New biography of Eddie Rickenbacker

[Frank_Olynyk]

Amazon.com now lists the forthcoming biography of Eddie Rickenbacker by W. David Lewis: Eddie Rickenbacker : An American Hero in the Twentieth Century . It will be published by Johns Hopkins University Press on October 15, 2005. 624 pages, hardcover. ISBN: 0801882443.

Frank.

I have the paperback issue of Rickenbacker: His Own Story. I was wondering just what else can they tell about Captain Eddie . He covers just about everything from his boyhood days to his running of Eastern Airlines.
I got this book by purchasing a model Boeing 314 Clipper at a model vendor's table in Parsippany. Both a good bargain for just three bucks.

[Barrett]

Prof. Lewis has been working on his EVR bio for years & years. Should be just about definitive, but I don't think it examines the reality (?) of EVR's 26 victories.

[MikeW]

I have the paperback issue of Rickenbacker: His Own Story. I was wondering just what else can they tell about Captain Eddie .

I'm not saying that this is the case here, but when people are involved in their own biographies, they tend to leave out the bits they don't want their "public" to know about.

Collishaw is a good example, if you read "Air Command" you do not get a full picture of the man, he left stuff out for one reason or another, maybe he thought people would not be interested, maybe he wasn't comfortable with letting the information out, whatever!

I'm sure W David Lewis wouldn't have bothered if there wasn't something new to tell.


Mike

[stephen]

If they want the inside scoop on EVR, they need to find a copy of Joe Wehner's war diary which was destroyed by his family because of the sensitive information it contained on some very reknowned persons.

[joegertler]

I believe David has a considerable amount of new information. Yes he spent quite a few years on this project. Years ago, he spent about three days here,doing research and typing into his laptop from morning until night. I also loaned him a lot of reference material. In addition, to all the usual Library of Congress/NASM/Institutional reference libraries and countless personal interviews etc, he thoroughly researched and sorted through the large lot of EVR material that was uncovered in the 1970s. (The discovery of an entire trunkload of EVR's personal papers, albums, correspondence and family papers and contacts.) David also went into extensive detail of EVR's auto racing history and the Maxwell racers etc. I read what was ALMOST the final draft, about four or five years ago. But David just kept on digging and revising. He lives, breathes and sleeps EVR history. His license plate is "EVR." The wooden desk in his office was EVR's desk . When I visited him at Auburn-which has an INCREDIBLE aviation research library (much WWI) built on some famous aviation collections-I HOPE I talked him out of restoring/refinishing the desk. I was appalled that he would consider erasing all the little nicks and scribbles acquired during EVR's use of it. I think he left it as is. Much of the EVR material that belongs to the NASM is now in the Special Collections of Auburn University, due to his efforts. And I believe that Prof. Lewis was once a leading candidate for Director of the Smithsonian NASM. With all these years of fine-tuning the final manuscript, it should be a good one..

Sounds good. And glad he incuded the auto racing. I wonder what Eddie would think of the airline industry now !!!!