48 pages, 24x21cm, soft cover

ISBN 2-9514713-2-7

 L'ascension  humaine,

Pierre Prieur aérostier

book, written by Serge Negre and Danielle Autha, published in 2003

 

What a strange and beautiful story of this ballonner who was an observer during the first World war. This story  is narrated with force and simplicity and the context of this period is well expressed by the comments and the photographs. Some of them are of a great appropriateness and are a story by themselves. The notes on the photographs of observation, the views of accidents, the men with concentrated faces, the proximity of the enemy lines, are falling us in the so particular atmosphere of a war which terrorized and gave so much pain to the combatants of both sides.

In this context, the calm, the clear self-control allied to the youth of Pierre Prieur are like a flower in the desert.

The authors have been clever to include in the book a description of the kite ballons, of their technique, their development, and their history.

A successful book which deserves to be more known and distributed and which I recommend to everybody.