New book on Rickenbacker era at IMS

[helioseism]

A new book has appeared titled "Indianapolis Motor Speedway: The Eddie Rickenbacker Era"
Link

While the subject sounds interesting this line from the blurb makes me want to run away from this book:
"Other grammar and punctuation irregularities are my humorous middle finger to those former “composition 101” profs who used so much red ink correcting my themes."

Sorry, author, but that kind of attitude just shows disrespect to the reader.

[Indyote]

Same fellow who wrote "The Clown Price of auto racing"?????

[Tifositoo]

Same fellow who wrote "The Clown Price of auto racing"?????

Yep...hope this is a much better-edited tome, but judging from the author's description of his own work, I have my doubts, as well.

The Clown Prince was basically a loosely woven together collection of anecdotes and recollections from the subject's past littered with some personal quotes. Eddie Sachs was much larger-than-life; sometimes to his own detriment, and so was Eddie Rickenbacker. Rickenbacker's autobiography is full of half-truths and outright lies, and there needs to be a well researched, unbiased and non-sensationalized record of his life and contributions to society.

This book might be a step in that direction...

[WhistleBlower]

Currently working my way through the book. Its not so much about Rickenbacker himself but more of the era itself, focusing mostly on the accidents and injuries suffered by drivers each year. It reads much more like news clippings rather than a cohesive story. Its good for learning more about the drivers of the era though.

[helioseism]

Currently working my way through the book. Its not so much about Rickenbacker himself but more of the era itself, focusing mostly on the accidents and injuries suffered by drivers each year. It reads much more like news clippings rather than a cohesive story. Its good for learning more about the drivers of the era though.

Any photos? What quality?

[Count Tracula]

Brock's "Against Death and Time" was to racing books what "Driven" was to racing movies, so it is hard to imagine a worse one. Rickenbacker? Only the hardest of hardcores will get into it. Interesting. I will check it out.

[Stick500]

"Other grammar and punctuation irregularities are my humorous middle finger to those former “composition 101” profs who used so much red ink correcting my themes.".

That would drive me nuts! A portion of my career was as a book editor.

[JThur1]

Currently working my way through the book. Its not so much about Rickenbacker himself but more of the era itself, focusing mostly on the accidents and injuries suffered by drivers each year. It reads much more like news clippings rather than a cohesive story. Its good for learning more about the drivers of the era though.

Hopefully the information on the drivers wasn't just copied off of Wikipedia or Motorsport Memorial...

...if it was, yeesh! It might come close to "Against Death And Time."

[Martyj]

While the subject sounds interesting this line from the blurb makes me want to run away from this book:
"Other grammar and punctuation irregularities are my humorous middle finger to those former “composition 101” profs who used so much red ink correcting my themes."

Sorry, author, but that kind of attitude just shows disrespect to the reader.

It's a curious marketing approach in trying to convince someone to buy this book, that's for sue.

It's a bit like a film maker asking you to watch their movie even though it was purposefully filmed out-of-focus as a middle finger to people who obsess over such details.

[Don Capps]

Dr. W. David Lewis (Auburn University), Eddie Rickenbacker: An American Hero in the Twentieth Century (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2005).