Your wings

New York: Funk & Wagnalls Company, 1940. ix, 281pp. With a single photographic leaf, illustrated throughout. Original publisher's blue cloth, lettered in navy, with a decorative plane motif to upper board. A little bumped, spine worn and sunned. Internally bright and clean, with the presentation inscription to the FFEP: 'To Laurence Olivier I wish Happy Greetings in flying and on the ground as well. A. Jordanoff ___ .11.1940'. Assen 'Jerry' Jordanoff (1896-1967) was a Bulgarian inventor, engineer, and aviator. He built his first workable glider at the age of 16, and later designed planes for the Bulgarian government in WWI. Upon being drafted, he was assigned to the air force where he took part in 84 flying missions and was subsequently awarded several medals. He emigrated to America, and while still in his twenties collaborated with Thomas Edison on proto-radar and helicopter designs. A prolific career followed, with vital contributions to aviation during WWII, including his extensive manuals and articles on the maintenance and operation of nearly all major aircraft. Jordanoff also invented, among other things, the air-bag. This was his second book. Olivier had been taking flying lessons as early as 1936. In 1939 he was in New York, starring alongside Katherine Cornell in No Time for Comedy at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre. From the library of Laurence Olivier, to whom many books were gifted over the length of his illustrious, industrious, and enduring career as one of the most important figures of stage and screen in the 20th century. . Revised edition. Quarto.