[The Other Pilot]

Thirty years ago I went to my first writer's conference, and Michael Shaara, author of Killer Angels, the historical novel of the battle of Gettysburg was there.

It was a small group sitting out under a tree, and he was a quiet, shy person. He told of standing on Cemetery Ridge at Gettysburg and seeing a vision of Pickett's charge. He was there on a family vacation and had only written short stories and unsuccessful literary fiction. He was moved to research and later write the story in way that has made it come alive for two generations of readers. He won the Pulitzer Prize.

I have the first edition copy he signed that day.

Ed Baldwin