Description
The first edition of The Fastest Man Alive, inscribed by Frank K. Everest, Jr., the US Air Force Test Pilot.
Octavo, 253pp, [3]. Publisher’s dark blue cloth, title in gilt on the spine. Stated “first edition” on the copyright page. Illustrated with a photographic frontispiece and black-and-white photographic plates. In the publisher’s first state jacket, $4.00 on the front flap, numerous tape repairs to verso, closed tears along front hinge.
Inscribed on the front free endpaper: “Arnold – I sincerely appreciate all that you did, without which this book would not have been possible – Frank K. Everest, Jr. / Lt. Col. USAF.”
Frank Everest, Jr. (1920-2004) served as chief Air Force test pilot at Edwards Air Force Base in the 1950’s. In 1954, Everest flew the Bell X-2 rocket plane, and reached Mach 2.9 establishing an unofficial speed record of 1,957 mph and earning the designation “the fastest man alive.” He surpassed Chuck Yeager’s prior record, set in 1947 in the Bell X1 plane.
