The Wright Brothers

#1 New York Times bestseller

Two-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: Wilbur and Orville Wright.

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?

David McCullough, two-time winner of the Pulitzer Prize, tells the surprising, profoundly American story of Wilbur and Orville Wright.

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.

In this thrilling book, master 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.

Author: David McCullough
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Published: 05/05/2015
Pages: 336
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 1.55lbs
Size: 9.30h x 6.60w x 1.30d
ISBN: 9781476728742


Award: ALA Notable Books - Winner


Review Citation(s):
Library Journal Prepub Alert 12/01/2014 pg. 62
Publishers Weekly 03/09/2015
Kirkus Reviews 03/15/2015
Publishers Weekly 03/16/2015 pg. 74
Library Journal 04/01/2015 pg. 99
Booklist 04/15/2015 pg. 8
BookPage 05/01/2015
New York Times Book Review 05/10/2015 pg. 11
New York Times Book Review 05/17/2015 pg. 30
New York Review of Books 08/13/2015 pg. 4
Choice 09/01/2015
Booklist Editors Choice/Adult 01/01/2016 pg. 7
Library Journal 12/01/2014

About the Author
McCullough, David: - David McCullough has twice received the Pulitzer Prize, for Truman and John Adams, and twice received the National Book Award, for The Path Between the Seas and Mornings on Horseback. His other acclaimed books include The Johnstown Flood, The Great Bridge, Brave Companions, 1776, The Greater Journey, The American Spirit, The Wright Brothers, and The Pioneers. He is the recipient of numerous honors and awards, including the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian award. Visit DavidMcCullough.com.