Light This Candle: The Life & Times of Alan Shepard--America's First Spaceman

I have read many books from the early days of the US Space program and this one really stands out as telling it like it was. Instead of the idoltary and homespun heroes of "The Right Stuff", this book tells the story of a man who was the first American in space. Very well written and revealing of the good and the bad from Alan Shepard. While there's great detail on the space program, Shepards' early life and the influences that made him the man he was were well explained.

You might not like Alan Shepard when you've finished, but you'll love this book. Couldn't put it down.

Surprise of surprises. Amid the clutter of hastily-written self-serving memoirs from the early days of the space program, finally there appears something akin to solid history and literary proficiency. Neal Thompson was a Baltimore reporter when Alan Shepard died in 1998 of leukemia. Assigned to write an obituary, Thompson discovered that no first rate biography of the United State's first spaceman was then in print. Sensing an opportunity, Thompson, a free lance writer, began a six-year research project and produced a highly respectable treatment of a very private man. What had been known about Shepard were primarily his great successes and his notable shortcomings. Johnson tackles the great middle--and the puzzle that was Alan Shepard now begins to make sense. In truth, there is probably misunderstanding about all of the early astronaut heroes, as if each was assigned a role in a bigger cosmic drama. Scotty Carpenter will always be the house philosopher, Gordo Cooper the hotdog, Gus Grissom the curmudgeon. Shepard's role was to be first, the best, the winner of a grueling marathon to ride the Redstone rocket--tiny by today's standards--for fifteen minutes on May 5, 1961. Given the unpredictability of the rockets of that era, the greater risk to the astronaut was on the ground than in space. This fact was appreciated in 1961, and being chosen number one was a statement from his superiors about his fortitude as much as his mastery of flying and technology. Alan Shepard was born in 1923 in Derry, NH, to a somewhat removed, demanding father. Young Shepard inherited a fierce competitiveness and an independence that allowed him to pursue personal goals with little concern about his impression on others. This latter quality, to his advantage, is what set him apart from his archrival John Glenn, who did worry about public relations. Shepard was one of those rare men who had his cake and ate it, too: he achieved remarkable career goals while entertaining himself along the way with what can only be called oppositional defiance. In a strange twist of history, he actually pulled off the mischief that has always been attached to others like Gordon Cooper. In this regard Thompson studies Shepard's military misbehavior and his philandering. The author's account of the future astronaut's brushes with military authority is detailed and rather surprising. One comes away with a sense that the New Hampshire flyboy's skills as a naval test pilot must have been noteworthy, outweighing numerous dangerous incidents of "flat-hatting" or strafing civilians on the ground. His cheating on his virtuous and devoted wife Louise--a spouse of the Lady Bird Johnson mold--is a blotch that time will probably not erase. Thompson does observe that Shepard's amorous sorties off the reservation were adolescent in nature; the astronaut apparently never engaged in any sort of long term relationship in which Louise was displaced. Although there is in this work a lot about Shepard

Having read most of the books about the glory days of NASA, this one stands out as one of the best. Unlike a number of the recent autobiographies of the astronauts, Shepard would not have written this book himself. He was too private a person. Thompson has written an engaging chronicle of what it takes to be the best of the best in the astronaut corps.

I really enjoyed it! I and ate, slept and drank the Apollo program growing up. Alan Shepard was always my favorite astronaut and boyhood hero. I always wanted to know and understand him. This book gave me keen insight into Mr.Shepard and the space program. Light This Candle allowed me to reminisce about a wonderful time not only in my life, but this country's. I couldn't put it down!