First published 1989
Chuck Yeager stands at the edge of another challenge, decades after breaking the sound barrier and surviving combat over Nazi Germany. The legendary test pilot refuses to slow down in his sixties. He travels from remote corners of New Zealand where death nearly claims him to the high sierra peaks at 14,000 feet with a backpack. In Scotland he casts flies into rushing streams. Texas deer fall to his rifle. Off Alaska he battles a 267-pound halibut on forty-pound test line. Between adventures he returns to the West Virginia mountains that shaped him, reconnecting with the honest mountain people who taught him their values. His flying buddies share stories. His wife of four decades reveals the man behind the legend. Family members offer their perspectives on a father and husband who never learned to sit still. Yeager faces each new risk with the same spirit that carried him through test flights and combat missions. His philosophy remains simple and unchanged.
Genres: biography, adventure, memoir, non-fiction
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: overcoming-adversity, perseverance
Setting: New Zealand, Scotland, Texas, Alaska, West Virginia
Period: 20th-century
324 pages · Paperback · Bantam