“The Wright Brothers”

Two-time Pulitzer Prize winner David McCullough truly makes history come alive.  The subjects of his books have been extremely varied from presidents–John Adams, Theodore Roosevelt, Harry Truman to the Panama Canal and the Brooklyn Bridge.  His newest work tackles the amazing feats of two shy brothers from Dayton, Ohio, who can be rightly called the first family of flight.

Wilbur and Orville Wright would today probably be diagnosed as suffering from Asperger’s syndrome.  How does an author tell a story of such two extremely shy men?  McCullough reaches into the Wright family focusing on Wilbur and Orville’s father Bishop Milton Wright and their very supportive sister Katharine Wright.  By exploring the lives of all the family members he humanizes their story.

You cannot tell the story of the first successful air flight without discussing the technical aspects of their achievement.  McCullough traces the history of the Wright Brothers interest in flight to their success at Kitty Hawk.

McCullough is a great storyteller.  No doubt “The Wright Brothers” will succeed as a biography because of the ability of its author to tell the compelling story of these two men and their unbelievable achievement.