Man Flies [Hardcover]

Nancy Winters (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 21, 1998

"This is not a history of flight. Nor even of ballooning. It is the story of one small, courageous, stubborn, stylish, and ultimately tragic man. It is not so much a story of science as a story of dreams" (from the Author's Note). It was for Alberto Santos-Dumont, who could not check his pocket watch because he was using both hands to steer the balloon, that Louis Cartier, in 1901, created the first wristwatch. The youngest son of a Brazilian millionaire, he grew up on an isolated coffee plantation devouring (and believing) the novels of Jules Verne. By the age of eighteen, he was living in Paris, at the height of the Belle Epoque, heir to a huge fortune and determined to make his dreams of flying come true. A renowned playboy, dining at Maxim's nightly and setting new styles in fashion, he at first frequently crashed his yellow silk airships into the trees of wealthy friends, such as the Rothchilds, who would set up champagne lunches for him to enjoy during repairs. But soon he was winning prestigious prizes and being hailed as "the conqueror of the air." Internationally acclaimed as the first man to fly, he was feted for several years in Europe and America--where he was received at the White House by Teddy Roosevelt--before learning that the Wright Brothers, whose early efforts had been discounted, had actually preceded him. "Man Flies" tells the tragic, glamorous story of Alberto Santos-Dumont's career, and later illness, and how this brilliant, colorful, and eccentric pioneer slipped through the cracks of aviation history while his inventions and imagination continue to inspire it. "Man Flies" includes black-and-white photographs throughout, an illustrated chronology of the airships, a chronology of the life of Santos-Dumont, and an illustrated glossary of ballooning terms.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Compact, written in short paragraphs and spare sentences, this brief volume tells the story of the Brazilian-born balloonist and aviator who during the first decade of the century was believed to be, and widely celebrated as, the first man to fly. It amounts to a gesture of poignant archeology as Nancy Winters excavates a human story that has been buried by the irrevocable advance of history. -- A Los Angeles Times Best Nonfiction Book of 1998; Los Angeles Times Book Review, Michael Frank, 20 December 1998

Her book is gracefully told and stylishly published in a small, Art Deco edition. Winters scatters the tale with interesting anecdotes and wonderful photos. With an appeal across the board, this is a flying success. -- Christian Science Monitor, 10 September 1998

The way-cool alternative to Scott Berg's best-selling "Lindbergh" is Nancy Winters's "Man Flies," the story of fin de siecle dandy Alberto Santos-Dumont--the first Cartier wristwatch was designed for him--who grew up on Jules Verne, motorized a balloon and cruised the Paris skies. -- Newsweek, 14 December 1998

Product Details

• Hardcover: 160 pages
• Publisher: Ecco; 1st edition (September 21, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0880016361
• ISBN-13: 978-0880016360
• Product Dimensions: 7.7 x 5.6 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,510,363 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great little book about the real inventor of the airplane, June 30, 2003

By 

Alexandre Camargo - See all my reviews

This review is from: Man Flies (Hardcover)

I have just read the book, and it's great. It's really well written, and even if it doesn't go too deep (and I believe that was never Mrs. Winters' goal with this project), it goes deep enough to raise a few eyebrows, and make us wonder: how come the real inventor of the airplane can be almost forgotten nowadays?
After all, his vehicle, the 14-bis, unlike the Wright Brothers Flyer, could fly by its own means...

5 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great reading about the Father Of Aviation!, November 9, 1999

By 

Arsenio Fornaro ([e-mail]) (Newark, NJ - USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Man Flies (Hardcover)

It left me wanting for even more! This book told me a lot about the greatest pioneer of aviation! Very pleasant presentation and chronological progression of events.The photographs, some of which I've never seen before, are very nice too! I wish the author would release yet another book from the product of her diggings about Santos-Dumont.

9 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Was Nancy Winters trying to write a children's book?, November 26, 2000

By 

bob lowe (Seattle WA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Man Flies (Hardcover)

If so she succeeded, because "Man Flies" certainly reads like one. It's not just that her cloyingly cute and vaguely condescending writing style would quickly become grating on any reader much past adolescence. Winters accomplishes the incredible feat of making a deeply moving and compelling true story seem almost tedious with an analysis which seldom rises above the comic-book level. And her research is really no better than her writing. Her arrogant claim that she was the one to "uncover the story of Alberto Santos-Dumont" is an insult to all serious students of aviation history, who are not only quite familiar with Alberto but can easily spot the sloppy inaccuracies in this book.[i.e., Winters' flatly stating that Santos-Dumont was the first to achieve powered, steered lighter-than-air flight. He wasn't; others beat him to it by over a decade.] But the most compelling question about Alberto is this: how could a man once almost universally hailed as the father of flight [the very first newspaper story about the Wright brothers was headlined "Local boys emulate the great Santos-Dumont"!] be so generally forgotten today? It is a question Winters barely even mentions, much less answers. Alberto deserves so much better a biography than this. In fact, he got one: "Santos-Dumont: A Study in Obsession" by Peter Wykeham. [Now out of print, but well worth looking for.]