Falling Upwards

August 26, 2013
Mesmerized by the dash and eccentricity of many who have flown balloons since the first Montgolfiers of 1783, Holmes (The Age of Wonder) communicates the perilous delight of ballooning through tales of scientific feats and derring-do. Fearless, reckless French aeronaut Sophie Blanchard delighted both Napoleon and restored Bourbon King Louis XVIII as she released nighttime aerial firework displays and executed complicated acrobatics while standing, exposed, in a tiny silver gondola. (In 1819, thousands watched horrified as Blanchard, aged 41, crashed to her death in a fiery descent from the Paris sky.) Although New Hampshirite Thaddeus Lowe’s dreams of transatlantic balloon flight were cut short by the Civil War, he persuaded Lincoln that a balloon could carry telegraph equipment and send direct aerial observations to a commander on the ground; and “one of Lowe’s most brilliant observational coups” was the discovery of the Confederates’ May 1862 secret evacuation of Yorktown under cover of darkness. British meteorologist James Glaisher (1809–1903) attempted to determine how high a man could fly before he was “asphyxiated, frozen, burnt or even electrocuted by static electricity in high clouds.” An unconventional history of ballooning, this quirky, endearing, and enticing collection melds the spirit of discovery with chemistry, physics, engineering, and the imagination. Illus.

Starred review from July 15, 2013
The biographer of two great Romantics (Shelley and Coleridge) relates yet another romantic tale--the story of the human passion to fly up, up and away in a beautiful balloon. Holmes (The Age of Wonder: The Romantic Generation and the Discovery of the Beauty and Terror of Science, 2009, etc.) begins with a memory--a flying dream from childhood--mentions Daedalus and Icarus, some balloons in literature, films and popular culture, and then lifts off into another of his delightfully soaring histories. He notes that the French were the first to use balloons for military purposes (reconnaissance), then tells us about some of the most notable balloon pioneers, including Andre-Jacques Garnerin, who also pioneered parachutes. Holmes focuses on the accomplishments (and failures) of a number of other principals, including Charles Green (many of his flights lifted off from Vauxhall Gardens), Henry Mayhew, Eugene Godard, John Wise, James Glaisher, Camille Flammarion, Gaston Tissandier and Salomon Andree, whose attempt to reach the North Pole in 1897 ended in death for all aboard his vessel. Holmes reminds us of ballooning in the fictions of Mary Shelley, Edgar Allan Poe, Jules Verne, Mark Twain (whose Tom Sawyer Abroad reunited the Huck-Jim-Tom trio for a flight across the Atlantic) and others. He tells, as well, about spectacular failures--crashes, fatal and otherwise. His two most gripping segments are the airlift from Paris during the Franco-Prussian War (1870-1871)--dozens of flights took mail and other dispatches out of the city during the siege--and the assault on the North Pole. One great irony regarding the latter: The aeronauts, on the ground after the balloon could no longer fly, shot and ate polar bears; later, the bears ate them. Meticulous history illuminated and animated by personal passion, carried aloft by volant prose.

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September 15, 2013
Ballooning attracts romantics who believe the experience of floating is worth the risk of death and injury. In the late eighteenth and throughout the nineteenth centuries, it also drew dreamers who believed ballooning was the key to advancing transportation, scientific exploration, and military surveillance. Why bounce along in a horse-drawn coach when you could glide quickly through the air to your destination? Optimists foresaw great profits for anyone who could develop dependable balloons that could be steered to appointed cities, delivering people, goods, and messages. Ambitious scientists rose above the clouds to test the qualities of air, while brave generals floated over enemy lines to watch troop movements. In the style of his The Age of Wonder (2010), Holmes, fellow of the British Academy, recounts adventurous stories of balloon pioneers in France, Britain, and the U.S., who built and tested airships, gloriously setting records for speed, distance, and height, sometimes at the cost of their own lives. Filled with period drawings and early photographs, this entertaining history will be popular with history readers.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2013, American Library Association.)

May 15, 2013

Ballooning was among the numerous bold scientific adventures outlined in Holmes's multi-award-wining best seller, The Age of Wonder. Here Holmes details its history and consequences, starting in the late 1700s and proceeding to the seven mile-high flights of James Glaisher, FRS, which launched the new science of meteorology.

Copyright 2013 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from September 1, 2013

The balloon's pivotal role as the first form of flying technology has often been overlooked. Holmes (biographical studies, Univ. of East Anglia), the formerly self-described "romantic biographer" (e.g., Coleridge) who moved to the history of science with his previous book The Age of Wonder has brought romance to technological discovery in his latest work. The balloon, which played a minor role in The Age of Wonder, soars to new heights as the sole subject here. The author's own love of aerostats and aerostation (Holmes's favorite word for "ballooning") shines through in the buoyancy of his text. His daring and dramatic stories of the history of balloon bravado, even when tragic, catch the spirit of wonder that these "hanging observation basket[s]" brought to 19th-century scientific dreamers, from Edgar Allan Poe to French photographer Nadar to English meteorologist James Glaisher. The balloon provided an aerial platform for spectacular acrobatic stunts, as well as for the first aerial photograph of Paris. Holmes also shows how, in addition to playing a vital role in two major wars, balloons have flown across the Atlantic and even sought to reach (unsuccessfully) the North Pole. VERDICT This title will be a fascinating read for anyone interested in flighty expeditionary history, and it's likely to fly off many library shelves. [See Prepub Alert, 4/15/13.]--Lara Jacobs, Brooklyn

Copyright 2013 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

September 1, 2013

The balloon's pivotal role as the first form of flying technology has often been overlooked. Holmes (biographical studies, Univ. of East Anglia), the formerly self-described "romantic biographer" (e.g., Coleridge) who moved to the history of science with his previous book The Age of Wonder has brought romance to technological discovery in his latest work. The balloon, which played a minor role in The Age of Wonder, soars to new heights as the sole subject here. The author's own love of aerostats and aerostation (Holmes's favorite word for "ballooning") shines through in the buoyancy of his text. His daring and dramatic stories of the history of balloon bravado, even when tragic, catch the spirit of wonder that these "hanging observation basket[s]" brought to 19th-century scientific dreamers, from Edgar Allan Poe to French photographer Nadar to English meteorologist James Glaisher. The balloon provided an aerial platform for spectacular acrobatic stunts, as well as for the first aerial photograph of Paris. Holmes also shows how, in addition to playing a vital role in two major wars, balloons have flown across the Atlantic and even sought to reach (unsuccessfully) the North Pole. VERDICT This title will be a fascinating read for anyone interested in flighty expeditionary history, and it's likely to fly off many library shelves. [See Prepub Alert, 4/15/13.]--Lara Jacobs, Brooklyn

Copyright 2013 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.