Skyfaring: A Journey With a Pilot
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It has been a great pleasure over the last eighteen months to walk into offices filled with books and those who love them. I am grateful to my agent, Caroline Michel, for reaching out to me and for all her subsequent support and encouragement, and that of her kind colleagues. My editors, Clara Farmer and Susannah Otter at Chatto & Windus, and Dan Frank and Betsy Sallee at Knopf, and their colleagues on both sides of the ocean, particularly Maggie Southard, Sara Eagle, Gabrielle Brooks, Lisa Gooding, and Vicki Watson offered clear-eyed, patient, and warm-hearted guidance and support throughout this project.
Finally, I’d like to express my thanks to my family and friends for their love and support throughout this project and for getting me away from it from time to time. Thanks to Kirun for understanding about music and the window seats of all sorts of vehicles; to Nancy, for her love and support throughout the years and for always encouraging my interest in flying; and to Mark, for everything. Silas, Anjali (who reminded me about the one ocean), and Lola—I hope that someday you can visit the cockpit during a flight, as kids could in the old days.
Permissions Acknowledgments
Grateful acknowledgment is made to the following for permission to reprint previously published material:
Ann Rittenberg Literary Agency, Inc.: Excerpt from The Artist’s Voice: Talks with Seventeen Modern Artists by Katharine Kuh, copyright © 1960, 1961, 1962 by Katharine Kuh, copyright renewed 1988, 1990 by Katharine Kuh. Reprinted by permission of the Ann Rittenberg Literary Agency, Inc., on behalf of Avis Berman, Literary Executor of the Estate of Katherine Kuh.
Curtis Brown, Ltd.: Excerpt from “Folklore of the Air” by William Faulkner (The American Mercury, November 1935). Reprinted by permission of Curtis Brown, Ltd.
Farrar, Straus and Giroux, LLC: Excerpt from Gilead: A Novel by Marilynne Robinson, copyright © 2004 by Marilynne Robinson; excerpt from “Part I” from “Midsummer” from The Poetry of Derek Walcott 1948-2014 by Derek Walcott, selected by Glyn Maxwell, copyright © 2014 by Derek Walcott. Reprinted by permission of Farrar, Straus and Giroux, LLC.
HarperCollins Publishers Ltd: Excerpt from Congo: The Epic History of a People by David van Reybrouck, translated from the Dutch by Sam Garrett, copyright © 2014 by David Van Reybrouck, translation copyright © 2013 by Sam Garrett; excerpt from Stuart Little by E. B. White, copyright © 1945 by E. B. White, copyright renewed 1973 by E. B. White. Reprinted by permission of HarperCollins Publishers Ltd.
Henry Holt and Company, LLC: Excerpt from “Kitty Hawk” from The Poetry of Robert Frost edited by Edward Connery Lathem, copyright © 1969 by Henry Holt and Company, copyright © 1956, 1962 by Robert Frost. All rights reserved. Reprinted by permission of Henry Holt and Company LLC.
Janklow & Nesbit Associates: Excerpt from The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion. Reprinted by permission of Joan Didion c/o Janklow & Nesbit Associates.
Mark Whyles Management Ltd: Excerpt from “Salters Road” by Karine Polwart. Reprinted by permission of Karine Polwart c/o Mark Whyles Management Ltd.
Penguin Random House: Excerpt from “The Poem of Flight” from New Selected Poems by Philip Levine, copyright © 1991 by Philip Levine; excerpt from Travels With Charley by John Steinbeck (Penguin Books, 1992), copyright © 1961, 1962 by The Curtis Publishing Company Inc., copyright © 1962 by John Steinbeck, copyright renewed 1989, 1990 by Elaine Steinbeck, Thom Steinbeck and John Steinbeck IV. Reprinted by permission of Penguin Random House LLC.
Rungstedlund Foundation: Excerpts from Out of Africa by Isak Dinesen. Reprinted by permission of the Rungstedlund Foundation.
A Note About the Author
Mark Vanhoenacker is a pilot and writer. A regular contributor to The New York Times and a columnist for Slate, he has also written for Wired, the Financial Times, the Los Angeles Times, and The Independent. Born in Massachusetts, he trained as a historian and worked as a management consultant before starting his flight training in Britain in 2001. His airline career began in 2003. He now flies the Boeing 747 from London to major cities around the world.