War Birds: Diary of an Unkown Aviator (1926) Illu. by Clayton Knight

All I can say is OMG; profoundly sad book. I can't recommend it unless you need some perspective on your unhappy life.

This is a story / diary of a very young man who comes to the war bright eyed and bushy tailed and who is subsequently ground to a pulp by the war machine he was born into. I say born into because we are all born into our Age  and have little choice of which war we would like to fight in.

Of course management of the flyers at that time was an all new thing, but the stress and fatigue of flying was (and is) so great that a little effort to limit there service may have been in order.

The concept of sending men into the air in these death traps was crazy enough; there was as much a chance of the plane malfunctioning or the flyer making a single mistake as there was in being shot down.

So this young man goes into training with the bravado and impatience of any 20 yo.
He parties with his mates, they find girls, they make friends, they loose friends.

They are involved in a what amounts to "field trials" for these aircraft. Maybe a third of them wash out or are killed during training.

They are human test subjects in a ridiculously fast paced series of experiments; that is "lets see if this will fly."




The War forced both sides to confront the need for Air Power. The Wright brothers had just flown their 1st flight 12 years before WWI. These engineers were masters, HOWEVER, these things were not ready for what they were used for. So the pilots died.

The shear insanity of what was attempted with this new for of weapon illustrates the lengths that humans will go.



The truthfulness of the entries can be verified online as never before.




The 1st edition has reprints of these wood cuts that are stark and until you get into it they seem harsh.




If you had an interest in these old flying machines as I did in my youth than this is a deep insight.




The nonchalant manner in which the author denotes another death even leaves the reader desensitized. Every other diary entry begins or ends with a one line statement of a death.




This young mans decent is horrific to watch unfold. As he descends he is continually concerned with his being perceived as not a coward. He clearly can see the Cowardice when it appears in others and has little empathy.

This however I think leads to his downfall.

As everyone around him dies he becomes fearless and appears to lose his vision of a future. loosing ones vision of a future I think is a hallmark of reckless behavior. Reckless behavior in a WWI flyer would have been a straight line to the end.

Omoo by Herman Melville (1847) Illu. by Mead Schaeffer

Loved this book, recently learned that it was 2nd in a travel trilogy that M created from his travels.

Once you get the hang of Melville writing you can settle in for the story punctuated by the didactic learning experience.

Its a sort of stop start thing that initially was annoying but now I have come to expect it.

Melville's disdain for the havoc wreaked upon the islands from the introduction of Western Civi is amazing. he would be at home today with the questioning of who the good guys are as any of the modern speakers of today.

His ultra dry humor needs to be appreciated...

"This was the place where we expected to obtain the men; so a boat was at once got in readiness to go ashore. Now it was necessary to provide a picked crew—men the least likely to abscond. After considerable deliberation on the part of the captain and mate, four of the seamen were pitched upon as the most trustworthy; or rather they were selected from a choice assortment of suspicious characters as being of an inferior order of rascality."

His opinion of the poorly educated seamen...

"Indeed, it is almost incredible, the light in which many sailors regard these naked heathens. They hardly consider them human. But it is a curious fact, that the more ignorant and degraded men are, the more contemptuously they look upon those whom they deem their inferiors." 

 His take on the few who stayed in the Islands...

"And for the most part, it is just this sort of men—so many of whom are found among sailors—uncared for by a single soul, without ties, reckless, and impatient of the restraints of civilization, who are occasionally found quite at home upon the savage islands of the Pacific. And, glancing at their hard lot in their own country, what marvel at their choice"