The Lost Dirigible

by Ralph Henry Barbour

"A series of exciting adventures of a young radio operator on a dirigible balloon."

276 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1920

About the author

Ralph Henry Barbour (1870 - 1944) was an American novelist who wrote popular works of sports fiction for boys, creating highly readable and idealistic stories that taught about the importance of sports, teamwork, and school spirit. Over his career, Barbour produced more than 100 novels as well as a number of short stories.

He was the winner, along with George Randolph Osborne, of Life Magazine’s Shortest Story Contest, which culminated with a publication of these works in 1916.

Reviews

[Angie Thompson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Typical boys' adventure book in some ways, but with a bit more realism than some of them--particularly in the fact that the two young radio operators weren't actually intended to fly the balloon, fight off enemy planes, etc., etc. all on their own. ;) I liked the inclusion of older and more experienced perspectives through the majority of the story, and the fact that the two young fellows we were following didn't automatically become experts in every aspect of things, just did their best with what they had to do. There wasn't a whole lot of character development, but the situation was interesting, and as it's a period of history I'm not terribly familiar with, I got very curious about how much of the underlying conflict was actually historical and how much was made up for the story.

3.5 stars