Lincoln Beachey: The Man Who Owned the Sky [Paperback]

Frank Marrero (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback
• Publisher: Scottwall Associates (March 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0942087127
• ISBN-13: 978-0942087123
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #807,774 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars NOT A BIOGRAPHY, NOT A HISTORY, April 29, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: Lincoln Beachey: The Man Who Owned the Sky (Paperback)

Frank Marrero made some serious mistakes, the most grievous of which was trusting the 1953 article about Lincoln Beachey which appeared in TRUE magazine. The "book-length feature," as TRUE touted it, was written by Air Force Colonel Hans Christian Adamson, and was replete with errors, invented dialogue, and fantasized facts. Mr. Marrero's book, written in a decidedly "popular" style, is thin on informative source-notes, indeed the first chapter has no source notes whatsoever. A photo purporting to depict Beachey's fiancé is rather mysteriously credited to "a relative of Miss Walton."

Mr. Marrero felt compelled, with apparently no hard evidence, to say the following about Lincoln Beachey's wife and marriage: "Then, very hastily, in a rash naivete of youth, Lincoln married the buxon May (Minnie) Wyatt. He soon learned to regret his impulsiveness. They made a go of it for a while, but Minnie showed herself to be more of a gold-digger than a wife. Yet Lincoln was not unhappy: from his newfound sexual experiences he learned a different form of flying." In fact, the evidence is that Mrs. Beachey loved her husband deeply until the day he died and far from being a "gold-digger" worked side-by-side with him as a partner for most of their marriage.

There are other, perhaps more serious, problems with the book. A photo on page 154 is said to be of Beachey flying over Mt. Tamalpais in California. The photo is, in fact, of Weldon Cooke, taken on December 19, 1911, and appears to have copied from the cover of the January 1912 issue of Aeronautics magazine. The magazine clearly identified Cooke as the aviator, while the image in Mr. Marrero's book appears to have been cropped to edit out the identifying text.

Mr. Marrero has produced neither a biography of Beachey nor a history, but compilation of errors, legends and myths. The writer of this review has been working on a serious biography of Beachey for many years, so these comments could be discounted simply as biased. However, in reciting press releases and invented dialogue and drawing on erroneous material produced without the benefit of serious research, Mr. Marrero has failed to grasp the larger significance of Beachey's life; Beachey deserved better. C. F. Gray [e-mail]

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A great lunch-time read for aviation/history buffs, April 9, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Lincoln Beachey: The Man Who Owned the Sky (Paperback)

While previous reviewers may dispute some of the facts recited, it remains that this is a great read about a man whose accomplishments deserve to be remembered. Indeed, a list of his feats would shame many of the more well-remembered aviators whose fame was based more upon subsequent movies than fact.

For instance: Beachey flew upside-down around the Washington Monument, buzzed the Capitol Building until Congress adjourned to see what was happening, and then landed on the White House lawn to meet Mrs. Teddy Roosevelt. It served his purpose perfectly as a lead in to his words to Congress "If I had had a bomb you'de be dead." He was an ardent supporter of aviation as a national defense tool and worked to prove it his whole life.

Mr. Marrero does not purport to offer a scholarly work, nor does he intend that this be a benchmark. Instead, we have a long-overdue refresher of what should never have been forgotten.

I enjoyed the book I borrowed sufficiently that I bought my own copy for my collection. And while I would not put it on the same literary level as, say, Hemmingway (hence only an 8), I would recommend it to anyone.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Exciting, intriguing, and inspiring, October 1, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Lincoln Beachey: The Man Who Owned the Sky (Paperback)

Frank Marrero writes from his heart, and that is a truly valuable quality in any historian. I learned about an admirable and legendary man, in a field at which I wouldn't have looked twice if it weren't for Mr. Marrero's folklorish and mythical style of writing. Beachey does indeed deserve such love and praise. I hope many more people research and write about him, and such writings would in no way take away from Mr. Marrero's devoted tribute.