wombat (02/16/83)
#R:nmtvax:-14300:uicsl:7500012:000:226 uicsl!wombat Feb 15 14:41:00 1983 I was once told that Magee died in a plane crash very shortly after writing "High Flight." Any substantiation? It was just about the only poetry we had in the house when I was small. My dad had a framed copy on his dresser.
cfiaime (02/17/83)
The author of "High Flight", John Gillespie Magee Jr., was a Pilot Officer serving with the Royal Canadian Air Force in England during 1941. He was killed when his Spitfire collided with another airplane in a cloud. He was 19 when he was killed, December, 1941. The poem was written on the back of a letter to his mother in the late summer of 1941. It was first published in a church bulletin at his home parish. The original poem and the full story behind its publication are at the Air Force Museum in Dayton, Ohio. Jeff Williams BTL/Indian Hill
karn (02/18/83)
Yet another item of trivia regarding this poem: It is part of the IMAX film "Silent Sky", a pleasant warmup to the feature "Hail Columbia" currently being shown at the National Air & Space Museum. Phil