The Right Stuff (book)
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First edition
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| Author | Tom Wolfe |
|---|---|
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre |
New Journalism Non-fiction |
| Publisher | Farrar, Straus and Giroux |
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Publication date
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1979 |
| Media type | Print (hardcover & paperback) |
| Pages | 436 pages |
| ISBN | |
| OCLC | 5007334 |
| 629.4/0973 19 | |
| LC Class | TL789.8.U5 W64 1979 |
The Right Stuff is a 1979 book by Tom Wolfe about the pilots engaged in U.S. postwar research with experimental rocket-powered, high-speed aircraft as well as documenting the stories of the first Project Mercury astronauts selected for the NASA space program. The Right Stuff is based on extensive research by Wolfe, who interviewed test pilots, the astronauts and their wives, among others. The story contrasts the "Mercury Seven" and their families with test pilots such as Chuck Yeager, who was considered by many contemporaries as the best of them all, but who was never selected as an astronaut.
Wolfe wrote that the book was inspired by the desire to find out why the astronauts accepted the danger of space flight. He recounts the enormous risks that test pilots were already taking, and the mental and physical characteristics—the titular "right stuff"—required for and reinforced by their jobs. Wolfe likens the astronauts to "single combat warriors" from an earlier era who received the honor and adoration of their people before going forth to fight on their behalf.
The 1983 film The Right Stuff is adapted from the book.
In 1972 Jann Wenner, the editor of Rolling Stone assigned Wolfe to cover the launch of NASA's last moon mission, Apollo 17. Wolfe became fascinated with the astronauts, and his competitive spirit compelled him to try to outdo Norman Mailer's nonfiction book about the first moon mission, Of a Fire on the Moon. He published a four-part series for Rolling Stone in 1973 titled "Post-Orbital Remorse", about the depression that some astronauts experienced after having been in space. After the series, Wolfe began researching the whole of the space program, in what became a seven-year project from which he took time to write The Painted Word, a book on art, and to complete Mauve Gloves & Madmen, Clutter & Vine, a collection of shorter pieces.
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