Enduring Courage; Ace Pilot Eddie Rickenbacker And The Dawn of The Age of Speed

xxiv, 375 pages. Maps. Notes. A Note to the Reader. Index. The book has an author inscription that reads: "To Jack, Best Regards, John Ross". The Wall Street Journal called his previous book, War on the Run: The Epic Story of Robert Rogers and the Conquest of America's First Frontier, "a lively, evocative and moving biography." Formerly the editor of American Heritage and Invention & Technology magazines, he is the recipient of the 2011 Fort Ticonderoga Award for Contributions to American History. Before that he was on the Board of Editors of Smithsonian magazine, during which he wrote four cover stories. On assignment Ross has dogsledded with the Polar Inuit of northwest Greenland, lived with nomadic Khanty reindeer herders in Siberia, chased scorpions in Baja, and dived 3,000 feet underwater in the Galapagos for Smithsonian, gone technical mountain climbing in Siberia for the National Geographic, and explored old castles in Europe for The Discovery Channel. He has appeared on more than 50 radio and television programs, keynoted a dozen conferences around the country, and given talks at the Explorers Club of New York, NASA's Ames Research Center, the Pritzker Military Library, and the Smithsonian Institution. He has helped start and run two magazines, been a producer for CBS News's Face the Nation, and edited many large-format books for Smithsonian Institution Press. His organization of the most northern canoe trip into the Arctic earned him membership in the Explorers Club of New York. For his television documentary work he won a national cable ACE award. The sensational true story of Eddie Rickenbacker, America's greatest flying ace At the turn of the twentieth century two new technologies-the car and airplane-took the nation's imagination by storm as they burst, like comets, into American life. The brave souls that leaped into these dangerous contraptions and pushed them to unexplored extremes became new American heroes: the race car driver and the flying ace. No individual did more to create and intensify these raw new roles than the tall, gangly Eddie Rickenbacker, who defied death over and over with such courage and pluck that a generation of Americans came to know his face better than the president's. The son of poor, German-speaking Swiss immigrants in Columbus, Ohio, Rickenbacker overcame the specter of his father's violent death, a debilitating handicap, and, later, accusations of being a German spy, to become the American military ace of aces in World War I and a Medal of Honor recipient. He and his high-spirited, all-too-short-lived pilot comrades, created a new kind of aviation warfare, as they pushed their machines to the edge of destruction-and often over it-without parachutes, radios, or radar. Enduring Courage is the electrifying story of the beginning of America's love affair with speed-and how one man above all the rest showed a nation the way forward. No simple daredevil, he was an innovator on the racetrack, a skilled aerial dualist and squadron commander, and founder of Eastern Air Lines. Decades after his heroics against the Red Baron's Flying Circus, he again showed a war-weary nation what it took to survive against nearly insurmountable odds when he and seven others endured a harrowing three-week ordeal adrift without food or water in the Pacific during World War II. For the first time, Enduring Courage peels back the layers of hero to reveal the man himself. With impeccable research and a gripping narrative, John F. Ross tells the unforgettable story of a man who pushed the limits of speed, endurance and courage and emerged as an American legend. First Edition [Stated], First Printing [Stated].…