Talespins: A Story of Early Aviation Days

Culver's late husband, Paul, one of the country's earliest pilots, was a member of the team that carried the first bags of air mail. Here his wife recalls those days, when to be a pilot was to court death and when marriage to a pilot presumed early widowhood. (Paul Culver survived his years in the air to have a career as an engineer.) Occasionally she conveys the excitement and thrill of that era, particularly in her account of snafus that occurred with the inaugural air-mail flight, from Washington, D.C., to New York City in 1918: for example, as President Wilson watched, the crew tried to start the engines only to discover that the plane was out of gas. On the whole, however, Culver is too distant from the action to make this an entertaining read. December