Can sombody give me information about the characters in Tom Wolfe's Book, "The Right Stuff"?

Question

preferably information and quotes about the mercury seven

Answer 1

I hope you understand that The Right Stuff is more than just a book, and the Mercury 7 were not just "characters" in a novel. Do you want to know what happened to these American heroes after the events in The Right Stuff?

First, read the book; see the movie! Both are fine work.

In addition to Chuck Yeager, the test pilot whose work led right up to the Mercury program and one who consulted with Tom Wolfe in detail when he was writing the book, here are the original astronauts, the Mercury 7 with their other major exploits also listed.

M. Scott Carpenter - Mercury-Atlas 7
L. Gordon Cooper - Mercury-Atlas 9, Gemini 5
John H. Glenn Jr. - Mercury-Atlas 6, STS-95
Virgil I. "Gus" Grissom - Mercury-Redstone 4, Gemini 3, Apollo 1
Walter M. Schirra - Mercury-Atlas 8, Gemini 6A, Apollo 7
Alan B. Shepard - Mercury-Redstone 3, Apollo 14
Donald K. "Deke" Slayton - Apollo-Soyuz Test Project

If you want to know about the book, read it. If you want to know more about the careers of the astronauts after the time of the book, you can find a fairly detailed bio of each one in Wikipedia. That should give you a good start.

For example, as you probably know, Gus Grissom survived a dangerous splashdown of Liberty Bell 7 and was eventually made commander of Apollo 1, intended to be the first manned Apollo flight. He was killed along with two fellow astronauts when the Apollo 1 caught fire at Cape Kennedy on January 27, 1967. He is buried at the Arlington National Cemetery and received numerous posthumous honors, including a Congressional Medal of Honor.

The Wikipedia article provides this prophetic quotation (which came after the time of Wolfe's book): "If we die, we want people to accept it. We are in a risky business and we hope that if anything happens to us it will not delay the program. The conquest of space is worth the risk of life." Even so, his wife and son did not "accept" his death, seeking damages from NASA and all the companies involved, claiming sabotage.

Forgeddabout those cheap book report scams Kevin refers you to. They want your money; you'd spend your time better and learn more by reading/scamming the book, watching the move, and doing some of your own searches.

It's an exciting topic. Enjoy!

Tom Wolfe's an interesting person, too--a real life "character." Credited as the originator of New Journalism, he produced books with titles like The Kandy-Kolored Tangerine-Flake Streamline Baby (about the hot rod culture) and The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test (about Ken Kesey and his Merry Pranksters).

Once you get started down one of these learning trails, it's hard to stop. Good luck!

Answer 2

It's about the embryonic space program started at Pancho Barnes' makeshift airstrip which later became Edwards' Air Force Base if I'm not mistaken. I could be, but I won't claim genius - ossity! ( Sorry, George. )

Answer 3

Try sparknotes.com