Richard Holmes - Falling Upwards: How We Took to the Air

Contents

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For kind permission to consult and refer to manuscripts, rare editions, original illustrations, aerial objects and archives, my most grateful acknowledgements are due to the London Library; the British Library, London; the Science Museum, London; the National Aerospace Library, Royal Aeronautical Society, Farnborough; the Bibliothque Nationale, Paris; La Muse de lAir et de lEspace, le Bourget, Paris; the Library of Congress, Washington, DC; the Smithsonian Library, Washington, DC; the National Air and Space Museum, Washington, DC; the Steven F. Undvar-Hazy Center, Dulles International Airport, Washington, DC; the Anderson-Abruzzo Albuquerque International Balloon Museum, New Mexico, USA; the State Library of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia; and the Andre Expedition Polar Centre, Grnna, Sweden.

My warmest personal thanks go to Dr Tom Crouch at the NASM, Washington, DC, for his enthusiasm and technical advice, for his definitive work on American ballooning The Eagle Aloft, and for shoehorning me into that hot-air balloon at Albuquerque; to Dr Leonard Bruno at the Library of Congress, for all his patience and kindness in the archives; to Lila Vekerdy, at the Smithsonian Library, Washington, DC, for her support and her cocktails; and to Dr Marilee Nason, the inspired Director of the International Balloon Museum, at Albuquerque, New Mexico.

I would also like to thank Doug Millard, at the Science Museum, London; Dr Nancy Gwinn, Director of the Smithsonian Library, Washington, DC; Pierre Lombarde, Directeur, Centre de Documentation at le Bourget; Barbara Kiser, features editor at Nature; and to send an airborne greeting to the Thursday Night Group at Caf Central, Pennsylvania Avenue, Washington, DC.

I have special scholarly debts to L.T.C. Rolt for his brilliant survey The Balloonists; to Professor Clare Brant, Kings College, London, for her wonderful Ballomania lecture at the Royal Society in 2007; to Professor Stephan Bann, editor of the stimulating collection Seeing from Above, who generously let me see a number of papers before their publication; to Keith Moore, polymathic head of the Library and Information Services, the Royal Society, London; to Dr Tom Spencer at Magdalene College, Cambridge, for hosting the Aerial View session at the Festival Conference in November 2011; to Dr Philip Ball, masterly science writer and lecturer for his swift fly-by of chemical and other matters; and to the Master and Fellows of Churchill College, Cambridge, for electing me to an Honorary Fellowship, and reminding me that engineering and imagination must, more than ever, go arm in arm towards the big ideas for our global future.

I would like to thank several balloon companies for taking me safely aloft, notably Norwich Balloons, Norfolk; Balloons Aloft, Canberra, Australia; Le Dragon Volant, 30360 St-Hippolyte de Caton, France; and above all the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta, New Mexico, USA. Among the many skilful and meticulous balloon pilots that it has been my privilege to meet, on terra firma or above it, I would particularly like to express my appreciation to Julian Nott; and to Barbara A. Fricke and Peter J. Cuneo, together placed third in the historic 2004 Gordon Bennett Race, and twice joint winners of the Americas Challenge Gas Balloon Race, in 2001 and 2010.

A number of wise and learned friends have encouraged me to stay afloat in the strange but fascinating stratos between the arts and the sciences: my old colleague Professor Jon Cook, who regularly ascends with me literally or metaphorically above the flatlands of East Anglia; Richard Mabey, who inspires me with meteorological lore; my brother Adrian, of Holmes Hobb Marcantonio, and my sister Tessa, of the Elephantpress, for their shrewd advice on design and presentation; Tim Dee of BBC Bristol; Alan Judd of Intelligence Reformed; Professor Kathryn Hughes, director of the UEA Life Writing MA; and my old and valued mentor Professor George Steiner in Cambridge. I also send greetings to my uncle, Squadron Leader D.C. Gordon, now at maximum altitude.

Here on the ground I have again been immensely lucky in my outstanding publishing team at HarperCollins. My thanks and appreciation go to Robert Lacey (words), Joe Zigmond (pictures), Jo Walker (design), Helen Ellis (upper-air trajectories), Douglas Matthews (the king of indexers), and above all to my visionary editor Arabella Pike, who does not suffer from any kind of vertigo. Best thanks to my agent David Godwin in London, and to Dan Frank at Pantheon, New York. Finally, greetings to the now far-flung wild Delancey boys (including the Hong Kong division), and to all at the New Balloon Centre at Queens Park, London. To my beloved Rose Tremain: a heartfelt earthly thank you.

R.H.

One for Sorrow (poems)

Shelley: The Pursuit

Shelley on Love (editor)

Gautier: My Fantoms (translator)

Nerval: The Chimeras (with Peter Jay)

Mary Wollstonecraft and William Godwin:

A Short Residence in Sweden and Memoirs (editor)

De Feministe en de Filosoof

Dr Johnson & Mr Savage

Coleridge: Early Visions

Coleridge: Darker Reflections

Coleridge: Selected Poems (editor)

Footsteps: Adventures of a Romantic Biographer

Sidetracks: Explorations of a Romantic Biographer

Insights: The Romantic Poets and their Circle

Classic Biographies (series editor)

The Age of Wonder: How the Romantic Generation

Discovered the Beauty and Terror of Science

ARCHIVES AND MUSEUMS

The London Library

The British Library, London

The Royal Society, London

The Penn-Gaskell Collection, Science Museum, London

The Cuthbert-Hodgson Collection, National Aerospace Library, Royal Aeronautical Society, Farnborough, Hampshire

The British Balloon Museum and Library. Internet: http://www.bbml.org.uk/

The Ashby de la Zouche Museum, Leicestershire

Muse de lAir et de lEspace, Le Bourget, Paris

Chteau de Balleroy, Muse de Ballons, 14490 Balleroy, Normandy, France

The State Library of New South Wales, Australia

The Tissandier Collection, Library of Congress, Washington DC

The National Air and Space Museum, Washington DC

The Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center, Dulles International Airport, Washington DC

The Smithsonian Library, Washington DC

The Anderson-Abruzzo Albuquerque International Balloon Museum, New Mexico, USA

The Andre Expedition Polar Centre, Grnna, Sweden

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Aeronautica see Monck Mason

Salomon Andre,