Hero Driver

by Alfred Coppel

Paperback

First published January 1, 1954

About the author

Alfredo Jose de Arana-Marini Coppel was an American author. He served as a fighter pilot in the United States Army Air Forces during World War II. After his discharge, he started his career as a writer. He became one of the most prolific pulp authors of the 1950s and 1960s, adopting the pseudonyms Robert Cham Gilman and A.C. Marin and writing for a variety of pulp magazines and later "slick" publishers. Though writing in a variety of genres, including action thrillers, he is known for his science fiction stories which comprise both short stories and novels.

Reviews

[Lee · Rating 5 out of 5]

Alfred Coppel was actually pretty well-known as one of the first pulp fiction action and Sci-Fi writers from the fifties. Coppel died a few years back at the age of 83. I saw a photograph taken of James Dean by photographer Frank Worth in 1955. In the foreground of the photo on James Dean's desk was the hard-bound book, Hero Driver. James Dean had just completed his second race at Bakersfield, CA in his 356 Porsche Speedster. Author Alfred Coppel was also a California Sports Car Club competitor. Perhaps Coppel even gave James Dean an autographed copy of Hero Driver, as well! I purchased a used copy of Hero Driver on Amazon.com and thoroughly enjoyed the story of what early sports car racing was about in the 1950's. More importantly, I liked the fact that James Dean had also read it -- before he died while driving to a race in Salinas, CA in his new Porsche Spyder. Alfred Coppel's Hero Driver also is mentioned along with Frank Worth's photograph of the young actor/racer in James Dean At Speed, which was published in 2005 to commemorate James Dean's 50th Anniversary (death) on 9-30-55. James Dean At Speed, is a nifty photo-narrative which is also available on Amazon.com. Both books are not only 'Goodreads'...but the real deal as well...Vroom, Vroooom!