Terror of the Autumn Skies Shipping

[Bpardoe870]

For those of you that expressed an interest, I heard from my publisher that Terror of the Autumn Skies, my book on Frank Luke Jr., is going out from the warehouse today.

The book has previously unpublished photos and a wealth of fresh material.

For those of you that want to save money on copies, please order from Amazon.com or Barnes and Noble. Obviously your local bookstore can order you in a copy as well if they don't have it in stock.

The early reviews are positive. Here's some choice quotes from my web site:
http://www.blainepardoe.com/3173.html

There will be several national promotion events coming up - I will let you know when those are coming. My thanks to members of this forum for their support, encouragement, and those wonderful tid-bits of information.

Thanks for your time and attention!


Blaine Pardoe

[rainbase]

Looks like this is going to be a great year for Frank Luke fans! Best of luck with the book, Blaine. I know I'll end up buying one.

[rainbase]

Wow! You are awfully prolific, I see. Could you tell me please, are any of the fictional works WW1 Flying stories? Thanks.

[Bpardoe870]

I haven't written any fictional WWI stories.

When I was a kid I picked up Balloon Buster by Norman Shannon Hall. I was enthralled with the Frank Luke story. I later picked up Hun Killer by Whitehouse and was surprised at the difference in the stories. I started collecting everything I could on Frank and many of the stories seemed contradictory or worse, simply lifted information off of previous secondary sources.

When I wrote my other Great War book, Cruise of the Sea Eagle, I always knew I would have to come back to Luke. While I was working on the Sea Eagle I kicked up my research on Frank. I then spent two years of digging, traveling, and researching.

The good news is I found a number of new sources previously unpublished. One of the most interesting was the written account by Bernard Mangels regarding Frank's last flight -- provided in five letters to Royal Frey. I also tracked down Marie Rapson / Jackson's family and received access to a treasure trove of love letters, photos, and other materials.

The bad news is that the story I was raised on in Balloon Buster was proven to be full of errors, outright lies, etc. Such was the writing style of the time. From falsified/modified combat reports to other information that was horribly contorted by not just Norman S. Hall but other writers of the period.

Ultimately, I found the true story of Frank's life to be far more entertaining and enjoyable that what Hall's version was. And thanks to Frank I have found a new passion, WWI aviation. I am about halfway through my book on Frederick Zinn, with most of the research done. I am working on research on Bert Hall right now, which has proven to be a blast.


Blaine Pardoe

[rainbase]

Blaine, thanks for the speedy reply.

I finally got my hands on a copy of Norman S, Hall's book, which I read a few months back. I enjoyed it well enough for what it was, but had already suspected it would be error laden. All in all, I found it to be fairly melodramatic *but am delighted to have a copy in my collection). I haven't read Arch Whitehouse's Luke book. Is it at least slightly more accurate? I seem to enjoy Whitehouse a bit more than many of the forumites here do.

Will your Bert Hall research lead to a book, Blaine. I have to say, I have always thought he was one of the most compelling characters of the Lafayette Escadrille. He seemed to be cut from such a different cloth than most of the others, Both his books, despite the widely different versions of his own story, are so entertaining! I suspect he wasn't as villainous as some historians (or contemporaries) paint him, so much as a man of his background and times.

At any doubt, I'll be looking forward to Terror Of The Autumn Skies and then, hopefully, a Bert Hall biography.

[Bpardoe870]

It is my intent to do a book on the true story of Bert Hall. I have been in contact with the Turkish Air Force Archives, the Romanian Government, the French, the Foreign Legion Archives, our own State and Justice Department holdings, and others. I even managed to get a copy of his will and probate (77 pages). With Bert you have to put every word he said under suspicion. But even in his lies, there are often grains of truth.

You will find Hun Killer by Whitehose to be full of errors...the least of which is Frank having a gun battle in a graveyard at the time of his death. You can't see my eyes rolling, but trust me, they are. With Balloon Buster you have to go back to the series of stores in Liberty that Hall wrote in 1927-28 which served as the basis for the book. Even between what he wrote then and what appeared in his book there are glaring differences.

I'm not throwing the baby out with the bath water though. I did some research into Norman S. Hall, including a romp through his archival holdings in LA. What I did find is that he did travel to Arizona to research the articles which became the book. A lot of what he gathered in AZ on Frank's early life is fairly solid, though even there I found some glaring additions and errors. Much of my research was sorting through the fact and the fiction. I believe the facts to be far more interesting and entertaining.

I didn't write Terror of the Autumn Skies for the avid (rabid?) WWI fan, but I wanted to get the story of Frank's life out for readers that may not know about him. At the same time there are enough new facts in this book to satisfy most armchair historians -- at least in my opinion.


Blaine Pardoe

[Bpardoe870]

First is from Booklist, the journal of the American Library Association. It is something of an honor to be reviewed by them.

Booklist 7/1/08
Terror of the Autumn Skies:
The Story of Frank Luke, America's Rogue Ace of World War I.
By Blaine Pardoe.
July 2008. 320p. Skyhorse, $24.95
(9781602392526). 940.4.
This painstaking biography of World War I ace Frank Luke will earn Pardoe kudos, even if some readers may prefer fewer romantic references to pilots flying into the sunset than Pardoe affords. Pardoe, however, has flown a very straight course in researching and recounting Luke's myth-ridden life. Born to a respectable family in Phoenix, Luke certainly had a wild streak but was also a natural pilot. His combat career was short--basically, the autumn of 1918--but he ran up a score of 14 German balloons (more dangerous targets than German planes) and four enemy fighters before being shot down and killed by German ground guns defending a descending balloon. Thorough annotation makes the book that much more valuable to WWI aviation scholars as well as for more casual air-combat buffs.--Roland Green

Also, a small article from Gannett newspapers:
New book tells story of WWI flying ace | battlecreekenquirer.com | The Enquirer


Blaine Pardoe

[totoroman]

just bought a copy of the book this afternoon. about 50 pages in and like it thus far. my only quibble is that I thought (could be wrong) that most aircraft used doped linen instead of canvas (a much rougher and heavier fabric)... but other than that, it seems very even-handed and well-researched.

I like how it doesn't gloss over or try to cover up Frank Luke's obvious character flaws. but, like so many great characters in history sometimes a source of great strength can also be a great (and exploitable weakness)...

often times the same character attributes that help you win on the battlefield can be a detriment when dealing with comrades, friends or family. kinda like how an enemy soldier has respect for the gutsy relentless fighter pilot who can't acknowledge defeat--whereas a girl at the local cafe might find the gutsy, relentless fighter pilot who can't acknolwedge defeat frustrating because he won't leave her alone when she's said "no"!

sorry for the detour--but thus far I'm really liking the book.

[Barrett]

my only quibble is that I thought (could be wrong) that most aircraft used doped linen instead of canvas (a much rougher and heavier fabric)...

You betcha. It's a GW convention that's been perpetuated/perpetrated at least since the 30s. There was even an (apparently) undistinguished book titled The Canvas Falcons.

Aside from being much lighter than canvas, cotton/linen could be doped to shrink around the airframe structure, affording a far more efficient airfoil.

[Bpardoe870]

Originally Posted by Barrett

my only quibble is that I thought (could be wrong) that most aircraft used doped linen instead of canvas (a much rougher and heavier fabric)...

You betcha. It's a GW convention that's been perpetuated/perpetrated at least since the 30s. There was even an (apparently) undistinguished book titled The Canvas Falcons.

Aside from being much lighter than canvas, cotton/linen could be doped to shrink around the airframe structure, affording a far more efficient airfoil.

Believe me, I feel your 'pain.' Many books refer to it as canvas, complicated by the fact that linen is considered a form of canvas. One U.S. Army manual from 1918 refers to it directly as "canvas" as well.

Blaine Pardoe