Black Tulip: The Life and Legacy of Erich Hartmann
 

Scheduled for April 2020.
Hoping it will contain new info and photos.
Flavio

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Black-Tulip...s=books&sr=1-4

Re: Black Tulip: The Life and Legacy of Erich Hartmann
 

Whatever about the content, I'm judging the book by the cover, and it's the most dreadful and bland cover I've seen in a long time.
"BLACK CROSS-RED STAR" Christer Bergstrom take a bow....

Re: Black Tulip: The Life and Legacy of Erich Hartmann
 

A clue can be found in the About the Author write-up.

Re: Black Tulip: The Life and Legacy of Erich Hartmann
 

Disregarding the cover, it at least seems to be a book far more honest than the one written by Toliver/Constable.

No idea if we will get a "final" biography of Hartmann or not, but hopefully so!

Cheers
Stig

Re: Black Tulip: The Life and Legacy of Erich Hartmann
 

Much better than the usual wrong aircraft, inaccurate markings, all-guns-blazing, dropping-bombs-in-a-45º-banking-turn type of cover.

Re: Black Tulip: The Life and Legacy of Erich Hartmann
 

But 240 pages? No way a thorough bio!

Re: Black Tulip: The Life and Legacy of Erich Hartmann
 

Well, we could at least have the right aircraft in a 45 degree banking turn. Covers sell books.


Ed

Re: Black Tulip: The Life and Legacy of Erich Hartmann
 

Maybee not Jukka, maybee not, but perhaps it is a start?

I think it is about time we get something more solid with regard to the ace-of-aces. Come to think of it, one does not necessarily need 500 - 750 pages to write an honest biography.

I would also like to see an honest book about Adolf Galland and not all those "worship" books so far published!

Cheers
Stig

Re: Black Tulip: The Life and Legacy of Erich Hartmann
 

A thorough biography should e.g. cover every victory claim in detail. Not possible within 240 pages, unless in large format and 9000 characters per page.

Re: Black Tulip: The Life and Legacy of Erich Hartmann
 

QUOTE: "About the Author. Erik Schmidt is a senior marketing writer and idea-maker, with a professional mindset. He has a graduate degree in creative nonfiction. A lover of history and aviation, this book started out as a grad-school thesis."

Re: Black Tulip: The Life and Legacy of Erich Hartmann
 

Which often means that you can find a downloadable version of the text on the university's website.

Re: Black Tulip: The Life and Legacy of Erich Hartmann
 

"Black Tulip is the story of the top-scoring ace in history, a World War II Luftwaffe pilot named Erich Hartmann (1922–1993). Over 1,404 wartime missions, Hartmann scored 352 kills (the top American ace, Dick Bong, scored 40) and his career was full of drama."

Sorry, that's already looking bad....

Re: Black Tulip: The Life and Legacy of Erich Hartmann
 

Sounds like Hartman may have been part of a gigantic hoax enabled by all his fellow pilots. I'll enjoy the book when it comes out, as I enjoyed "Another Bowl of Kaputska", and my all time favorite of this genre "In Defiance". We're all serious here, but that doesn't mean we can't have a laugh once in awhile.

Re: Black Tulip: The Life and Legacy of Erich Hartmann
 

..see 'The Myth of the Eastern Front' (Smelser/Davies, Cambridge University Press, 2008)

Re: Black Tulip: The Life and Legacy of Erich Hartmann
 

Why bother with that extremely biased concoction?

Re: Black Tulip: The Life and Legacy of Erich Hartmann
 

..well, there's a clue in the sub-title of Schmidt's book I'd have thought..

( and the jacket illustration on amazon indicates that the sub-title doesn't read 'Life and Legacy' as this thread would have it...)

Re: Black Tulip: The Life and Legacy of Erich Hartmann
 

You have an excellent point, but I am left wondering:

Given that there are several myths attached to Hartmann, which particular one does the author seek to address?

Re: Black Tulip: The Life and Legacy of Erich Hartmann
 

So...
...Has anyone actually checked this one out yet?

Re: Black Tulip: The Life and Legacy of Erich Hartmann
 

I have it, and have read it. As a biography of Hartmann it is a very modest effort. There is no victory list for him. There is only (as I remember) a single mention of the controversy around his claiming (and it is only a mention, not a discussion). In many ways the book is more a discussion of the nature of Nazi Germany, than a biography of Erich Hartmann.

Enjoy!

Frank.

Re: Black Tulip: The Life and Legacy of Erich Hartmann
 

Thanks very much for your reply, Frank. Sounds like this one can stay on the shelf...

Re: Black Tulip: The Life and Legacy of Erich Hartmann
 

This aberration of a book was recently published in Finnish. I just took a look at it at a local library. First I checked the reference notes section: not a single archival reference! Then the foreword. And it became clear that the book is no biography, it is a political pamphlet. One of his references is titled "How Whiteness Distorts Our Democracy, With Eddie Glaude jr.". In other words, pure wokeist propaganda.

Re: Black Tulip: The Life and Legacy of Erich Hartmann
 

As I noted earlier, the word "myth" in the subtitle made me instantly suspicious about the real motives of the author. His professional background just added to it. But, apparently, there is always a market for books that "debunk the myth" of a famous German pilot, a "Nazi" by default. I am wondering why such books aren't written about Soviet 'ace' pilots as well, "Communists" by default...