Over the course of a century, the invention of the airplane by Wilbur and Orville Wright in 1903 has revolutionized human experience - providing new ways of traveling, news modes of seeing, and new directions for the imagination. The development of aircraft and spacecraft and their successful navigation by pilots, astronauts and cosmonauts proved that what once seemed impossible, human flight and even travel to the moon, could indeed be accomplished with ambition and dedication. Published in collaboration with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration in honor of the centennial of flight, this book will provide a historical overview of the art and literature that have helped to inspire and record human ventures into the sky and the cosmos. It will consist of a compilation of artwork and literary masterpieces - poetry and prose - organized into thematic chapters, each to be introduced by respected scholars. The publication of this collection coincided with the centenary of the invention of the airplane in December 2003. Flight: A Celebration of 100 Years in Art and Literature documents the centennial since the Wright Brothers first flew with selections from writers as diverse as Robert Frost, Rudyard Kipling, Archibald MacLeish, Ray Bradbury, and Arthur C. Clarke. Artists to be represented range from Pablo Picasso to Roy Lichtenstein, Andy Warhol, Annie Leibovitz, William Wegman, and Robert Rauschenberg.
