Hills, near Kitty Hawk, North Carolina the Wright Brothers changed history. Thank goodness!
I recently thought of their accomplishment, feeling amazement when boarding a plane,
leaving wintry blizzardy cold Michigan behind; and, within three hours stepping into 83 degree
weather in Florida.
David McCullough has earned two Pulitizer prizes and two National Book Awards. In McCullough's
view, three of America's great contributions to technological achievement during the late
nineteenth and early twentieth centuries were:
- the completion of the Panama Canal (McCullough wrote - The Path between the Seas: The Creation of the Panama Canal, 1870-1914 (published 1977, revised edition ,1999)
- the building of the Brooklyn Bridge (McCullough wrote The Great Bridge: The Epic Story of the Building of the Brooklyn Bridge, published 1972, revised edition 2001)
- invention of the airplane (The Wright Brothers, published 2015).
In McCullough's own words:
"I think of myself as a writer, not a historian. I'm a writer who's chosen history and biography as my field, but to me, the writing problems, the writing opportunities, the writing adventure
are what run the engine, not being a historian or biographer."
"I don’t think of myself as a historian...I am a writer. I don’t ever claim
to be an expert on any subject. Experts have answers; I have mostly questions."
75 year old Royal Standard typewriter that he bought 50 years ago. The watercolors on the walls
are by the author. McCullough also writes in a separate building behind his home on Martha's
Vineyard where he and his wife raised their 4 children.
Previously, in 2012 we discussed McCullough's The Greater Journey - Americans in Paris.
And in 2014, our book group discussed Mornings on Horseback: The Story of an
Extraordinary Family, a Vanished Way of Life & the Unique Child Who Became Theodore
Roosevelt.
Come join our next David McCullough discussion of The Wright Brothers on Thursday, March 1st.