The Right Stuff: Edition 2

The original audience for this book was the Baby Boomers. Most Baby Boomers - like me - had a true fascination for fast airplanes and the space race, especially in the context of the Cold War and in the pre-"p.c." days of swashbuckling pilots. I hope the Millennials get hold of this book because it's a terrific read, and may explain some context on their parents and grandparents to boot. Anyone of any age who may be interested in early experimental aviation, the pilots who gave birth of supersonic flight, the first astronauts who launched America's space program, and the rivalry between the two should read this book. Wolfe has a great way of capturing the emotional and psychological state of the protagonists and their supporting cast. The movie adaptation wasn't bad, but it necessarily limits the brilliant "technicolor" of the book's story. After you read The Right Stuff, for space buffs I would read "First on the Moon" by the three Apollo 11 astronauts and "Moon Shot: The Inside Story of America's Apollo Moon Landings" by Alan Shephard and Deke Slayton who both were in the "Mercury 7" of Wolfe's book and who both overcame medical groundings to make it into the Apollo program. For aviation buffs I can recommend "Yeager" a ghostwritten autobiography of the first man to break the sound barrier who features prominently in Wolfe's story. For fans of both, try "X-15 Diary: The Story Of America's First Space Ship" with a forward by Neil Armstrong's early contemporary, X-15 pilot Scott Crossfield, and written by a well-respected WW II historian. Armstrong and Crossfield were civilian test pilots -- Armstrong for NASA, Crossfield for manufacturer North American Aviation. The X-15 was the first rocketplane, first aircraft to go hypersonic (Mach 5+), first to get beyond the atmosphere and into space, and a successor to Yeager's X-1. For those who enjoy Wolfe's writing style, I can recommend "The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test" about the Beatnik sub-culture and the heady days of psychedelic drug experimentation, and "The Bonfire of the Vanities" about the 1980s "go-go" Wall Street bubble and subsequent fall from grace. In all cases his characters come into vivid perspective. (The movie adaptation of the latter doesn't do the book justice. But start with "The Right Stuff" since it will make you both laugh and whince. It is a great historical piece and a hallmark Tom Wolfe book.

Great book, and it really is better than the movie. Lots of details that pilots will understand and appreciate.

Great Reading about the lives of our Astronauts before and after these events.