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The Wright brothers / David McCullough.

By: Material type: TextTextSeries: Thorndike Press large print popular and narrative nonfictionPublisher: Waterville, Maine : Thorndike Press, 2015Copyright date: �2015Edition: Large print editionDescription: 585 pages (large print), 32 unnumbered pages of prints : illustrations, portraits, maps ; 23 cmContent type:
  • text
Media type:
  • unmediated
Carrier type:
  • volume
ISBN:
  • 9781410478757
  • 1410478750
Subject(s): Genre/Form:
Contents:
1. Beginnings -- 2. The dream takes hold -- 3. Where the winds blow -- 4. Unyielding resolve -- 5. December 17, 1903 -- 6. Out at Huffman prairie -- 7. A capital exhibit A -- 8. Triumph at Le Mans -- 9. The crash -- 10. A time like no other -- 11. Causes for celebration -- Epilogue.
Summary: On a winter day in 1903, in the Outer Banks of North Carolina, two unknown brothers from Ohio changed history. But it would take the world some time to believe what had happened: the age of flight had begun, with the first heavier-than-air, powered machine carrying a pilot. Who were these men and how was it that they achieved what they did? Far more than a couple of unschooled Dayton bicycle mechanics who happened to hit on success, they were men of exceptional courage and determination, and of far-ranging intellectual interests and ceaseless curiosity, much of which they attributed to their upbringing. The house they lived in had no electricity or indoor plumbing, but there were books aplenty, supplied mainly by their preacher father, and they never stopped reading. When they worked together, no problem seemed to be insurmountable. Wilbur was unquestionably a genius. Orville had such mechanical ingenuity as few had ever seen. That they had no more than a public high school education, little money and no contacts in high places, never stopped them in their mission to take to the air. Nothing did, not even the self-evident reality that every time they took off in one of their contrivances, they risked being killed. Historian David McCullough draws on the immense riches of the Wright Papers, including private diaries, notebooks, scrapbooks, and more than a thousand letters from private family correspondence to tell the human side of the Wright Brothers' story, including the little-known contributions of their sister, Katharine, without whom things might well have gone differently for them.
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Holdings
Item type Home library Collection Call number Materials specified Status Date due Barcode Item holds
Large Print Book Large Print Book Main Library Large Print NonFiction 629.13 M133 Available 33111009169893
Total holds: 0

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

A New York Times Bestselling AuthorTwo-time winner of the Pulitzer Prize David McCullough tells the dramatic story-behind-the-story about the courageous brothers who taught the world how to fly.Far more than a couple of unschooled Dayton bicycle mechanics who happened to hit on success, Wilbur and Orville Wright were men of exceptional courage and determination, and of far-ranging intellectual interests and ceaseless curiosity. David McCullough draws on the immense riches of the Wright Papers to tell the human side of the story, including the little-known contributions of their sister, Katharine.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 565-582) and index.

1. Beginnings -- 2. The dream takes hold -- 3. Where the winds blow -- 4. Unyielding resolve -- 5. December 17, 1903 -- 6. Out at Huffman prairie -- 7. A capital exhibit A -- 8. Triumph at Le Mans -- 9. The crash -- 10. A time like no other -- 11. Causes for celebration -- Epilogue.

On a winter day in 1903, in the Outer Banks of North Carolina, two unknown brothers from Ohio changed history. But it would take the world some time to believe what had happened: the age of flight had begun, with the first heavier-than-air, powered machine carrying a pilot. Who were these men and how was it that they achieved what they did? Far more than a couple of unschooled Dayton bicycle mechanics who happened to hit on success, they were men of exceptional courage and determination, and of far-ranging intellectual interests and ceaseless curiosity, much of which they attributed to their upbringing. The house they lived in had no electricity or indoor plumbing, but there were books aplenty, supplied mainly by their preacher father, and they never stopped reading. When they worked together, no problem seemed to be insurmountable. Wilbur was unquestionably a genius. Orville had such mechanical ingenuity as few had ever seen. That they had no more than a public high school education, little money and no contacts in high places, never stopped them in their mission to take to the air. Nothing did, not even the self-evident reality that every time they took off in one of their contrivances, they risked being killed. Historian David McCullough draws on the immense riches of the Wright Papers, including private diaries, notebooks, scrapbooks, and more than a thousand letters from private family correspondence to tell the human side of the Wright Brothers' story, including the little-known contributions of their sister, Katharine, without whom things might well have gone differently for them.

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