The Illustrated West with the Night
New York: Welcome Enterprises, Inc. and Distributed in the United States by Stewart, Tabori & Chang, Inc., 1994. First Printing [stated]. Hardcover. 288 pages. Profusely illustrated (black and white). Beryl Markham (née Clutterbuck, 26 October 1902 – 3 August 1986) was a British-born Kenyan aviator (one of the first bush pilots), adventurer, racehorse trainer and author. In September 1936 Beryl Markham became the first person to fly solo across the Atlantic from east to west, taking off in England and crash-landing in Nova Scotia 29 hours and 25 minutes later. She wrote about her adventures in West with the Night. Markham's memoir lingered in obscurity until 1982, when California restaurateur George Gutekunst read a collection of Ernest Hemingway's letters, including one in which Hemingway lavishly praised Markham's writing (if not Markham herself): "Did you read Beryl Markham's book, West with the Night? ...She has written so well, and marvelously well, that I was completely ashamed of myself as a writer. I felt that I was simply a carpenter with words, picking up whatever was furnished on the job and nailing them together and sometimes making an okay pig pen. But this girl, who is to my knowledge very unpleasant and we might even say a high-grade bitch, can write rings around all of us who consider ourselves as writers ... it really is a bloody wonderful book." Gutekunst helped persuade North Point Press, to re-issue the book in 1983. The re-release launched a remarkable final chapter in the life of Markham, who was lauded for her three final years as a great author as well as flyer. Set against the backdrop of early 20th-century Africa, Markham's classic autobiography is now being offered for the first time in a visual format. Certain to become a collector's item, the book features stunning never-before-published photographs of the famous female aviator--the first person to fly solo across the Atlantic from east to west--as well as stunning African landscapes, wildlife and African tribes. Author Mary S. Lovell visited Markham in Nairobi and interviewed her extensively shortly before Markham's death, in preparation for her biography, Straight on Till Morning (1987). Lovell suggests Antoine de Saint Exupéry, one of Markham's lovers, may have served as inspiration for Markham's clear, elegant language and storytelling style. The success of the re-issue of West with the Night provided enough income for Markham to finish her life in relative comfort. Earlier, she had been supported by a circle of friends and owners of race horses she trained into her 80s. The book became a surprising best-seller. Markham died in Nairobi in 1986. Her short stories were posthumously collected in The Splendid Outcast, with an introduction by Mary S. Lovell. A tale from West with the Night was excerpted and illustrated by Don Brown as a children's book, The Good Lion. In 1988, CBS aired the biographical miniseries, Beryl Markham: A Shadow on the Sun, with Stefanie Powers in the title role. Both West with the Night and Splendid Outcast appeared on the New York Times best-seller list of hardcover fiction. Condition: Very good.
Keywords: Aeronautics, Aviation, Women Pilots, East Africa, Sudan, Tanganyika, Kenya, Rhodesia, British Colonies, Bush Pilots, Women Aviators, Nairobi, Nungwe
ISBN: 1556703856
[Book #73494]
Price: $75.00