The best book on the most colorful aviator of all time, January 23, 1998

This exciting and fast-paced read is informative, educational, and even surprising. This is a peak into the past that will delight anyone, whether or not they have any interest in aviation.

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Makes a substantial contribution to the history of Aviation, August 22, 1997

From the pages of forgotten history, Marrero's well-researched and well-written story of Lincoln Beachey restores an important and illuminatiing chapter. Before reading this book, I thought I had a good working knowledge of the history of early aviatiion, and yet I had never heard of Lincoln Beachey, arguably the single most important force in the history of early aviation, and by far the most famous in his own day of any aviator before or since.

The high esteem in which Mr. Marrero holds his subject shows in the care with which he gives life to the man as well as to his fabulous story. Marrero's book returns Beachey to the America public -- and so will the inevitable movie.

No Aviation or US History buff should let this book get by: it is literally the only book (so far) on the subject. It's also a damn good read! Marrero can tell a story

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NOT A BIOGRAPHY, NOT A HISTORY, April 29, 1997

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 enkedu@aol.com

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