An entrancing avant-garde adventure at the dawn of the modern age

In 1909, municipal authorities built an airfield in northern Italy and invited leading pilots to compete on it. The show attracted thousands of spectators--among them Giacomo Puccini and Gabriele d'Annunzio--and reporters, including, amazingly, Franz Kafka, Max Brod, and Luigi Barzini. Peter Demetz's sparkling new book tells the enchanting story of what happened in the air and on the ground before, during, and after this amazing moment.
Demetz, an emeritus professor of German at Yale (Prague in Black and Gold), brings his research skills and background in literature to bear on this anecdotal account of a flying competition that took place in northern Italy during the early days of aviation. Attending the event, among other notables, were Franz Kafka and Italian poet Gabriele d'Annunzio. Kafka, who traveled to Brescia with several friends, including novelist and editor Max Brod, published a journalistic article about the show. D'Annunzio was infatuated with flying and managed to convince U.S. pilot Glenn Curtiss to take him on a flight that lasted only a few seconds. He later hitched a longer ride in a Wright biplane piloted by Italian aviator Mario Calderara. Composer Giacomo Puccini was also there, having fled his home for Brescia after a sex scandal that involved the suicide of a young servant girl, as Demetz narrates. In addition to an overview of the various flying contests (Curtiss won the grand prize), Demetz provides appealing thumbnail sketches of several competing pilots. Those interested in aviation history as well as a glimpse of the young Kafka will greatly enjoy this serendipitous account.