cover image Airborne: A Photobiography of Wilbur and Orville Wright

Airborne: A Photobiography of Wilbur and Orville Wright

Mary Collins. National Geographic Society, $18.95 (64pp) ISBN 978-0-7922-6957-1

Sixty period photographs, reproduced as large-scale duotones, illuminate Airborne: A Photobiography of Wilbur and Orville Wright by Mary Collins, newest in the publisher's photobiography series. Images range from the famous (the December 17, 1903, flight at Kitty Hawk) to the less glamorous (Wilbur cooking in the 1902 hangar where he and Orville slept, worked and stored their glider) to the thrillingly atmospheric (French farmers stand by their ox-drawn carts, looking up as Wilbur sails overhead). Printed with eloquent quotes from the Wrights, the photos accompany an insightful text that includes an especially lucid discussion of the Wrights' technological achievements.