Ernest K. Gann
Ernest K Gann was an aviator, author, filmmaker, sailor, fisherman and conservationist. After earning his pilot license, Gann spent his much of his free time aloft, flying for pleasure. The continuing Great Depression soon cost him his job and he was unable to find another position in the movie business. In search of work, he decided to move his family to California. Gann was able to find odd jobs at Burbank Airport, and also began to write short stories. A friend managed to get him a part-time job as a co-pilot with a local airline company and it was there that he flew his first trips as a professional aviator. In the late 1930s many airlines were hiring as many pilots as they could find; after hearing of these opportunities, Gann and his family returned to New York where he managed to get hired by American Airlines to fly the Douglas DC-2 and Douglas DC-3. For several years Gann enjoyed flying routes in the northeast for American. In 1942, many U.S. airlines' pilots and aircraft were absorbed into the Air Transport Command of the U.S. Army Air Forces to assist in the War Effort. Gann and many of his co-workers at American volunteered to join the group. He flew DC-3s, Douglas DC-4s and Consolidated C-87 Liberator Express transports (the cargo version of the Consolidated B-24 Liberator bomber). His wartime trips took him across the North Atlantic to Europe, and then on to Africa, South America, India, and other exotic places. Some of his most harrowing experiences came while flying The Hump airlift across the Himalayas into China. In the years to come Gann's worldwide travels and various adventures would become the inspiration for many of his novels and screenplays. At the end of World War II, the Air Transport Command released the civilian pilots and aircraft back to their airlines. Gann decided to leave American Airlines in search of new adventures. He was quickly hired as a pilot with a new company called Matson Airlines that was a venture of the Matson steamship line. He flew from the U.S. West Coast across the Pacific to Honolulu. This experience spawned ideas that were developed into one of his best-known works, 'The High and the Mighty.' Matson ultimately soon fell prey to the politically well-connected Pan American Airlines and failed. After a few more short-lived flying jobs, Gann became discouraged with aviation and he turned to writing as a full-time occupation. Gann's major works include the novel The High and the Mighty and his aviation focused, near-autobiography Fate Is the Hunter. Notes and short stories scribbled down during long layovers on his pioneering trips across the North Atlantic became the source for his first serious fiction novel, Island in the Sky (1944), which was inspired by an actual Arctic rescue mission. It became an immediate best-seller as did Blaze of Noon (1946), a story about early air mail operations. In 1978, he published his comprehensive autobiography, entitled A Hostage to Fortune. Although many of his 21 best-selling novels show Gann’s devotion to aviation, others, including Twilight for the Gods, and Fiddler's Green reflect his love of the sea. His experiences as a fisherman, skipper and sailor, all contributed storylines and depth to his nautical fiction. He later wrote an autobiography of his sailing life called Song of the Sirens. Gann wrote, or adapted from his books, the stories and screenplays for several movies and television shows. For some of these productions he also served as a consultant and technical adviser during filming. Although it received positive reviews, Gann was displeased with the film version of Fate Is the Hunter, and removed his name from the credits. (He later lamented that this decision cost him a "fortune" in royalties, as the film played repeatedly on television for years afterward.) He wrote the story for the television miniseries Masada, based on 'The Antagonists.'
30 Books Written
Ernest K. Gann’s classic pilot's memoir is an up-close and thrilling account of the treacherous early days of commercial aviation. “Few writers have ever drawn readers so intimately into the shielded sanctum of the cockpit, and it is hear that Mr. Gann is truly the artist” (The New York Times Book Review).“A splendid and many-faceted personal memoir that is not only one man’s story but the story, in essence, of all men who fly” (Chicago Tribune). In his inimitable style, Gann brings you right into the cockpit, recounting both the triumphs and terrors of pilots who flew when flying was anything but routine.
An exuberant historical tale which returns to the days of heroes larger than life silhouetted against the desert sky above the rock of Masada. Eleazar ben Yair & General Flavius Silva, the antagonists in that brief conflict when the Romans were pursuing the last remnants of resisting Jews, shared the common nobility of men who face impossible odds. Eleazar confronted the overwhelmingly superior military force of Rome; Silva, a sensitive, intelligent man, faced the subtler threat of spiritual & physical impotence. Then there is Sheva, a Jewish beauty determined to save her people Jael-fashion; the influential Roman Falco with his two pretty boys; noble Masadians & grousing Romans. It all ends with a Roman desert victory entailing their psychic defeat. Within its traditional frame, some convincing commotion & the publisher anticipates a strong commercial success.--Kirkus
Men against the north--a story of the ferry command, Air Transport, & of Dooley, who had 20 years' record of success in commercial air flight, only to come down, icebound, somewhere in the unchartered northland. Dooley was dean of a close knit group, & everything else took second place as the men came into headquarters, & set out again to find him. An unknown lake--beyond unknown mountains--a time schedule--& faith--such alone they had to go on, hampered by Army red tape, lack of radio contact, navigation rules upset by the frozen north. The story shifts from Dooley's experiences, with the five men who counted on him, to the men who sought him. Starkly told--another segment of understanding of total war.--Kirkus
One of the most essential flying novels ever written. Past the point of no return, things start to go wrong on a flight from Hawaii to San Francisco. Can they make it? This plot has been done and redone many times since 1953, but the only two which come close are Nevil Shute's No Highway and Arthur Hailey's Airport.
In the mid-1930s, a disfigured mail pilot and his sole passenger, an eleven-year-old girl, crash and, resigned to freezing to death, pass the time reading letters from the mail bag and discovering a love for one another
Superb prose in a gritty and vast WWI landscape. This is worth having, and reading over and over. This author has used some interesting ways of telling this story, and not just in the blood rivalry between the French ace Sgt. Chamay and his personal enemy, German Lt. Kupper. Look for some interesting the adventures of the ham from Kempinsky's, the comic (and sometimes dangerous) mishaps of Chamay's mechanics, and Sgt. Chamay's bicycle trip through the terrible aftermath of the Nivelle Offensive. The author has avoided the cliches about knights of the air. He spares nothing about the lethal and grisly nature of fighting, without parachutes, in what were little more than cloth-and-wood kites. And Chamay's battle with Kupper is not a duel but a search for he wants to kill him, not joust.
Song of the Sirens is a classic. NewsweekFew men have lived a life of such challenge and adventure as Ernest K. Gann. Most of all, this is the story of Gann's most beloved vessels, his seventeen sirens, from the beautiful 117-ton brigantine Albatros to the incredible Butterfly - hardly more than a raft with patchwork sails - and the diminutive and flawless Thetis, who could charm even porpoises out of the sea. Filled with moments of both drama and reflective calm, Gann's ode to his seventeen sirens reveals the true romantic within every sailor.
This is the story of the barquentine, Cannibal, and the passengers and crew on her most tempestuous voyage. The date was October 12, 1927. The Cannibal, a forlorn figure as she left the South Seas port of Suva, was one of the last commercial sailing ships still trying valiantly to compete in the world of steam. Manned by a small crew, with a handful of passengers and a load of copra, she set her course firmly toward Mexico.In the swift weeks that follow you come to know her passengers and crew as intensely real people at the peak moment of crisis...
Louis Hoyt, Jane's wild Irish husband, has traveled the world over on lock and looks and personality. Now he is presumed dead in Red China. Jane alone cannot believe it.So Jane comes to Hong Kong with a few thousand dollars and a great determination to help this man who, for the first time in his life, cannot help himself. From the hotels and embassies to the dives, she follows every slightest lead. Each one points to Hank Lee--the fabulous American whom people either know too well or don't know at all--as the one who might save Louis. Knowing this, disregarding all warnings about the man, Jane seeks him out...and the stage is set for action.
Gann reviews a lifetime of adventure in the air, offering a kaleidoscope view of his favorite aircraft and the varied techniques for flying them. Beginning with his carrier and barnstorming days during the Depression, Gann traces the development in America of the commercial use of airplanes. Filled with little-known anecdotes about legendary fliers, including Charles A. Lindbergh.
This is Flying by the seat of your pants. I had to part with it on the last move and it was like losing an old friend. Ernest Gann gives flying like it was in those days. If you ever want to go back to the early flying years, this is a start.
Here is the story of aviation, from the first clumsy attempts to glide with makeshift machines, to the daring aircraft used in World War I ... and onward, at an everquickening pace, to a near-present that only a few dared to dream.
Panoramic novel depicting one day in the operation of a big-city police force, with a variety of interwoven subplots.
Offers a close-up look at the pilots and planes of the 99th Squadron, an elite, intelligence-gathering corps of the U.S. Air Force
18th printing 1969 - hardcover. Clean, tight, text unmarked, name on cover page, top corners a little worn, very light cup ring on back cover, no dust jacket.
Follows the legal career of the Honorable Julian Hickock, a judge torn by the conflicting laws, overcrowded prisons, and moral conflict of his profession and threatened because of his belief in justice and the integrity of the law
A story of the natural humor of life, when people become what they are in spite of what they do.
General Flavius Silva, Commander of the Roman Tenth Legion, falls in love with Emperor Vespasian's daughter Domitillia, a relationship that embroils him in a struggle for the throne
s/t: He Was the Man Whenever They Needed Someone Who Could Fly a Plane Into the Mouth of Hell with Death Beside Him in the Cockpit
Using the computer he received as a birthday present, Michael Piper discovers that the earth is becoming unbalanced by large shipments of oil, but when he offers a warning he arouses the ire of OPEC and foreign governments
When cocaine claims the life of his eldest son, Montana cattle rancher Lee Rogers runs for Congress and wages an all-out war on drugs, but at the height of his campaign, he mysteriously disappears
Reader's Digest Condensed Books; Spring 1961, Volume 45: Fate Is the Hunter / Peaceable Lane / Madame Curie / Evil Come, Evil Go / The Mozart Leaves at Nine
by Ernest K. Gann
Rating: 3.6 ⭐
Volume 45 - SpringFate Is the Hunter - Ernest K. GannPeaceable Lane - Keith WheelerMadame Curie - Ève CurieEvil Come, Evil Go - Whit MastersonThe 'Mozart' Leaves at Nine - Harris Greene
Reader's Digest Condensed Books; 1981 #1, Volume 133: The Aviator / The Covenant / Hope / Bullet Train
by Ernest K. Gann
Rating: 3.5 ⭐
1981Volume 133 - #1The Aviator - Ernest K. GannThe Covenant - James A. MichenerHope - Richard MerymanBullet Train - Joseph Rance & Arei Kato
The author covers the flight of a commercial airliner from Chicago to New York in 1940. An understanding of the instruments used, communications between airport towers, and weather forecasting are covered also.
A synopsis of American built aircraft as of 1940. Includes commercial, private, and military aircraft. Photos are included for each plane.
Um piloto traumatizado por um trágico passado tenta salvar os passageiros e a tripulação de um voo que corre o risco de se tornar um grande desastre aéreo. Considerado um dos maiores clássicos da literatura de aviação, "Por um fio" conta a história de vinte pessoas, companheiras na aproximação inconsciente do momento mais importante de suas vidas, e um destino. Ernest K. Gann, com uma imaginação sem limites, nos oferece um romance fascinante, com uma narrativa cujo suspense leva a um clímax estonteante. . .Tradutor: Cristina Barczinsky
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by Ernest K. Gann