa, who had defined the art of avoiding Shepard in company hallways. Apollo 14 survived at least three mission-threatening crises on its way to the world's most famous tee shot. What the author shares about the moon landing mission is one of its least known achievements: it brought its commander to tears.