{"product_id":"falling-upwards-how-we-took-to-the-air-9780307742322","title":"Falling Upwards: How We Took to the Air","description":"\u003cb\u003e**\u003ci\u003eTime Magazine\u003c\/i\u003e 10 Top Nonfiction Books of 2013**\u003cbr\u003e**\u003ci\u003eThe New Republic\u003c\/i\u003e Best Books of 2013**\u003cbr\u003e**\u003ci\u003eKirkus\u003c\/i\u003e Best Books of the Year (2013)**\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn a dazzling fusion of history, art, science, and biography, \u003ci\u003eFalling Upwards \u003c\/i\u003eresurrects the daring men and women who first risked their lives to take to the air in balloons. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eRichard Holmes\u003ci\u003e \u003c\/i\u003egives us another of his unforgettable portraits of human endeavor, recklessness, and vision, weaving together exhilarating accounts of early balloon rivalries, pioneering ascents over Victorian cities, and astonishing long-distance voyages. The terrifying high-altitude flights of James Glaisher helped to establish the science of meteorology as well as the notion of a fragile planet, while balloons were also used to observe the horrors of modern battle during the American Civil War. Here too are the many writers--Mary Shelley, Edgar Allan Poe, Charles Dickens, Jules Verne, and more--who felt the imaginative impact of flight and allowed it to soar in their work. Holmes tells the history of ballooning from every angle--scientific to poetic--through the adventurers and entrepreneurs, scientists and escapists, heroes and fools who were possessed by the longing to be airborne. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e(With 24 pages of color illustrations, and black-and-white illustrations throughout.)\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eRICHARD HOLMES\u003c\/b\u003e is the author of \u003ci\u003eThe Age of Wonder, \u003c\/i\u003e which was short-listed for the Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-Fiction, won the Royal Society Prize for Science Books and the National Books Critics Circle Award, and was one of \u003ci\u003eThe New York Times Book Review\u003c\/i\u003e's Best Books of the Year in 2009. Holmes's other books include \u003ci\u003eFootsteps, Sidetracks, Shelley: The Pursuit\u003c\/i\u003e (winner of the Somerset Maugham Award) \u003ci\u003eColeridge: Early Visions\u003c\/i\u003e (winner of the1989 Whitbread Book of the Year Award) \u003ci\u003eColeridge: Darker Reflections \u003c\/i\u003e(an NBCC finalist), and \u003ci\u003eDr. Johnson \u0026amp; Mr. Savage\u003c\/i\u003e (winner of the James Tait Black Prize). He was awarded the OBE in 1992. He lives in England.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Knopf Publishing Group","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50491656831250,"sku":"9780307742322","price":16.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_7825b558-21b1-4d34-b156-c1330697caab.jpg?v=1730546845","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/falling-upwards-how-we-took-to-the-air-9780307742322","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}