West with the night
by Beryl Markham · first published 1942
89% recommend11% neutral
Why HN recommends it
Vivid memoir of growing up in colonial Kenya and becoming a bush pilot and record-setting solo aviator; readers praise its beautiful prose, a good pick for fans of Hemingway-era travel and adventure memoirs.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
A pioneer aviator's life in Africa. From a letter to Maxwell Perkins: "Did you read Beryl Markham's book, West with the Night? I knew her fairly well in Africa and never would have suspected that she could and would put pen to paper except to write her flyer's log book. As it is, she has written so well, and marvelously well, that I was completely ashamed of myself as a writer. I felt that I was simply a carpenter with words, picking up whatever was furnished on the job and nailing them together and sometimes making an okay pig pen. But [she] can write rings around all of us who consid
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West with the Night, by Beryl Markham. This is the autobiography of a woman who grew up on a farm in British East Africa (Kenya) in the early 1900s. She eventually became a bush pilot and the first person ever to fly an…
on “Ask HN: What book have you given as a gift?” ↗West With the Night, Beryl Markham's autobiography. Beryl grew up in Africa, became a horse trainer and pilot, and flew solo from Europe to Newfoundland around the time that was highlighted in Out of Africa. Her life was…
on “Ask HN: 2018 Summer Reading List?” ↗West With the Night, by Beryl Markham. It’s a beautiful autobiography about and by a woman who grew up in British East Africa, became a bush pilot, and eventually became the first person to fly across the Atlantic from East…
on “Ask HN: What are the best unknown books you have read?” ↗You may also enjoy a lot of Hemingway's stuff, Wind, Sand, and Stars by de Saint-Exupéry, Out of Africa by Karen Blixen and West With the Night by Berly Markham -- all memoirs (except for Hemingway's non-memoirs) very similar in style and beauty. If anyone else has recommendations along these lines of memoirist or novelists with excellent command…
on “My Favorite Books 2020” ↗…related book I'd recommend is On Writing Well. I'd also suggest reading clear and simple authors like Hemingway (A Movable Feast), Antoine de Saint-Exupéry (Wind, Sand and Stars), and Beryl Markham (West with the Night). But fundamentally: consistent practice, rereading, and editing.
on “Ask HN: How to level up your technical writing?” ↗…made the biggest impact on my writing are Zinsser's On Writing Well, everything Hemingway (e.g. The Sun Also Rises, A Moveable Feast), Antoine de Saint-Exupéry's Wind, Sand and Stars, and Beryl Markham's West with the Night. The common theme being simplicity and informal, but correct, speech.
on “What to read to become a better writer” ↗I highly recommend West with the night[0] by Beryl Markham about a bush pilot in africa, super entertaining and the book is beyond well written. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_with_the_Night
on “Amelia Didn't Know Radio (1993)” ↗“West with the Night”, a memoir by Beryl Markham; she was the first person to fly across the Atlantic Ocean from east to west in a non-stop solo flight.
on “Ask HN: Books about people who did hard things” ↗…of Cyrus by Xenophon 91. Boyd: The Fighter Pilot Who Changed the Art of War by Robert Coram 92. Madhouse at the End of the Earth by Julian Sancton 93. How to Make a Spaceship by Julian Guthrie 94. West with the Night by Beryl Markham 95. The Age of Uncertainty by Tobias Hürter 96. American Steel by Richard Preston 97. Showstopper by G. Pascal Zachary 98. Eccentric Orbits by John Bloom 99. The Great Bridge by…
on “Ask HN: Books about people who did hard things” ↗> I was personally told that plane kids club is boys only. This is a tangent and maybe a long shot, but if you don't know Beryl Markham's "West With the Night", you might be in for a treat. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_with_the_Night
on “Teen on Musk's DOGE team graduated from 'The Com'” ↗You are so right. I am reading West with the Night, an excellent book that didn't sell well when first published in 1942 for various reasons, from bad timing during WWII to being under advertised. Almost forgotten until 1982 when someone read Hemingway's…
on “C.S. Lewis on the Reading of Old Books” ↗…conductors are carefully promoted to a familiarity with labelled buttons, and in whose minds knowledge of the sky and the wind and the way of weather will be extraneous as passing fiction." -- Beryl Markham, West with the Night, 1942 (first person to solo the Atlantic east to west)
on “We have used too many levels of abstractions and now the future looks bleak” ↗