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Halfway to Heaven 1960 1st Ed HOINVILLE Skywriting Gliding Stunting Autobiography RAREDESCRIPTIONHalfway to Heaven: Skywriting, Gliding, Stunting by Fred Hoinville. First edition, Angus & Robertson (Sydney/London/Melbourne), 1960. Printed by Halstead Press, Sydney. Octavo, blue cloth boards with gilt spine lettering, in the original dust jacket.This is Hoinville\'s own account of how a humdrum life turned into one spent chasing \"the new ocean of the air.\" He learned to fly in his thirties, became Australia\'s first commercial skywriter in 1952, and flew his Tiger Moth \"Brolga\" through aerobatic championships, cloud-flying, and gliding to 14,000 feet. He founded the Aircraft Owners and Pilots\' Association and wrote widely on flying subjects. Not long after finishing this manuscript, Hoinville was killed in a glider crash on April 18, 1959 — this book was published posthumously, with a foreword by his wife Grace.Illustrated with black-and-white photo plates throughout, including shots of Brolga, smoke-writing runs over Western Australia, and the author with his family. A genuinely scarce title: dealers across Australia, the UK, and New Zealand consistently note it as the only book ever written specifically about skywriting.Carries a small vintage bookshop label on the rear pastedown from the World War I Aero Bookshop of Roslindale, Massachusetts — a nice trace of provenance through a specialist aviation dealer.
CONDITIONBook: Blue cloth boards, gilt spine lettering bright and fully legible. Boards clean, no major fading or staining noted. Text block appears clean and tight in photos; light foxing possible per period norms for this title (not fully assessed — recommend a fan-through before final photos).Dust jacket: Present, but well-worn. Chipping and short tears at spine head and tail, tear at the top of the front panel, corner loss at spine head. Consistent with typical surviving DJ condition for this title per comparable dealer listings. A previous owner\'s penciled price notation appears on the front flap.Overall: Good book in a Good, heavily worn dust jacket. Complete and displayable, honestly graded —do not oversell the jacket condition.
