{"product_id":"wings-of-madness-alberto-santos-dumont-and-the-invention-of-flight-9780786866595","title":"Wings of Madness: Alberto Santos-Dumont and the Invention of Flight","description":"On the eve of the centennial of the Wright brothers' historic flights at Kitty Hawk, a new generation will learn about the other man who was once hailed worldwide as the conqueror of the air--Alberto Santos-Dumont. Because the Wright brothers worked in secrecy, word of their first flights had not reached Europe when Santos-Dumont took to the skies in 1906. The dashing, impeccably dressed inventor entertained Paris with his airborne antics--barhopping in a little dirigible that he tied to lampposts, circling above crowds around the Eiffel Tower, and crashing into rooftops. A man celebrated, even pursued by the press in Paris, London, and New York, Santos-Dumont dined regularly with the Cartiers, the Rothschilds, and the Roosevelts. But beneath his lively public exterior, Santos-Dumont was a frenzied genius tortured by the weight of his own creation.\u003ci\u003eWings of Madness\u003c\/i\u003e chronicles the science and history of early aviation and offers a fascinating glimpse into the mind of an extraordinary and tormented man, vividly depicting the sights and sounds of turn-of-the-century Paris. It is a book that will do for aviation what \u003ci\u003eThe Man Who Loved Only Numbers\u003c\/i\u003e did for mathematics.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ePaul Hoffman \u003c\/strong\u003ewas president of Encyclopedia Britannica and editor-in-chief of \u003cem\u003eDiscover\u003c\/em\u003e and is the author of \u003cem\u003eThe Man Who Loved Only Numbers\u003c\/em\u003e and \u003cem\u003eThe Wings of Madness\u003c\/em\u003e. He is the winner of the first National Magazine Award for Feature Writing, and his work has appeared in the \u003cem\u003eNew Yorker\u003c\/em\u003e, \u003cem\u003eTime\u003c\/em\u003e, and \u003cem\u003eAtlantic Monthly\u003c\/em\u003e. He lives in Woodstock, NY.\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Theia","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50704850485522,"sku":"9780786866595","price":22.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_89c4976e-3810-46f4-abdc-d541f7eaaedf.jpg?v=1734481279","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/wings-of-madness-alberto-santos-dumont-and-the-invention-of-flight-9780786866595","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}