Steven L. Thompson
| Steven L. Thompson | |
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Thompson in 1971, aboard his racing motorcycle
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| Born | Steven Lynn Thompson May 27, 1948 San Antonio, Texas |
| Occupation | Author, journalist |
| Language | English |
| Nationality | American |
| Alma mater | UC Berkeley |
| Genre | Motorcycling; Cold War fiction |
| Notable works | The Wild Blue |
| Notable awards | Maggie Award, 1986 |
| Spouse |
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Steven Lynn Thompson (born 1948) is an author, magazine journalist, historian of technology and former motorcycle racer.
Steven Lynn Thompson was born May 27, 1948 at Ft. Sam Houston, San Antonio, Texas to career US Air Force pilot Major Ray Lynn Thompson (1921–1991) and his wife, Velma Mildred Thompson (1923–1991). He holds a BA in History from the University of California, Berkeley and served in the US Air Force from 1968 to 1972.
As an author, Thompson wrote five Cold War thrillers during the 1980s (Recovery, Countdown to China, Bismarck Cross, Airburst and Top End), in which he explored such themes as the role of the US Military Liaison Mission in Potsdam, East Germany, in both clandestine intelligence gathering and in resolving East-West tensions, as well as the reunification of East and West Germany, the coming of the Islamic Jihad to the United States via general aviation aircraft used for terror, and the consequences of contracting to private companies the role of coastal surveillance. The 1988 movie Honor Bound, directed by Jeannot Szwarc and starring Tom Skerritt, was based on Recovery, but not released in the United States after audience previews. In 1985, Thompson invited Walter J. Boyne, then Director of the Smithsonian National Air & Space Museum and a columnist for AOPA Pilot at Thompson’s request, to join him in co-authoring a social history of the United States Air Force. Boyne had completed a career in the Air Force and Thompson had been born and bred in the service, as well as serving in it during the Viet Nam war. Boyne subsequently agreed to co-author the book but argued that it should be fiction, and it was sold to Crown Publishers in 1985 by Thompson’s literary agent, Jacques de Spoelberch, who represented both authors. Published in 1986 in hardback, the resulting novel, The Wild Blue: The Novel of the U.S. Air Force, became a national best-seller. The Aviation/Space Writers Association awarded Boyne and Thompson its 1986 Journalism Award for fiction in aviation books for the novel.
Thompson's 2008 book Bodies in Motion: Evolution and Experience in Motorcycling, published by Aero Design and Manufacturing, was described by author Melissa Holbrook Pierson as "the most important book ever written on the subject" of motorcycling, and is recommended reading in the Idiot's Guide series. In it, Thompson investigates the psychology of motorcycle riding and "what our vehicles of automobility do to, and not just for, their operators," through the lens of evolutionary biology and psychology. For the book, he also commissioned the Stanford University Smart Products Design Lab to test nine motorcycles for their unique vibration signatures in an attempt to quantify the differences described by enthusiasts. Bodies in Motion received reviews in academic journals.
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