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A Novel
by Carole Hopson
A riveting, adventurous novel inspired by the life of pioneer aviatrix Bessie Coleman, a Black woman who learned to fly at the dawn of aviation and found freedom in the air
A few years after the Wright brothers' first flight, Bessie was working the Texas cotton fields with her family when an airplane flew over their heads. It buzzed so low she thought she could catch it in her hands. Bessie was fearless. She knew there was freedom in those wings.
The daughter of a woman born into slavery, Bessie answers the call of the Great Migration. She moves to Chicago, where she wins the backing of two wealthy, powerful Black men―Robert Abbott, creator and publisher of the Chicago Defender, and Jesse Binga, the founder of Chicago's first Black bank. Abbott becomes her mentor, while Binga becomes her lover. Her true first love, though, remains flying.
But in 1920, no one in the United States will train a Black woman to fly. So, twenty-eight-year-old Bessie learns to speak French and sets off for Europe. Two years ahead of Amelia Earhart, Bessie earns her pilot's license, and later she learns death-defying stunts from French and German dogfighting combat pilots.
While she finds no prejudice in the air, Bessie wrestles with other challenges on the ground. A plane crash nearly kills her, her brothers seem to be crumbling under the weight of Jim Crow, and, while grappling with tough truths about Binga, Bessie begins to wonder if the freedom she finds in the sky means she must otherwise fly solo.
With tenderness and mastery, Carole Hopson imagines the breathtaking moxie Bessie Coleman harnessed in order to lift herself out of poverty and become known as "Queen Bess."
"Hopson shines a welcome light on her indomitable and unsung heroine, and her technical knowledge enriches the many exhilarating aerial scenes." ―Publishers Weekly
"Hopson, a United Airlines captain, vividly evokes the experience of flight and does a commendable job illuminating Coleman's struggles with self-doubt and isolation even as she becomes a media sensation... . Fans of women-focused and African American historical fiction will appreciate Hopson's meticulously researched take on the life of a pioneering figure in aviation history." ―Booklist
"Invigorating! A Pair of Wings is the inspiring, richly detailed American Great Migration story we've been missing. Carole Hopson writes heroine and pioneer Bessie Coleman as if she's been living inside her head. I loved it." ―Crystal Smith Paul, author of Did You Hear About Kitty Karr?
"Bessie Coleman was a pioneering aviatrix who, in the early part of the twentieth century, was forced to travel to France to learn to fly, as no one in the U.S. would give a Black woman lessons. Her thrilling true story makes for an exciting, inspiring work of fiction in Hopson's hands. This may be the author's first novel, but as a professional pilot herself, she takes the tale and soars with it." ―Leigh Haber, founding books director of Oprah Daily and former head of Oprah's Book Club
"Hopson captures Coleman's courage, brilliance, and passion, from Jim Crow Texas to South Side, Chicago, through France and Germany, and back to America for treacherous barnstorming-while-Black. But above it all, there's flight itself. This book soars!" ―Lorene Cary, author of Ladysitting
This information about A Pair of Wings was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Carole Hopson is a Boeing 737 captain for United Airlines, based in Newark, New Jersey. After a twenty-year career as a journalist and executive for iconic brands like the National Football League, Foot Locker, and L'Oréal, Carole followed her dream to become a pilot. A century after Bessie Coleman soared over seemingly insurmountable obstacles, Black women in the U.S. account for less than one percent of all professional pilots. Inspired by Bessie's spellbinding accomplishments, Carole founded the Jet Black Foundation, a 501(c)(3) organization dedicated to sending one hundred Black women to flight school by the year 2035.
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