Peter Kilduff's new book

Gregvan · 23 November 2007, 07:16 PM

Hi All,

Peter Kilduff has written a new book entitled "Red Baron: Life and Death of an Ace."

He even has a Myspace page for the book:

MySpace.com - Red Baron - 66 - Male - New Britain, US - www.myspace.com/redbaron_thebook

Now, granted, I have not yet seen the book. However, knowing Peter's meticulous attention to accuracy and research in depth, I know this is a great book. Yes, we all know Peter Kilduff has covered this topic before, and well. Yet Paul Leaman reviewed the new book for Cross & Cockade International and raved about it, saying it presented new information, insights and photos.

I know that a good number of Forum members will immediately throw up their hands and start moaning about "Yet ANOTHER book about Richthofen?". They will also decry the attention devoted to one particular Captain of Uhlans who (they will say) was inconsequential to the course of the war and is undeserving of all the coverage. Yet, it cannot be doubted that the charisma of the Rittmeister refuses to go away, and still brings new students to the study of WWI aviation history. If you think other airmen are more worthy of fame and coverage, then feel free to write your own books - or make your own big-budget film epic.

I would love to see in-depth biographies of McCudden, Fonck, or MacLaren. I would enjoy reading about the important role reconnaissance and artillery-spotting missions had on the course of the war. So start writing!

Greg

Nebogatoff · 23 November 2007, 10:48 PM

Interesting that I find it on the Amazon UK site, but not the US site, nor do I find it on Barnes & Noble site. Do you know when it will be released in the US?? (of course I may just be running blind)

By the way, Thanks for all your works, have enjoyed them very much!

Frederic Mason · 24 November 2007, 10:24 AM

New info on any WWI ace is wonderful. I'll be looking forward to seeing this title. Does anyone know the publisher, etc. for ordering same? He does not include this info on his MYspace data. Another chance to use the Barnes/Noble members card discount - The smart choice. Cheers; FM.

FliegerJG1 · 24 November 2007, 04:32 PM

This is welcome news. Here's a link to the book on the publisher's web site. Looks like it is published in the UK so I hope we'll eveintually see it here. Due to the awful exchange rate of the dollar, it would cost a lot to order it from the UK.

Publisher's web site

I seem to recall that a previous book by PK, Talking With the Red Baron, was released overseas before it appeared over here on Amazon and other book sites.

FliegerJG1

Dan_San_Abbott · 24 November 2007, 06:19 PM

Greg:
As I said along time ago, "There are more books published about Richthofen than Abraham Lincoln!"
Best to you Greg,
Dan
P.s. I am curious, did you received my e-mails?

FliegerJG1 · 24 November 2007, 07:55 PM

Just happened to find the new Red Baron book available at Powell's Books here in the US.

Link to the book on their web site.

Red Baron at Powell's

Happy Reading!

FliegerJG1

Kilian · 24 November 2007, 10:47 PM

I found it in German Amazon but would take 3 weeks for UK import

Germanophile-1 · 25 November 2007, 12:00 PM

Thanks, Greg, for mentioning my new book and the Myspace page. I understand the often heard question "why another Red Baron book?" and the only answer I have is: because people seem to want them. Or, at least, that is what publishers perceive, as many of them continue to invite manuscripts from writers.

As a case in point, six of my 12 books (since 1969) have dealt with Manfred Freiherr von Richthofen -- and all been solicited by publishers. I was a reporter for the (sadly, now defunct) Hartford Times in 1967 when Doubleday issued the Air Combat Classics series. I liked the

Billy Bishop re-issue, which I reviewed, and sent a copy of the review to Doubleday, urging them to "have someone" translate the 1933 edition of Der rote Kampfflieger and not go with the wartime censored T. Ellis Barker edition (The Red Battleflier). End of story, or so I thought. Doubleday's editor called and said it sounded like I could do the job, if I was interested. What young writer (or even an old goat) wouldn't jump at that opportunity? The result was The Red Baron, which came out in 1969 and is still in print.

Years later, my editor at Arms and Armour in London asked for "a whole new approach to the Red Baron." Having translated MvR's memoirs, I thought I was done with the subject and turned down the offer. When he mentioned that he would find "someone" to write a Red Baron bio, he became my British "godfather," making me an offer I couldn't refuse. The result was Richthofen: Beyond the Legend of the Red Baron (1993), which is still in print in English and has been translated into Polish and Italian. I was asked to write two sequels to that book, which -- as I had warmed up to the subject by then -- I was glad to do. When an editor at Brassey's saw a market in a semi-fictional account about MvR, I didn't question the judgement, and the result was Talking With the Red Baron (2003).

Obviously, when David and Charles (a global publisher) asked me for a Red Baron book, I accepted the offer; hence, the new book you noted. The challenge to each succeeding book is to find new information to the latest work -- and, with luck (and the former East German military archives) I am able to offer new material and refine earlier contentions, thanks to works by the late Ed Ferko, Norman Franks, et al.

Sure, I'd like to write (and have published) a book about Hanns-Gerd Rabe, an observer with Flieger-Abteilung (A) 253, whose articles I translated for the old U.S. Cross & Cockade Journal and which attracted quite a following, but the idea has been nixed by various publishers. Rabe was my best friend among the surviving German WW I fliers I once knew and so it really stung when editors noted -- oh so casually -- that Rabe may have been "interesting," but he was no Red Baron. Simply put, publishing is a business and it requires "crowd pleasers" to stayin business. Suffice to say, I consider that some of my best work has appeared in the old C&C and in Over the Front, and so I work to bring that type of research and resources to my commercial projects.

By the way, awhile back a Forumite by the name of Amy wrote and said a photo of Boelcke's corpse by his crash (in my book The Illustrated Red Baron) did not show the Boelcke crash site. I've often wondered how she came up with that contention, as I received the photo from Ferko, who obtained it from a Jasta 2 veteran. One look at the dead man's profile (and a comparison with a postcard view of Boelcke) makes Ed's ID of it beyond dispute. The serial number on the crashed Albatros clinches it.

Peter
=========
Peter Kilduff

tcrean7828 · 25 November 2007, 02:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Germanophile-1

Thanks, Greg, for mentioning my new book and the Myspace page. I understand the often heard question "why another Red Baron book?" and the only answer I have is: because people seem to want them. Or, at least, that is what publishers perceive, as many of them continue to invite manuscripts from writers.

As a case in point, six of my 12 books (since 1969) have dealt with Manfred Freiherr von Richthofen -- and all been solicited by publishers. I was a reporter for the (sadly, now defunct) Hartford Times in 1967 when Doubleday issued the Air Combat Classics series. I liked the

Billy Bishop re-issue, which I reviewed, and sent a copy of the review to Doubleday, urging them to "have someone" translate the 1933 edition of Der rote Kampfflieger and not go with the wartime censored T. Ellis Barker edition (The Red Battleflier). End of story, or so I thought. Doubleday's editor called and said it sounded like I could do the job, if I was interested. What young writer (or even an old goat) wouldn't jump at that opportunity? The result was The Red Baron, which came out in 1969 and is still in print.

Years later, my editor at Arms and Armour in London asked for "a whole new approach to the Red Baron." Having translated MvR's memoirs, I thought I was done with the subject and turned down the offer. When he mentioned that he would find "someone" to write a Red Baron bio, he became my British "godfather," making me an offer I couldn't refuse. The result was Richthofen: Beyond the Legend of the Red Baron (1993), which is still in print in English and has been translated into Polish and Italian. I was asked to write two sequels to that book, which -- as I had warmed up to the subject by then -- I was glad to do. When an editor at Brassey's saw a market in a semi-fictional account about MvR, I didn't question the judgement, and the result was Talking With the Red Baron (2003).

Obviously, when David and Charles (a global publisher) asked me for a Red Baron book, I accepted the offer; hence, the new book you noted. The challenge to each succeeding book is to find new information to the latest work -- and, with luck (and the former East German military archives) I am able to offer new material and refine earlier contentions, thanks to works by the late Ed Ferko, Norman Franks, et al.

Sure, I'd like to write (and have published) a book about Hanns-Gerd Rabe, an observer with Flieger-Abteilung (A) 253, whose articles I translated for the old U.S. Cross & Cockade Journal and which attracted quite a following, but the idea has been nixed by various publishers. Rabe was my best friend among the surviving German WW I fliers I once knew and so it really stung when editors noted -- oh so casually -- that Rabe may have been "interesting," but he was no Red Baron. Simply put, publishing is a business and it requires "crowd pleasers" to stayin business. Suffice to say, I consider that some of my best work has appeared in the old C&C and in Over the Front, and so I work to bring that type of research and resources to my commercial projects.

By the way, awhile back a Forumite by the name of Amy wrote and said a photo of Boelcke's corpse by his crash (in my book The Illustrated Red Baron) did not show the Boelcke crash site. I've often wondered how she came up with that contention, as I received the photo from Ferko, who obtained it from a Jasta 2 veteran. One look at the dead man's profile (and a comparison with a postcard view of Boelcke) makes Ed's ID of it beyond dispute. The serial number on the crashed Albatros clinches it.

Peter
=========
Peter Kilduff

Mate,
Welcome aboard the flagship The Aerodrome, where the best minds on the planet get together and talk about their favorite subject: WW1

cul

tcrean7828

tom

P.S. The infomation that starts the blood pumpin' in me, is new info on

Werner Voss.tc

Germanophile-1 · 25 November 2007, 02:48 PM

Hi Tom,

Thanks. As I used to say in my U.S. Navy days (a l-o-n-g time ago): Glad to be aboard.

Sorry to say, there is little on Voss in my new book. Again, it's due to commercial publishing. In this case, I was limited to 90,000 words of text, which may sound like a lot, but really isn't when one has such a big subject. So, I had to stay focused on MvR.

In response to an earlier comment about the number of Red Baron books coming out (especially in view of the new film, due out in February): the breadth of the subject left plenty of room for Messrs. Franks, Giblin and McCrery to concentrate (and very well, at that!) on MvR's victories in their book Under the Guns of the Red Baron (1995), which has just been released in a new paperback edition.

I agree with Greg's original point that booklength accounts are needed on many other leading (and even not-so-leading) airmen of World War I. It takes a fair bit of digging to write such a book -- but I hope there are some good diggers out there who will write these needed books.

Peter