CORRIGAN, Douglas. That’s My Story (Eamonn de Valera’s copy)

Illustrated. New York: E. P. Dutton & Co., 1938. First edition. Octavo. pp. 221. Original blue cloth, lettered in maroon. Inscribed by the author to Éamon de Valera on the front flyleaf in green ink: “To Eamon de Valera / with best wishes / Douglas Corrigan / Dec. 16th 1938.” Mild wear to extremities. A highly desirable association copy linking one of the twentieth century’s most celebrated aviators with the leading statesman of modern Ireland.

The autobiography of Douglas Corrigan, forever immortalised in popular culture as “Wrong Way Corrigan,” following his famous transatlantic flight of July 1938. Having filed flight plans for California, Corrigan instead landed in Ireland after crossing the Atlantic solo from New York, claiming navigational error. The feat captured worldwide attention during the golden age of aviation and transformed Corrigan into an international celebrity. Richly illustrated, the work recounts his early life, mechanical training, aviation career, and the events surrounding the controversial flight which made him famous.

The present copy possesses exceptional Irish association interest through its contemporary presentation to Éamon de Valera only months after Corrigan’s arrival in Ireland caused enormous public excitement. Corrigan was greeted enthusiastically upon landing at Baldonnel Aerodrome and became a symbolic figure of Irish-American daring and independence during a period when aviation achievements carried immense cultural prestige. Inscribed copies connected to de Valera are of notable rarity and offer an evocative intersection of Irish political history and early aviation history.

Douglas Corrigan’s 1938 flight from New York to Ireland became one of the most famous aviation episodes of the interwar period. Officially claiming that navigational errors and instrument difficulties caused him to fly east rather than west, Corrigan was quickly nicknamed “Wrong Way Corrigan” by the international press. Whether accidental or deliberate, the feat made him a folk hero on both sides of the Atlantic. His arrival in Ireland generated enormous media attention and widespread public enthusiasm, particularly among Irish-American communities.

[L4 4C]