New book out on Frank Luke

[Jim Bruton]

Book Review: Terror of the Autumn Skies Examines Life of WWI Pilot Frank Luke (VIDEO) - Salem-News.Com

[rainbase]

Nice review, but I have to point out an error Tim King (the reviwer made): author Norman S. Hall is NOT the same person as James Norman Hall (Mutany On The Bounty). Not a major gaffe, but worth noting.


That said, it looks like a very good book and I hope it does well. While some might find it a little cumbersome having two Luke books arriving on the bookshelf this season, I plan to read 'em both. It's about time The Arizonian's story was done justace (and hey, I ONLY ave 20 or so MVR books in my collection, ha ha).

[Gregvan]

Hi All,

Very interesting review. Correct me if I'm wrong, but the reviewer seems to confuse Norman S. Hall, (Norman Shannon Hall) the writer who wrote the first major biography of Luke (The Balloon Buster)in 1928, with James Norman Hall, the co-author (with Charles Barnard Nordhoff) of Mutiny on the Bounty, The Lafayette Flying Corps, and Falcons of France, among others. They were two very different men. James Norman Hall was born in Colfax, Iowa, and happened to be touring England when the war broke out. He enlisted in the British Army (posing as a 'Canadian') as a private in the 9th Batallion, Royal Fusiliers. He went to France and took part in the Battle of Loos; then he received a discharge "on the ground of being an American citizen" in order to return home to visit his critically ill father. During this time he wrote his first book, Kitchener's Mob, then returned to France and enlisted in the Foreign Legion, finally ending up is Escadrille Lafayette in June 1916. Then, on 29 March 1918 he was assigned to the 94th Aero Squadron as a Flight Commander. On 7 May 1918, his Nieuport 28 shed some of its upper wing fabric, and he came under severe AA fire and came down in German lines as a POW. After the war James Norman Hall teamed up with Charles Bernard Nordhoff (a fellow LFC veteran) to write the definitive two-colume history The Lafayette Flying Corps. The two began a 28-year partnership with that book, going on to write the Bounty trilogy and Falcons of France.

I don't know much about Norman S. Hall, but he should not be confused with James Norman Hall. I see that Rainbase beat me to this!

[rainbase]

Greg, I so seldom get an idea out first here!

[Bpardoe870]

Norman Shannon Hall is a screenplay writer. He primarily wrote radio scripts and some early television scripts as well -- mostly westerns. In 1930 he sold the rights to his series in Liberty Magazine on Luke to a movie studio, but it was never produced.

His archives are in a college in Los Angeles, unfortunately not indexed. During the writing of my book I had a chance to do some digging on Hall.

Blaine Pardoe

[Bpardoe870]

At the risk of posting a shameless plug, it is fairly rare that WWI aviation gets presented to the public via national media.

I am scheduled to be on the G. Gordon Liddy radio show on Friday August 8 at 11:00am Eastern discussing my new book, Terror of the Autumn Skies. They have a live feed: Radio America Audio
(select Radio America Main Feed) and podcasts after the fact at The G. Gordon Liddy Show Podcast Note: This time is subject to last-minute programming changes.

I hope that some of you can listen in.

Disengage shameless plug-mode...

Blaine Pardoe

[rainbase]

Blaine, Plug Away! Nothing shameless about this; national radio is a HUGE deal. Thanks for the link; I'll be listening. Congratulations.