Publisher Description

What is it, I wondered, that makes a man willing to sit on top of an enormous Roman Candle, such as a Redstone, Atlas, Titan, or Saturn rocket, and wait for someone to light the fuse? I decided on the simplest approach possible. I would ask a few of the astronauts and find out- The men had it. Yeager, Conrad. Grissom. Glenn. Heroes. The first Americans in space - battling the Russians for control of the heavens, putting their lives on the line. The women had it. While Mr Wonderful was aloft, it tore your heart out that the Hero's Wife, down on the ground, had to perform with the whole world watching. The Right Stuff. It's the quality beyond bravery, beyond courage.

Notes

Tom Wolfe's exploration of 'the right stuff' and the men that have it - astronauts who sit on a rocket and let somebody light the fuse. A funny and vivid book about America's manned space program.

Author Biography

Tom Wolfe is the author of more than a dozen books, among them The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test, The Right Stuff, The Bonfire of the Vanities, A Man in Full, I Am Charlotte Simmons, and Back to Blood. He received the National Book Foundation's 2010 Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters. He lives in NewYork City.

Review

"The Right Stuff is Wolfe's best book" Sunday Times "It is Tom Wolfe at his very best...technically accurate, learned, cheeky, risky, touching, tough, compassionate, nostalgic, worshipful, jingoistic... The Right Stuff is superb" New York Times Book Review "An exhilarating flight into fear, love, beauty and fiery death... magnificent" People "Absolutely first class... Improbable as some of Tom's tales seem, I know he's telling it like it was" -- Michael Collins, former astronaut

Promotional

The Right Stuff is the best, the funniest, and the most vivid book ever written about America's manned space program. 20050107

Review Text

" The Right Stuff is Wolfe's best book"

Promotional "Headline"

A wildly vivid and entertaining chronicle of America's manned space program, from the author of The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test

Details