This event has been postponed. Please check back for the new event date.
Join us for an evening with Earl Swift, who will read from and discuss his new book, Across the Airless Wilds: The Lunar Rover and the Triumph of the Final Moon Landings. This in-person event will be free and open to the public. We recommend arriving early for the best seating.
About the Book: Over the past half-century, the latter missions to land Americans on the moon have dimmed in the shadow cast by Apollo 11, and the “one small step” of its commander, Neil Armstrong. But remembered or not, it was the astronauts of the last three moon landings—Apollos 15, 16, and 17—who fully realized the space program’s potential for exploration, adventure, and scientific discovery. They did so for one very American reason: they drove.
Across the Airless Wilds tracks the long history and breakneck development of the Apollo lunar rover, a “spacecraft on wheels” that was, to a large extent, a 1969 General Motors product—then takes the reader on its passengers’ wild rides across fifty-six miles of the most forbidding terrain imaginable, in a tale The Wall Street Journal calls “a joy to read from beginning to end.”
About the Author: Longtime journalist Earl Swift is the author of eight books, including the New York Times bestseller Chesapeake Requiem: A Year with the Watermen of Vanishing Tangier Island. A former reporter for Norfolk’s Virginian-Pilot, he contributes to Outside and other publications, and has been a fellow of Virginia Humanities at the University of Virginia since 2012. He lives on Afton Mountain west of Charlottesville.
To order Across the Airless Wilds, please see below for the New Dominion Bookshop book order form or call the shop at 434-295-2552.
"Swift relays the awe-inspiring story of Apollo 17 and the lunar vehicle in a way that makes it all feel brand new. From the sheer human ingenuity of the moon missions to the deeply human figures inside the space suits, this book is a brilliantly observed homage to the human spirit."
—Newsweek
New Dominion Bookshop Book Order Form
Shop local and support your community bookstore! Order books from New Dominion Bookshop by filling out the contact form below. Please make sure that you list the book title(s) that you would like to order. We will give you a call when your order is ready. There is no need to pre-pay. We will collect your payment when you pick up your order or when your order is shipped.
Earl Swift photo credit: Saylor Denney