Words from the achiever
"You probably expect, when you interview these intellectuals, they are going to tell you "When I was eight I read War and Peace, and when I was ten I read Kant's Critique of Pure Reason on the subway, holding the strap in one hand, the book in the other." No! Probably the first book that influenced me was The Little Engine That Could. or something like that. After that it was probably Joe DiMaggio's Lucky to be a Yankee, which was one of those cardboard sports books, but inspirational in its own way. Roy Chapman Andrews had a book called All About Dinosaurs, which you could scarcely call an inspiration, although it was informative. When I got older, George Simpson's Meaning of Evolution inspired me. I was probably 14 or 15 by the time I read it."
About the book
A favorite with generations of American children. Adapted from an earlier book, The Pony Engine by Mabel C. Bragg.