Structure

Although The Wright Brothers by David McCullough is a biographical work of Orville and Wilbur Wright inventors of the first successful flying machine, also known as the airplane, the focus of the book is on their work. There is only cursory mention of their personal lives. But that structure is fitting since their personal lives were normal and unremarkable; however, their successes and achievements in aeronautics was nothing short of miraculous. The book is structured in part as an epistolary; many letters exchanged between principals are included verbatim in the narrative.

The author describes the many similarities that the brothers shared in characteristics and traits and their differences which created the strength and tenacity that was crucial in attaining their goals. This story of the Wright Brothers begins in the family home in Dayton, Ohio. The brothers are around 40 years of age then and from that point...