Light This Candle: The Life and Times of Alan Shepard by Neal Thompson

Neal Thompson’s Light This Candle: The Life and Times of Alan Shepard is a biography of the US Navy fighter pilot who became the first American in space and later commanded the third Moon landing mission, Apollo 14. The book was published in 2004, six years after Shepard’s death, and so it covers the entire span of his life. A reporter by trade, Thompson tells the story in a thorough, colorful fashion. He doesn’t leave out the unsavory parts of Shepard’s personality and life, giving the book a more objective feel than many of the autobiographical books about Project Apollo.

A foreword by flight director Chris Kraft discusses some of the political background behind the earliest days of spaceflight, explains why the first Mercury mission was so important, and argues that Shepard was the right man for the job. Kraft describes Shepard as an “American hero.” His praise here echoes the assessment he gives in his excellent book Flight.

Thompson’s journalism background is apparent; his research is excellent. He relies on dozens of personal interviews, scours Shepard’s school and military records for the opinions of his instructors, and seems to have read most of the other books about Shepard and the early space program. The journalistic touch is evident not just in Thompson’s research, but also in his style. (In this respect it reminded me of reporter Billy Watkins’s Apollo Moon Missions: The Unsung Heroes.)

The reporter’s touch makes the book a relatively quick, easy read. It doesn’t get bogged down in technical details about the science and engineering of spaceflight. Rather, it focuses on the human side of the program, and especially on Shepard’s personality. Thompson doesn’t shy away from editorializing, using stories and incidents from throughout his subject’s life to draw conclusions about Shepard’s personal ambition, his complex relationships with other astronauts, and the largely hidden aspects of his marriage.

The author’s choice to focus on personality rather than science is understandable, but it may disappoint readers who are more interested in the technical aspects of the program. For example, Thompson frequently mentions Shepard’s piloting skill, but he doesn’t give a clear description of what this means. What is it that makes a good pilot good? What specifically set Shepard apart from others? We learn that his earliest attempts at military flying were subpar, and that he improved dramatically after applying himself to the task at hand, but we don’t get a clear picture of how Shepard did it.

One benefit of Thompson’s interest in personality is his discussion of colorful side characters that appear and reappear throughout the narrative. Decades after Shepard narrowly misses a chance to meet Charles Lindbergh during World War II, the pair watch the Apollo 11 launch together. Henri Landwirth, the proprietor of a hotel near Cape Canaveral, is depicted as a trusted friend to the astronauts, helping to ensure their privacy. Later in life, after Shepard retires from NASA, he and Landwirth work together on charitable ventures. Thompson’s vivid details and anecdotes help make these and other stories exciting and genuinely interesting to read.

Unfortunately for Apollo enthusiasts, there is relatively little here about the Apollo 14 mission. Fewer than 30 of the book’s 470+ pages deal with the flight. We get the typical highlights of the mission, including the issues during transposition and docking and the computer problems during the lunar descent, but not more than that. Again, the author doesn’t seem terribly interested in the technical details behind the mission. Discussing the flight controllers’ efforts to handle the computer problems during the descent, he concludes, “The astronaut’s life goal now rested in the hands of a computer geek.”

Much of the Apollo 14 material deals with more colorful aspects of the flight, such as going to the bathroom in space, Shepard teeing off on the lunar surface, and Edgar Mitchell’s bizarre psychic experiments. In fairness, some technical details are occasionally discussed, and these descriptions came across as essentially accurate. All in all, Thompson’s lack of interest in the technical aspects of Apollo isn’t necessarily a detriment to the book, but it may disappoint readers looking for that kind of detail.

Thompson also provides copious historical context about the events and places in Shepard’s life. Some of this background is certainly helpful, but there’s so much here that it can make the narrative feel bloated at times. It is especially noticeable in the early parts of the story, where there is relatively little specific information available about Shepard’s life. Thompson resorts to filling pages with information about life on a ship like the one on which Shepard served during World War II, or about a typical cadet’s experience at the US Naval Academy. Providing this kind of information is better than simply omitting those parts of Shepard’s life, but I found that these generalities tended to blur with the authentic details, making it difficult to distinguish between what we know Shepard experienced and what we might assume Shepard experienced.

Much of the information about Shepard’s time in the Mercury program will seem familiar to those who have read or watched The Right Stuff, and there is not a great deal of fresh insight about Apollo. The most interesting anecdote concerned the anxiety Shepard felt as a result of the Lunar Module’s fairly steep landing angle of 8 degrees. Worried about accidentally knocking the craft over with an errant move, he apparently had difficulty sleeping on the lunar surface.

Ultimately, I enjoyed Light This Candle and highly recommend it. The information presented about Shepard’s early life is not readily found elsewhere. (Shepard’s own book, Moon Shot, co-authored with Deke Slayton and a few reporters, dedicates all of a single paragraph to his childhood.) Likewise, the discussion of Shepard’s post-NASA activities—ranging from a successful Coors distributorship to a disastrous housing development investment—was interesting and unexpected, and it fleshed out Shepard’s personality. For those who enjoy astronaut biographies, there’s no better choice for learning about America’s first man in space.