Abrams, Michael 1971-

PERSONAL:

Born 1971.

ADDRESSES:

Home—New York, NY. E-mail— [email protected].

CAREER:

Writer.

WRITINGS:

(With Jeffrey Winters) Dr. Broth and Ollie's Brain-boggling Search for the Lost Luggage: Across Time and Space in Eighty Puzzles, illustrations by Marc Rosenthal, Fireside (New York, NY), 2000.

Birdmen, Batmen, and Skyflyers: Wingsuits and the Pioneers Who Flew in Them, Fell in Them and Perfected Them, Harmony Books (New York, NY), 2006.

Contributor to periodicals, including Discover, Forbes FYI, Wired, and Popular Mechanics; contributing editor with Mechanical Engineering. Author of blogs The Icarus Report and Palindrome of the Day.

SIDELIGHTS:

Michael Abrams is a freelance writer who has contributed to a number of widely read publications and who is the author of Birdmen, Batmen, and Skyflyers: Wingsuits and the Pioneers Who Flew in Them, Fell in Them and Perfected Them. His debut is a history of man's attempt to fly, particularly with the use of wing-like devices. A Publishers Weekly contributor wrote: "The tales of flight range from the silly and mysterious to the inspiring and unbelievable." Abrams explores myths about attempted flight in ancient China, progresses through the pages of Leonardo da Vinci's notes, then goes on to describe the more contemporary "batmen" of the 1930s and 1940s, as well as modern-day skydivers.

He writes of the unsuccessful fliers who met their fate while pursuing their dreams and notes that some skydivers now fly with "wings" no wider than their arms as they continue to refine the art of engineless flying with the ultimate goal of landing without a parachute. A Mechanical Engineering-CIME contributor called Abrams's history "a thorough account of man's endless attempts to fly." Booklist reviewer Roland Green considered the volume "an entertaining sidebar to the history of aviation."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Booklist, May 1, 2006, Roland Green, review of Birdmen, Batmen, and Skyflyers: Wingsuits and the Pioneers Who Flew in Them, Fell in Them and Perfected Them, p. 60.

California Bookwatch, August, 2006, review of Birdmen, Batmen, and Skyflyers.

Mechanical Engineering-CIME, May, 2006, review of Birdmen, Batmen, and Skyflyers, p. 58.

Publishers Weekly, April 10, 2006, review of Birdmen, Batmen, and Skyflyers, p. 64.