| Bibliography
You can find stories of & information about W.R. “Wop” May in the following publications:
A History of Alberta
- James G. MacGregor - 1972 - Hurtig Publishers - ISBN 0-88830-063-8
Air Aces of the 1914-1918 War
- Bruce Robertson - 1959 - Harleyford Publications
Airborne from Edmonton
- Eugenie Myles - 1959 - Ryerson Press
And I Shall Fly
- Z. Lewis Leigh -1985 - CANAV Books - ISBN 0-9690703-6-5
Archibald The Arctic
- Archibald Lang Fleming - 1956 - Appleton-Century-Crofts
Aviation in Canada
- Larry Milberry - 1979 - McGraw Hill Ryerson - ISBN 0-07-082778-8
Behind The Glory
- Ted Barris - 1992 - Macmillan Canada - ISBN 0-7715-9176-4
Bush Pilots: Canada’s Wilderness Daredevils
- Peter Boer
Second Printing - ISBN 1-894864-12-3 (NOTE: the author has corrected the errors in the
original 2004 printing
Canada’s Aviation Pioneers
- Alice Gibson Sutherland - 1978 - McGraw-Hill Ryerson - ISBN 0-07-082704-4
Canada’s Flying Heritage
- Frank H. Ellis - 1954 - University of Toronto Press
125 Years of Canadian Aeronautics
- G.A. Fuller & J.A. Griffin - 1983 - Canadian Aviation Historical Society - ISBN 0-920610-02-1
Coppermine - The Far North of George M. Douglas
- Enid Mallory - 1989 - Broadview Press - ISBN 0-921149-39-5
Conquer the Sky - Flying Ace Wop May
- Sheila Reid - 2008 - Vanwell Publishing - ISBN978-1-55125-128-8
| GOOD NEWS - |
This book is written for Junior High School by the author of “Wings of a Hero” students but recently it has been found to be an excellent book for people with reading problems including one man who had not read a book since having a stroke over 5 years ago. |
Double Cross
- Shirley Render - 1999 - Douglas & McIntyre - ISBN 1-55054-772-4
Edmonton In Our Own Words
- Lynda Goyette & Carolina Jakeway Roemmich - 2004 - The University of Alberta Press - ISBN 0-88864-428-0
Edmontonians of the Century
- 204 - Corporate Identity Consulting Inc. - ISBN 0-919035-27-2
Gateway City
- Alex Mair - 2000 - Fifth House - ISBN 1-894004-60-4
Gateway to the North
- Tony Cashman - 2002 - Duval House Publishing - ISBN ISBN 1-55520-261-5
Goggles Helmets & Airmail Stamps
- Georgette Vachon - 1974 - Clarke, Irwin & Company - ISBN 0-7720-0619-9
Great Bear
- Frederick B. Watt - 1980 - Outcrop - ISBN 0-919315-00-3
Maverick in the Sky - The Aerial Adventures of WW1 Flying Ace Freddie McCall
- Shirlee Smith Matheson - 2007 - Frontenac House - ISBN 978-1-897181-16-4
| Book Review by Denny May - |
Shirlee Smith Matheson works at the Aero Space Museum in Calgary and is the author of many Canadian aviation books including volumes 1, 2 & 3 of Flying the Frontiers, Lost: True Stories of Canadian Aviation Tragedies, and a A Western Welcome to the World - The History of Calgary International Airport.
Shirlee is a charter member of Canadian Women in Aviation Internatinal and in 1999 was awarded The 99's Canadian Award in Aviation. Check out her website http://www.ssmatheson.ca for further information. Maverick in the Sky is, as they say, a ripping good story of a young man who loved to fly - who won fame in W.W.1 as Canada’s 5 top scoring ace and came home to blaze the sky trails of Southern Alberta.
Many of Freddy McCall’s adventures as a barnstormer are legend - like his landing on the Merry-Go-Round at the Calgary Stampede. Maverick in the Sky is one of those books you can’t put down and I read it in one sitting. I was thrilled to “sit alongside” Freddy in his adventures - the stories just tumble out of the book - they will amaze & thrill you.
Shirlee has successfully separated fact from fiction and was lucky enough to spend time with Freddy’s son Fred who recently put the Curtiss “Canuck” he built into the Glenbow Museum in Calgary. When reading the book, I even learned things about my Dad, “Wop” May, I never knew before. This book is a “must have” for the aviation enthusiast - substantial facts are revealed and thanks to Shirlee Smith Matheson, more of aviation history is preserved. |
More Stories About Wop May (read more)
- Denny May - 2011 - Self-published - ISBN 978-0-9876932-0-4
Pilots - Canadian Stories from the Cockpit
- John Melady - 1989 - McLelland & Stewart - ISBN 0-7710-5863-2
Pilots of the Purple Twilight
- Philip H. Godsell - 1955 - Ryerson Press; (reprinted 2002) - Fifth House ISBN 1-894004-98-1
| Book Review by Denny May - |
This book is the only biography written about "Wop" May that actually had his input. Author Phil Godsell was working on the book, and consulting my Dad in 1952. He was about half finished when my Dad died suddenly of a heart attack. Phil continued to work with my Mother & I to complete the book then submitted it to many publishers - several turned it down. He finally added one more chapter, changed the title, and it was accepted as a book about Bush Pilots. Recently it was suggested that the book has lots of "purple prose" – probably true! Working with Phil Godsell & his wife Jean (who wrote the book "I Was No Lady" and who typed & proof-read the book) was a challenge – they were an interesting couple and I know they took liberties.
Jean Godsell suggested the name from the Tennyson poem Locksley Hall:
For I dipp’d into the future, far as human eye could see,
Saw the Vision of the world, and all the wonder that would be;
Saw the heavens fill with commerce, argosies of magic sails,
Pilots of the purple twilight, dropping down with costly bales…
Phil was a good storyteller, and he told his story well in other books about the North – he served with the H.B.C. for many years. I used to think he was magic – whatever happened with any of the bush pilots, anywhere in the North... Phil Godsell seemed to have been there – his way of telling the story is interesting. I know that in writing the book he interviewed many of the bush pilots. In the personalized inscription in my copy of the original Ryerson Press book Phil says "To Denny May with many thanks for your help in furnishing material for this opus. My sincere wish is that it will perpetuate the memory of your father – one of the finest men to ever fly the Northern skies" |
Pioneering in Canadian Air Transport
- Ken M. Molson - 1974 - D.W. Friesen & Sons - ISBN 0-919212-39-5
Sky Riders
- Patricia A. Myers - 1995 - Fifth House - ISBN 1-895618-57-6
Sopwith - The Man and his Aircraft
- Bruce Robertson - 1970 - Air Review Ltd. - ISBN 0-900-435-15-1
The Max Ward Story
- Max Ward - 1991 - McLelland & Stewart - ISBN 0-7710-8302-5
They Led The Way
- Mary Oswald - 1999 - Canada’s Aviation Hall of Fame - ISBN 0-9684843-0-1
The Canadians
- Patrick Watson- 2000 - McArthur & Company - ISBN 1-55278-170-4
The Death of Albert Johnson
- Frank W. Anderson - 1968 - Frontiers Unlimited
The Red Baron’s Last Flight
- Norman Franks & Allan Bennett - 1995 - Vanwell Publishing ISBN 1-55068-046-3
Those Magnificent Flying Machines
- Don Robertson - 1984 - Blandford Press - ISBN 0-7137-1402-6
Uncharted Skies
- Walter Henry - Reidmore - ISBN 0-919091-43-1
Under the Guns of the Red Baron
- Norman Franks & others - 2000 - Grub Street - ISBN 1-84067-1459
von Richthofen and the “Flying Circus”
- Bruce Robertson - 1958 - Harleyford Publications
Wings of a Hero
- Sheila Reid - 1997 - Vanwell Publishing - (Reprinted 2005) ISBN 1-55125-034-9
Wings over Calgary
- Bruce W. Gowans - 1990 - Historical Society of Alberta
Wop May
- Iris Allan - 1966 - Clark Irwin & Company
Yellowknife
- Ray Price - 1967 - Peter Martin & Associates - ISBN 0-88778-015-6
NOTE: The detail in some books is limited, and information is incorrect or the authors unfortunately have been misled by the media, and/or have chosen to re-write history to make it grander than it was. I have chosen to not include some books where the information badly distorts history. -DM
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