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 enlarge | Authors: Donald L. Barlett, James Steele
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Category: Book
List Price: $18.95
Buy Used: $5.79
You Save: $13.16 (69%)
New (18) Used (36) from $5.79
Rating:  8 reviews
Sales Rank: 24046
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 687
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.9
Dimensions (in): 9.2 x 6.2 x 1.3
ISBN: 0393326020
Dewey Decimal Number: 338.767092
EAN: 9780393326024
ASIN: 0393326020
Publication Date: September 30, 2004
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews:
| Showing reviews 6-8 of 8 | | « PREV | | |
The real Howard Hughes January 31, 2005
23 out of 28 found this review helpful
Great book, with many great details.
This book will tell you all you really need to know about this great man.
The latest movie about Howard Hughes is nothing compared to this book. What was Hollywood thinking when they decided to make this movie? It did not say anything about his Vegas ventures, which was a crucial time in his life. If one knew about his time in the Flamingo hotel, it would have been easy to relate to his crazyness, mentality and thinking. Nothing also was mentioned in the movie about his voyages around the world, which started it all, and his life after his aviation follies. I know the movie was called "The Aviator", but if you did not know anything about Howard before you saw the movie, then all you would think was that he was some crazy aviator who wasted his time building a giant aircraft that was never used for military or commercial purposes, dated a movie star and was always concerned that the US government was out to distroy him. (Well, the government tried really hard!!)
Who knows, maybe Airbus engineers had Howard Hughes in mind when they build their latest aircraft, the giant A380.
Mr. Hughes will be forever the pioneer who started it all.
In this book though,his life and his legacy are well preserved.
It is very well written, it tells use about his dramatic life, his eratic lifestyle and behavior, his connections to everything that was going on in the US at the time, and his constant drive for perfection. Hero or not, he was sometimes crazy but also brilliant.
If one really wants to know who Howard Hughes really was, all questions will be answered here. This book will tell you everything.
Very long but really good read.
 Meticulously researched January 25, 2005
121 out of 128 found this review helpful
I've read this book and Peter Brown's book. There is a definite difference. Barlett obviously did his research and it shows for example in the amount of pages devoted to many of Hughes' business transactions (e.g., TWA, Spruce Goose, Vegas properties) - at a certain point, however, I got tired and would skim through these dense passages. I was more interested in Hughes on a personal level and most of the book centered on Hughes in his later years, the misdeeds of his aides/associates, and his intricate business dealings. However, I don't think this detracts much from the overall book which does provide a clear, tragic portrait of this fascinating figure.
If you want a book that emphasazies Hughes' personal life (including more on his earlier years), I would suggest the Peter Brown book. Brown's book was published more recently and contains new information (including a new revelation on Hughes' mental condition) not included in Barlett's.
Definitive HRH resource January 11, 2005
20 out of 24 found this review helpful
By far the best biography I have ever read. Barlett does a brilliant job stringing together the disparate decades of the enigmatic billionaire's life. The books is a quick, captivating - albeit, depressing - read.
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