The Right Stuff (book)
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The Right Stuff (book)
''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 astronautsAs a matter of fact, Alan Shepard said that Tom Wolfe had not talked to any of the original seven astronauts, at any time (Alan Shepard's Interview to Charlie Rose, July 20, 1994). and their wives, among others. The story contrasts the Mercury Seven and their families with other 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 men ...
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Tom Wolfe
Thomas Kennerly Wolfe Jr. (March 2, 1930 – May 14, 2018)Some sources say 1931; ''The New York Times'' and Reuters both initially reported 1931 in their obituaries before changing to 1930. See and was an American author and journalist widely known for his association with New Journalism, a style of news writing and journalism developed in the 1960s and 1970s that incorporated literary techniques. Wolfe began his career as a regional newspaper reporter in the 1950s, achieving national prominence in the 1960s following the publication of such best-selling books as ''The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test'' (a highly experimental account of Ken Kesey and the Merry Pranksters) and two collections of articles and essays, '' Radical Chic & Mau-Mauing the Flak Catchers'' and ''The Kandy-Kolored Tangerine-Flake Streamline Baby''. In 1979, he published the influential book '' The Right Stuff'' about the Mercury Seven astronauts, which was made into a 1983 film of the same name directed by Ph ...
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National Geographic (American TV Channel)
National Geographic (formerly National Geographic Channel; abbreviated and trademarked as Nat Geo or Nat Geo TV) is an American pay television network and flagship channel owned by the National Geographic Global Networks unit of Disney General Entertainment Content and National Geographic Partners, a joint venture between The Walt Disney Company (73%) and the National Geographic Society (27%), with the operational management handled by Walt Disney Television. The flagship channel airs non-fiction television programs produced by National Geographic and other production companies. Like History (which was 50% owned by Disney through A&E Networks) and Discovery Channel, the channel features documentaries with factual content involving nature, science, culture, and history, plus some reality and pseudo-scientific entertainment programming. Its primary sister network worldwide, including the United States, is Nat Geo Wild, which focuses on animal-related programming, including the popu ...
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National Book Foundation
The National Book Foundation (NBF) is an American nonprofit organization established, "to raise the cultural appreciation of great writing in America". Established in 1989 by National Book Awards, Inc.,Edwin McDowell. "Book Notes: 'The Joy Luck Club' is to be in paperback ... The National Book Awards' new foundation". ''The New York Times'', July 5, 1989, page C19. the foundation is the administrator and sponsor of the National Book Awards, a changing set of literary awards inaugurated 1936 and continuous from 1950. It also organizes and sponsors public and educational programs. The National Book Foundation's Board of Directors comprises representatives of American literary institutions and the book industry. For example, in 2009 the Board included the President of the New York Public Library, the Chief Merchandising Officer of Barnes & Noble, the President/Publisher of Grove/Atlantic, Inc., and others. In 2021, Ruth Dickey succeeded Lisa Lucas as the Foundation's fourth ...
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National Book Award For Nonfiction
The National Book Award for Nonfiction is one of five U.S. annual National Book Awards, which are given by the National Book Foundation to recognize outstanding literary work by U.S. citizens. They are awards "by writers to writers". The panelists are five "writers who are known to be doing great work in their genre or field". The original National Book Awards recognized the "Most Distinguished" biography and nonfiction books (two) of 1935 and 1936, and the "Favorite" nonfiction books of 1937 to 1940. The "Bookseller Discovery" and the "Most Original Book" sometimes recognized nonfiction. (See below.) The general "Nonfiction" award was one of three when the National Book Awards were re-established in 1950 for 1949 publications, which the National Book Foundation considers the origin of its current Awards series. From 1964 to 1983, under different administrators, there were multiple nonfiction categories. The current Nonfiction award recognizes one book written by a U.S. citizen ...
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National Book Critics Circle Award
The National Book Critics Circle Awards are a set of annual American literary awards by the National Book Critics Circle (NBCC) to promote "the finest books and reviews published in English"."About: Supporting Book Criticism and Literary Culture Since 1974"
NBCC. Retrieved February 2, 2012.
The first NBCC awards were announced and presented January 16, 1976.''The National Book Critics Circle Journal'' 2:1, Spring 1976
, NBCC. Retrieved February 2, 2012.
Six awards are presented annually to books published in the U.S. during the preceding calendar year, in six categories:

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Mercury Program
Project Mercury was the first human spaceflight program of the United States, running from 1958 through 1963. An early highlight of the Space Race, its goal was to put a man into Earth orbit and return him safely, ideally before the Soviet Union. Taken over from the US Air Force by the newly created civilian space agency NASA, it conducted 20 uncrewed developmental flights (some using animals), and six successful flights by astronauts. The program, which took its name from Roman mythology, cost $ (adjusted for inflation). The astronauts were collectively known as the "Mercury Seven", and each spacecraft was given a name ending with a "7" by its pilot. The Space Race began with the 1957 launch of the Soviet satellite Sputnik 1. This came as a shock to the American public, and led to the creation of NASA to expedite existing US space exploration efforts, and place most of them under civilian control. After the successful launch of the Explorer 1 satellite in 1958, crewed spacefl ...
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Mauve Gloves & Madmen, Clutter & Vine
''Mauve Gloves & Madmen, Clutter & Vine'' is a 1976 book by Tom Wolfe, consisting of eleven essays and one short story that Wolfe wrote between 1967 and 1976. It includes the essay in which he coined the term "the 'Me' Decade" to refer to the 1970s. In addition to the stories, Wolfe also illustrated the book. Publication ''Mauve Gloves & Madmen, Clutter & Vine'' was Wolfe's third collection of essays and short stories, following ''The Kandy-Kolored Tangerine-Flake Streamline Baby'' in 1965 and ''The Pump House Gang'' in 1968. Wolfe's 1970 book '' Radical Chic & Mau-Mauing the Flak Catchers'' contained two lengthy essays and is not generally considered a collection. ''Mauve Gloves & Madmen, Clutter & Vine'' was published in 1976 by Wolfe's regular publisher Farrar, Straus & Giroux. Themes The subjects of Wolfe's essays were considered less original than his previous efforts. When Wolfe wrote about the culture of surf gangs in ''The Pump House Gang'' or about stock car racing ...
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The Painted Word
''The Painted Word'' is a 1975 book of art criticism by Tom Wolfe. Background By the 1970s Wolfe was, according to Douglas Davis of ''Newsweek'' magazine "more of a celebrity than the celebrities he describes." In . The success of Wolfe's previous books, in particular ''The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test'' in 1968 and '' Radical Chic & Mau-Mauing the Flak Catchers'' in 1970, had given Wolfe ''carte blanche'' from his publisher to pursue any topic he desired. In the midst of working on stories about the space program for ''Rolling Stone''—stories that would eventually grow into the 1979 book '' The Right Stuff''—Wolfe became interested in writing a book about modern art. As a journalist, Wolfe had devoted much of his writing career to pursuing realism; Wolfe read in Hilton Kramer's 1974 ''Times'' review of Seven Realists, that "to lack a persuasive theory is to lack something crucial". Wolfe summarized the review saying that it meant "without a theory to go with it, I can't ...
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Of A Fire On The Moon
''Of a Fire on the Moon'' (, ) is a work of non-fiction by Norman Mailer which was serialised in Life (magazine), ''Life'' magazine in 1969 and 1970, and published in 1970 as a book. It is a documentary and reflection on the Apollo 11, Apollo 11 Moon landing from Mailer's point of view. Writing and publication After spending time at the Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center, space center and Christopher C. Kraft Jr. Mission Control Center, Mission Control in Houston, and witnessing the launch of the Saturn V at Cape Kennedy in Florida, Mailer began writing his account of the historic voyage at his home in Provincetown, Massachusetts, during marathon writing sessions to meet his deadlines for the magazine. His account, which ran to 115,000 words, was published between August 1969 and January 1970 in three long installments—''A Fire on the Moon'', ''The Psychology of Astronauts'', and ''A Dream of the Future's Face''. In a foreword to Mailer's first installment, ''Life'' Managing Edito ...
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Norman Mailer
Nachem Malech Mailer (January 31, 1923 – November 10, 2007), known by his pen name Norman Kingsley Mailer, was an American novelist, journalist, essayist, playwright, activist, filmmaker and actor. In a career spanning over six decades, Mailer had 11 best-selling books, at least one in each of the seven decades after World War II—more than any other post-war American writer. His novel ''The Naked and the Dead'' was published in 1948 and brought him early renown. His 1968 nonfiction novel '' Armies of the Night'' won the Pulitzer Prize for non-fiction as well as the National Book Award. Among his best-known works is ''The Executioner's Song'', the 1979 winner of the Pulitzer Prize for fiction. Mailer is considered an innovator of "creative non-fiction" or "New Journalism", along with Truman Capote, Joan Didion, Hunter S. Thompson, and Tom Wolfe, a genre which uses the style and devices of literary fiction in factual journalism. He was a cultural commentator and critic, expre ...
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Apollo 17
Apollo 17 (December 7–19, 1972) was the final mission of NASA's Apollo program, the most recent time humans have set foot on the Moon or traveled beyond low Earth orbit. Commander Gene Cernan and Lunar Module Pilot Harrison Schmitt walked on the Moon, while Command Module Pilot Ronald Evans (astronaut), Ronald Evans orbited above. Schmitt was the only professional geologist to land on the Moon; he was selected in place of Joe Engle, as NASA had been under pressure to send a scientist to the Moon. The mission's heavy emphasis on science meant the inclusion of a number of new experiments, including a Fe, Fi, Fo, Fum, and Phooey, biological experiment containing five mice that was carried in the command module. Mission planners had two primary goals in deciding on the landing site: to sample Lunar highlands, lunar highland material older than that at Mare Imbrium and to investigate the possibility of relatively recent Volcano, volcanic activity. They therefore selected Taurus– ...
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Rolling Stone
''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first known for its coverage of rock music and political reporting by Hunter S. Thompson. In the 1990s, the magazine broadened and shifted its focus to a younger readership interested in youth-oriented television shows, film actors, and popular music. It has since returned to its traditional mix of content, including music, entertainment, and politics. The first magazine was released in 1967 and featured John Lennon on the cover and was published every two weeks. It is known for provocative photography and its cover photos, featuring musicians, politicians, athletes, and actors. In addition to its print version in the United States, it publishes content through Rollingstone.com and numerous international editions. Penske Media Corporation is the c ...
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