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The Right Stuff: Tom Wolfe
The Right Stuff: Tom Wolfe
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Wolfe began The Right Stuff at a time when it was unfashionable to contemplate American heroism. Nixon had left the White House in disgrace, the nation was reeling from the catastrophe of Vietnam, and in 1979 - the year the book appeared - Americans were being held hostage by Iranian militants. Yet it was exactly the anachronistic courage of his subjects that captivated Wolfe. In late 1940s Americans attempted to break the sound barrier Test pilots were people who live fast lives with dangerous machines - not all of them airborne. Chuck Yeager was certainly among the fastest and was determined to push through Mach 1 - a feat that some had predicted would cause the destruction of any aircraft. Yet soon the focus shifts to the seven initial astronauts, tracing Alan Shepard's suborbital flight and Gus Grissom possibly flooding his Liberty capsule by blowing the escape hatch too soon. There is also an admiring portrait of John Glenn's apple-pie heroism and selfless dedication. Tom Wolfe: "The Right Stuff" became a story of why men were willing - willing? - delighted! - to take on such odds in this, an era literary people had long since characterised as the age of the anti-hero."
Product Information
1st U.K. edition by Jonathan Cape; dust jacket is price-clipped and has small chips and shelfwear; previous owner's name; tightly bound and clean within, Autobiography/Bio/Non-FictionShare
