Light This Candle

Alan Shepard was 37 the day he became the first American in space; 37 years later, I was working at the Baltimore Sun and received a call from an editor, telling me that Shepard had died and asking me to contribute a few paragraphs to his obituary. A quick Internet search that day told me that, except for a thin 1962 young adult book, no biography existed on America's first astronaut. When I decided to make up for that omission, I quickly discovered why no one had ventured to write about Shepard.

Alan Shepard felt no compunction to explain to the world, to anyone, who he was and where he'd been. He hoarded his privacy, to the point of turning down many lucrative endorsement offers. In death, those loyal to him continued to protect that privacy. Sure, there were things he was hiding - women, business deals, broken friendships, marital strife - things he knew might tarnish his hero's image. But by venturing beyond that image, into Shepard's past, into a few dark corners, I found a more human, complex and complete man than the Corvette-driving stud I'd been awed by in Tom Wolfe's "The Right Stuff."

This book began as a series of questions: How does a man reach the front lines of the cold war? Where does an edgy, competitive explorer go after he's already gone where few men have? How does someone reach the moon and how does he survive after he's gone there? By picking through the scattered clues Shepard left behind, by enlisting the help of some family members, scores of friends and colleagues, by gaining access to some of Shepard's military records and his FBI files, what emerges in response to those questions is a large, energetic and aggressive life. A life that, before and after space, pulsed with mystery, romance and adventure. Shepard was the military version of what Elvis was to music, what James Dean was to Hollywood, what Kerouac was to literature. Today's man was once a boy who wanted to be Alan Shepard. But, until now, his true story has never been fully told. It's the story of life fully lived, and entwined through it is - somewhat surprisingly for a man so famous for philandering - a love story.

His beautiful wife Louise might have told the story. But after 53 years of marriage, she followed him into oblivion, dying suddenly and mysteriously, five weeks after he did, on an airplane, 40,000 feet above Earth.

PRAISE

I think it is one of the finest books ever written about the space program. I thought I knew pretty much everything about the history of the American space effort, including the huge personalities that were the Mercury astronauts, but on nearly every page of this fine book, I learned something new. ((Neal)) has done something quite remarkable here, turned a legend into a real honest-to-God living and breathing and sweating human being. ((I would have thought, of all the astronauts, the least likely candidate for that would have been Alan Shepard, known mostly for his icy demeanor. ((Neal)) has given Shepard's unique humanity a chance to emerge from not only the legend that NASA built around him but the one he built around himself.)) I strongly recommend this book for anyone interested in the first astronauts, the early space program, and the evolution of a man who became a hero despite himself. Alan Shepard, it turns out we didn't know you, after all. Light this candle, indeed.

-Homer Hickam, author of "Rocket Boys" and "The Keeper's Son"

Neal Thompson's Light this Candle is just a wonderful and gripping biography. It is meticulously reported in the best tradition of David Halberstam. It is written with eloquent grace. Most satisfying of all, Light This Candle is the can't-put-it-down story of a modern swashbuckler determined to conquer the universe whatever the risk. In Thompson's hands, an amazing life, the ultimate American life, comes alive so exquisitely.

- Buzz Bissinger, author of "Friday Night Lights" and "A Prayer for the City"

Tough to say what's cooler: that Alan Shepard was the first American in space, or that he hit a golf ball on the moon. Neal's Thompson's "Light This Candle: The Life and Times of Alan Shepard" chronicles the amazing life of the brashest, funniest astronaut ever.

- Men's Health

Irresistible ... a tenacious biography of Shepard's remarkable life. A chapter of American history like no other Thompson hits all the right notes.

- The Buffalo News

Thompson writes with eloquent grace. This is one of the finest books ever written about our space program. The thoroughness of the author's research is impressive.

- The Indianapolis Star

A rare, warts-and-all portrait, and Shepard had a lot of warts. Thompson does a stellar job painting a real-life figure who never really showed his true self to anyone.

- The Vancouver Sun

Reminds us of how the proper blend of bleeding-edge technology and political rhetoric can not only unify but inspire a nation ... A valuable addition to the library of books on the space program.

- The Houston Chronicle

A highly readable effort to explain this remarkable American.

- The Charlotte Observer

Light This Candle" is really a "twofer," that is, two books for one. It is story-telling at its best about a larger-than-life naval aviator-test pilot, astronaut, husband-father. It is also a riveting reminder, in emotional detail, of some forty years of significant events of America's military in combat, aviation history and space race with the Soviet Union. What makes this a hard to put down book is that Thompson makes you feel that you are there. Thompson describes several launches so dramatically, with such suspense, that we wonder, "will this mission make it safely?" Every page is alive with the excitement of aviation, space, Cold War politics, personal back biting and "gotcha" pranks, but mostly the power of the personality of Alan Shepard

-David Hartman (former "Good Morning America Host") US Naval Institute Proceedings

After Shepard's death in 1998, Thompson, a veteran journalist, gained exclusive access to Shepard's papers and interviewed his family and fellow astronauts. His material shows that Shepard was an immensely complicated and conflicted man whose many passions drove him to feats of extraordinary bravery and accomplishment, but also to dangerous flirtations with self-destruction.

-William E. Burroughs (author of "This New Ocean") Smithsonian Air & Space magazine

More than 40 years after Alan Shepard became the first American in space, Neal Thompson's biography has captured the flesh-and-blood human behind the deed. The thoroughness of his research is impressive, and his fast-paced narrative keeps the pages turning.

- Paul Stillwell, Director, History Division, U.S. Naval Institute

Shepard was a very complicated individual. He had all the attributes to be successful, but he always lived on the edge. He had the perseverance to live through his medical problems to finally fly to the moon but he didn’t always follow the rules. Light This Candle captures the many facets of Alan Shepard.

- Capt. James Lovell, astronaut

Alan Shepard comes through as ambitious, cold, and often selfish. He also comes through as competent, determined, and brave.

- The Washington Times

A fine book that depicts Shepard vividly. [The] prose crackles with the kind of energy Americans remember from those first broadcasts from space itself. Thompson’s persistence in interviewing Shepard's surviving colleagues has bared Shepard's soul in ways the man himself seemed incapable of doing. Light This Candle, in contrast to the swagger of Wolfe's Right Stuff, exposes Shepard as a complex individual who had to battle his own ambition and ego to become a better man.

- Kansas City Star

Neal Thompson has taken a larger-than-life figure about whom we thought we knew all we needed to know, subjected him to rigorous investigative reporting and dogged shoe-leather research and produced a gripping, highly readable tale that makes Alan Shepard, one of the iconic figures of the past half century, even more fascinating without diminishing his heroic dimensions.

- Robert Timberg, author of The Nightingale's Song and State of Grace: A Memoir of Twilight Time

Just what a biography should be: sharp, evocative, and brisk.

- Kirkus Reviews

Journalist Thompson reveals another side of this all-American navy pilot with the right stuff. A snappily written, factual counterbalance to Tom Wolfe’s sometimes poetic renderings of the heroes of the early space program. Space buffs and baby boomers who remember Shepard’s gravity-escaping flight should snap it up.

- Publishers Weekly

Thompson has thoroughly researched Shepard…. [The] first full-dress biography of a complex space pioneer.

- Booklist

A quick and thoroughly captivating read.

- Leatherneck Magazine

*Recommended by Barnes & Noble ("our editors pick their favorite reads"): " Thompson reveals the enigmatic essence of astronaut Alan Shepard, the Space Age hero who -- along with the "right stuff" -- exhibited a mercurial mixture of charm and prickly reserve, discipline and recklessness, generosity and self-promotion." *Recommended by Borders: " This absorbing biography is the first full account of Alan Shepard, one of America's first men in space. Thompson had exclusive access to private papers and performed interviews with Shepard's nearest associates."

Chapter of Light This Candle

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