West with the Night

by Beryl Markham, Sara Wheeler (Introduction)

Overview

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-Exupéry, 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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780865477636
Publisher:	Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Publication date:	01/22/2013
Edition description:	Second Edition
Pages:	320
Sales rank:	160,632
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.10(h) x 1.00(d)
Lexile:	1140L (what's this?)

About the Author

Beryl Markham (1902–1986) was a British-born Kenyan aviatrix, adventurer, and racehorse trainer. During the pioneer days of aviation, she became the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic from east to west. She died at the age of 83 in Nairobi, Kenya.

Sara Wheeler is the author of many books of biography and travel, including Access All Areas: Selected Writings 1990–2011 and Travels in a Thin Country: A Journey Through Chile. Terra Incognita: Travels in Antarctica was an international bestseller that The New York Times described as "gripping, emotional" and "compelling," and The Magnetic North: Notes from the Arctic Circle was chosen as Book of the Year by Michael Palin and Will Self, among others. Wheeler lives in London.

Table of Contents

Introduction Sara Wheeler xi

Book 1

I Message from Nungwe 3

II Men with Blackwater Die 17

III The Stamp of Wilderness 33

IV Why Do We Fly? 45

Book 2

V He Was a Good Lion 57

VI Still Is the Land 67

VII Praise God for the Blood of the Bull 77

VIII And We Be Playmates, Thou and I 99

IX Royal Exile 108

X Was There a Horse with Wings? 117

Book 3

XI My Trail Is North 131

XII Hodi! 143

XIII Na Kupa Hati M'zuri 155

XIV Errands of the Wind 175

Book 4

XV Birth of a Life 185

XVI Ivory and Sansevieria 197

XVII I May Have to Shoot Him 205

XVIII Captives of the Rivers 219

XIX What of the Hunting, Hunter Bold? 228

XX Kwaheri Means Farewell 245

XXI Search for a Libyan Fort 254

XXII Benghazi by Candlelight 264

XXIII West with the Night 277

XXIV The Sea Will Take Small Pride 292

Editorial Reviews

Did you read Beryl Markham's book, West with the Night? I knew her fairly well in Africa and never would have suspected that she could and would put pen to paper except to write in her flyer's log book. As it is, she has written so well, and marvelously well, that I was completely ashamed of myself as a writer. I felt that I was simply a carpenter with words, picking up whatever was furnished on the job and nailing them together and sometimes making an okay pig pen. But [she] can write rings around all of us who consider ourselves writers. The only parts of it that I know about personally, on account of having been there at the time and heard the other people's stories, are absolutely true . . . I wish you would get it and read it because it is really a bloody wonderful book.” —Ernest Hemingway

“West with the Night is the sort of book that makes you think human beings can do anything . . . When she was a mere child, she was clawed by a lion. This should have been enough to make anybody timid for life, but not Beryl . . . A jewel of taut writing and thrilling reading . . . The girl can write.” —John Chamberlain, The New York Times

From the Publisher

Markham's West with the Night was originally published in the early 1940s and disappeared, only to be rediscovered and reprinted in the 1980s when it became a smash hit. This latest incarnation is a lavishly illustrated edition. Though Markham is known for setting an aviation record for a solo flight across the Atlantic from East to West-hence the title-she was also a bush pilot in Africa, sharing adventures with Blor Blixen and Denys Finch-Hatton of Out of Africa fame. Hemingway, who met Markham during his safari days, dubbed the book "bloody wonderful."

Library Journal

Julie Harris’s presentation of Beryl Markham’s autobiography is an outstanding success for the audio format. Consider it an essential title for any collection. This is a superb example of the enhancement voice can give to text. The clarity and warmth of Harris’s voice perfectly match Markham’s exuberance and love of life. Her perfect diction glides smoothly over African names, and she successfully uses dialect and inflection for native characters. The haunting reflections of British East Africa in the ‘20’s and ‘30’s, the airplanes, horses, dogs and wild animals--present an unforgettable portrait enlivened by the brilliant narration. R.F.W. Winner of AUDIOFILE Earphones Award ©AudioFile, Portland, Maine

DEC 92 - AudioFile