Wilbur and Orville: A Biography of the Wright Brothers (Paperback)

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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

As a former Library of Congress aeronautics editor who worked on the Wright papers, Howard is well qualified to write about the brothers and to redress the rumors, claims and falsifications that followed their successful flights. He establishes early on that the Wrights were not mere tinkerers who owned a Dayton bicycle shop but that they had sufficient background in mathematics and physics to be aware of the theory as well as the practice of flight. Much of the book is devoted to the brothers' efforts to market their invention, which proceeded slowly because they were not businessmen, and the difficulties they had with those who asserted that they, not the Wrights, were the first to fly. Throughout the biography there runs the thread of two loving brothers and the warm family life that helped to sustain them in their struggles. Commendably, Howard describes the technical features of their work in a fashion quite comprehensible to lay readers. A fine job. Photos not seen by PW. History Book Club alternate.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

In 1903 at Kitty Hawk, a man-carrying machine flew under its own power without losing speed or altitude. Among this book's many merits is making clear just what the Wright brothers really achieved before, during, and after that epic flight. Howard seems well qualified for the task. After Air Force service in World War II he joined the Library of Congress team that edited The Papers of Wilbur and Orville Wright (1953). His lively account is admirably well documented and more judiciously balanced than most other writings about the men who invented the airplane. For most libraries. B.C. Hacker, General Science Dept., Oregon State Univ. , Corvallis
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 560 pages
• Publisher: Dover Publications (June 29, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0486402975
• ISBN-13: 978-0486402970
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #224,327 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The thrill of discovery... "October Sky" with grownups..., December 13, 2001

By	R. David Roe (Hixson, Tennessee United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

There are thousands of books produced each year on history and biography that are written by people with a preeminant knowledge of their subject but whose intellect suppresses their passion or perhaps simply masks the truth that they just don't know how to write -- how to let their passion soar upon the page.

In that respect Donald Howard has done with "Wilbur and Orville" what only the greatest of biographers can do. He opens the roof on a cloistered and inscrutable family and allows you to share with two of its members the adventure of a lifetime. You bear witness to the achievement of manpowered flight, not as an Archimedean moment of "Eureka!" but as a result of a dogged pursuit of knowledge through trial and failure.

The great genius of Wilbur Wright and his brother is one of unstinting determination. Failure is not defeat but only the next small problem to solve. They knew that experimentation without failure yields only a partial truth -- that failure and success are irrevocably intertwined. Only those with the persistence not to be discouraged by the false thread will find what they seek.

As a former aeronautics librarian for the Library of Congress, Donald Howard does a tremendous job in defining precisely the nature of the Wright brothers' achievement and in defending them from later detractors who crawled from the woodwork to lay their own partial claims to invention. In truth, the Wrights leaned heavily on the experimentations of others, letting the failures of others serve as a practical classroom. What they invented was not the first machine to rise from the earth under its own power, but the first that could sustain itself and be navigated across the skies.

As we near the one hundredth anniversary of their first flight, it is an opportunity to reflect and remember those two young men whose vision opened the skies and made our world a smaller, less alien place to live.

This is THE definitive biography! If you read only one book on their lives (although there are other recent good ones), let this be it. This is the great tale of discovery -- Jack Kerouac's "On the Road" but with a spiritual quest infused with the miracle of invention. It is not just their quest, their discovery. It is mine. It is yours. Just as Kerouac lies awake thinking and dreaming of Dean Moriarty, I think and dream of Wilbur Wright.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best Wright biography yet, April 26, 2001

By A Customer

This volume surpasses another similar effort by Tom D. Crouch that came out at roughly the same time. Both books can be read profitably but Howard is better informed technically and a good deal wittier than Crouch. Howard's description of Samuel Langley's attempt to get his contraption into the air shortly before the Wrights' is laugh-out-loud funny. Crouch also suffers from his association with the Smithsonian Institution, whose scandalous treatment of the Wrights shocks even at this distance.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The tremendous achievements of the Wright Brothers., April 8, 1999

By A Customer

The Wright Brothers colossal achievement in accomplishing the first manned powered flight is only the summit of their attainments.

To reach their goal, they rejected the wind tunnel findings of their revered predecessors and designed and built their own wind tunnel. The data they gleaned from this experimentation enabled them to design their own airfoils and put them far ahead of their competitors.

This and other similar box shattering attainments are recounted by Fred Howard in Wilber and Orville. The genius and even the physical daring of these two men is arrayed page by page in this work.

Did you know that the famous photo of the first ever flight was laid out by the brothers themselves and taken with their camera? John Daniels, a lifeguard opened the shutter and one of history's most beautiful pictures was taken. Their attention to this kind of detail is depicted by Mr. Howard without tedium in the least.

As we approach the end of the first century of powered flight, take time to read this can't put down story of the Wright Brothers spectacular success.