Don Vorderman Archives - Richard M. Langworth

Don Vorderman 1930-2018: The Best Editor I Ever Had

19 November 2019 Comments 3 Comments

AboutMy remembrance of Don Vorderman was published in shorter form in The Automobile, December 2019.

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“History with its flickering lamp stumbles along the trail of the past, trying to reconstruct its scenes, to revive its echoes, and kindle with pale gleams the passion of former days.” —Winston S. Churchill, 12 November 1940

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Writers rarely talk about writing among each other. It’s a very personal thing, and it’s almost always hard to do well, none of which is too conducive to cheery cocktail chitchat. Most of us would rather visit a dentist than face up to the task of beginning the next piece, though it’s not quite so awful once the commitment is made and the thing is under way.…

Kaiser Capers: Memories of Howard A. “Dutch” Darrin, Part 3

3 June 2017 Comments 2 Comments

Kaiser-Frazer, the postwar wonder company, presented Dutch with many opportunities—and as many frustrations. Concluded from Part 2…

Part 3

Excerpt: For the complete article and illustrations, refer to The Automobile, May 2017.

Postwar Kaiser and Frazer

Dutch had an earthy vocabulary, and his methods of work were forthright with a touch of recklessness. He needed these qualities when, after the war, he presented himself to his old friend Joe Frazer, father of the wartime Jeep, to offer designs for the all-new cars Frazer was planning, in partnership with Henry J. Kaiser. His basic lines were accepted, but modified on the way to production.…

“Correrai Ancor Piu Veloce…” Beverly Rae Kimes 1941-2008

3 March 2009 Comments 0 Comments

None who read it will ever forget "Man on Fire!": Beverly Kimes’s biography of Tazio Nuvolari. It was one of those signal experiences when you remember where you were. I read it in galleys on the "Broadway Limited" en route to Chicago: started in Newark and put it down somewhere west of Harrisburg. She wound up with the legend on the great racing driver's tombstone: Correrai ancor piu veloce per le vie del cielo. (You will travel faster still upon the highways of heaven.) "Ah Tazio," she ended: "Godspeed." And that's all that really matters in the end: thoughts of old and good times, which eventually blot out the last sad ones. Ah Bev...Godspeed.