West With the Night

by Markham, Beryl

• ISBN13: 9780865471184
• ISBN10: 0865471185
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1982-01-01
• Publisher: North Point Press

Summary

West with the Nightis the story of Beryl Markham--aviator, racehorse trainer, beauty--and her life in the Kenya of the 1920s and '30s. Beryl Markhamis also the author ofThe Splendid Outcast: The African Stories of Beryl Markham. Growing up in East Africa, the author describes her life as a pioneer aviator, a horse breeder, pilot of passengers and supplies in a small plane to remote corners of Africa, and became the first person to fly solo across the Atlantic from east to west. "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 "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 "With the skill of someone who has filled long nights with stories, Markham recounts her adventuresdiscoveries, rescues, and narrow escapes, the glint of an airplane abandoned in the desert, the look of a lion about to pounce . . . Much more than a pilot's memoir,West With the Nightis a wise, funny, and inspiring exploration of a life well lived."The Nation

Author Biography

Beryl Markham is also the author of The Splendid Outcast: The African Stories of Beryl Markham.

Table of Contents

BOOK ONE
Message from Nungwe	3	(14)
Men with Blackwater Die	17	(16)
The Stamp of Wilderness	33	(12)
Why Do We Fly?	45	(12)
BOOK TWO
He was a Good Lion	57	(10)
Still is the Land	67	(10)
Praise God for the Blood of The Bull	77	(22)
And We be Playmates, Thou And I	99	(9)
Royal Exile	108	(9)
Was There a Horse with Wings?	117	(14)
BOOK THREE
My Trail is North	131	(12)
Hodi!	143	(12)
Na Kupa Hati M'zuri	155	(20)
Errands of the Wind	175	(10)
BOOK FOUR
Birth of a Life	185	(12)
Ivory and Sansevieria	197	(8)
I may have to Shoot Him	205	(14)
Captives of the Rivers	219	(9)
What of the Hunting, Hunter Bold?	228	(17)
Kwaheri Means Farewell	245	(9)
Search for a Libyan Fort	254	(10)
Benghazi by Candlelight	264	(13)
West with the Night	277	(15)
The Sea will Take Small Pride	292