This Aviation Lifestyle
Aviation Reads for Long Winter Nights
When winter closes in around us and the evenings seem so much longer than they really are, this is always a great opportunity to settle down in front of the fireplace, plunk down into a cozy chair or bundle up in bed and pick up an inspiring aviation classic to leisurely read through.
Combining the familiar technical and practical aspects of flight with a dose of lyrical bent and plenty of adventuresome moments as well, many of these books were written in days gone by where the majesty and magic of flying was still very much felt by both the pilot-writer and the reading public.
One of the most interesting of these was Antoine de Saint-Exupery, who is most widely known for his still wide-selling children’s book, The Little Prince. Two other books he wrote are well worth reading from the aviation genre: Southern Mail, Night Flight novels and Wind, Sand and Stars that amaze and inspire from the viewpoints of early aviation days where open cockpits and wide, quiet open skies called out to the daring and dashing men and women of the first few decades in what was the new, the very modern Twentieth Century. From Night Flight a sample of his prose: “Sometimes after a hundred miles of steppes as desolate as the sea, he encountered a lonely farmhouse that seemed to be sailing backwards from him in a great prairie sea with its freight of human lives; and he saluted with his wings this passing ship.” Equally interesting is the life he led personally with a good biography about it written by Stacy Schiff called, Saint Exupery: A Biography.
Another widely regarded aviation classic is West With the Night by Beryl Markham, whose equally glamorous and scandal-fraught lifestyle similar to Saint-Exupery’s pales in comparison with the life perspective and poetic expression she also brought into the realm of flying with this publication. “I think that all the science of flying has been has been captured in the breadth of an instrument board, but not the religion of it,” is one statement of many that Markham ponders and gives the reader time to think on as well. Her writing lends a sparse but deep philosophical questioning that is highly enjoyable to mull over during long winter nights.
Yet more interesting and pleasant nighttime reading can be found in the works of Anne Morrow Lindbergh. Her best known book is North to the Orient but there’s also Listen! The Wind as well with both detailing flights that the Lindberghs undertook as a couple. Anne Lindbergh’s willing frankness to share her feelings gives her writing a wonderful clarity as can be seen in this portion from North to the Orient: “I had a panicky feeling, as though I were watching the last train coast out of a lonely station at night, the lights twinkling into blackness down the track…”. One of the most enjoyable biographies I have ever read is one written about Lindbergh by Susan Hertog, Anne Morrow Lindbergh: Her Life that balances rather well the legend of the Lindberghs with the various realities, both good and horrific, that they went through within their married life. Some biographies stall and seem to sputter along but this particular one keeps the reader interested, entertained and intrigued throughout.
Another peering into a life uniquely lived is the book, Airplanes, Women, and Song: Memoirs of a Fighter Ace, Test Pilot, and Adventurer by Boris Sergievsky. His detailing of World War I times and combat is very interesting as this passage reveals, “I saw the coverings on the wings ripped in many places by tracer bullets. The cockpit was also shot through in many places, splinters of wood flying around. I was shooting as best I could. All of a sudden I saw the pilot slump down on the stick, and our plane started to fall out of control . . .”. Sergievsky’s life spanned a remarkable time period of aviation and is worth a good evening’s read.
Several evenings may be taken up with aviation reading if you’re nicely surprised like I was a few years ago and find yourself enjoying the easy writing and interesting undertones of Nevil Shute’s works. His On The Beach is of course the most famous of his books but he also wrote a bevy of others that have aviation themes including: An Old Captivity, Landfall, Pastoral, No Highway, Round The Bend and In the Wet. I especially liked Round The Bend for its unusual focusing on religion and spirituality- quite a fascinating read with some eastern concepts overarching as in this expression, “Right Thinking is indicated in Right Work, and Right Work in Right Thinking, because both are one. ... No man cumbered with error in the Work can reach the state or Right Meditation ...”. Not what one would expect to be reading as a religion is formulating around the character Shaklin who is a very different prophet of sorts but this is what gives a Nevil Shute work the twists and turns readers find fascinating.
There are so many great works out there about the experience and emotions of human flying and I have only touched here on a few where the author’s life is just as interesting as the works that he or she produces for aviation literature. Whether novels or memoirs, classics like these are sure to be fun to read during a long quiet evening at home this winter. Stack them up beside an easy chair or onto a bedside table and enjoy!
By Lachlan Ivy