Additional information
by Beryl Markham (Author), Sara Wheeler (Introduction by)
A new edition of a great, underappreciated classic of our time
Beryl Markham's West with the Night is a true classic, a book that deserves the same acclaim and readership as the work of her contemporaries Ernest Hemingway, Antoine de Saint-Exup ry, and Isak Dinesen. If the first responsibility of a memoirist is to lead a life worth writing about, Markham succeeded beyond all measure. Born Beryl Clutterbuck in the middle of England, she and her father moved to Kenya when she was a girl, and she grew up with a zebra for a pet; horses for friends; baboons, lions, and gazelles for neighbors. She made money by scouting elephants from a tiny plane. And she would spend most of the rest of her life in East Africa as an adventurer, a racehorse trainer, and an aviatrix--she became the first person to fly nonstop from Europe to America, the first woman to fly solo east to west across the Atlantic. Hers was indisputably a life full of adventure and beauty. And then there is the writing. When Hemingway read Markham's book, he wrote to his editor, Maxwell Perkins: She has written so well, and marvelously well, that I was completely ashamed of myself as a writer . . . She] can write rings around all of us who consider ourselves as writers . . . It is really a bloody wonderful book. With a new introduction by Sara Wheeler--one of Markham's few legitimate literary heirs--West with the Night should once again take its place as one of the world's great adventure stories.Author Biography
Beryl Markham (1902-1986) was a British-born Kenyan aviatrix, adventurer, and racehorse trainer.
Sara Wheeler is the author of, most recently, The Magnetic North and Access All Areas.
Number of Pages: 320
Dimensions: 0.8 x 8.1 x 5.4 IN
Publication Date: January 22, 2013
Accelerated Reader:
Quiz Name: West with the Night
Interest Level: Upper Grades, 9-12
Reading Level: 7.3
Point Value: 15
