All Blood Runs Red: The Legendary Life of Eugene Bullard-Boxer, Pilot, Soldier, Spy

by Tom Clavin, Phil Keith Narrated by James Shippy

Overview

The incredible story of the first African American military pilot, who went on to become a Paris nightclub impresario, a spy in the French Resistance and an American civil rights pioneer

Eugene Bullard lived one of the most fascinating lives of the twentieth century. The son of a former slave and an indigenous Creek woman, Bullard fled home at the age of eleven to escape the racial hostility of his Georgia community. When his journey led him to Europe, he garnered worldwide fame as a boxer, and later as the first African American fighter pilot in history.

After the war, Bullard returned to Paris a celebrated hero. But little did he know that the dramatic, globe-spanning arc of his life had just begun.

All Blood Runs Red is the inspiring untold story of an American hero, a thought-provoking chronicle of the twentieth century and a portrait of a man who came from nothing and by his own courage, determination, gumption, intelligence and luck forged a legendary life.

Editorial Reviews

The New York Times Book Review - Thomas E. Ricks

Bullard's absorbing story…reads like a picaresque novel…It's a whale of a tale, told clearly and quickly. I read the entire book in almost one sitting.

Publishers Weekly

★ 09/02/2019

This dazzling biography, drawing on the subject’s unpublished memoir, explores the incredible life and times of the first African-American fighter pilot: Eugene “Gene” Bullard. At 12, he ran away from Columbus, Ga., to escape the vicious racism of the early-20th-century South for France, the country revered by his formerly enslaved father. He crossed the Atlantic straight into minor fame as a boxer in Liverpool and Paris, and experienced partial freedom from the scorn and hatred of whites. In WWI, he joined the French Foreign Legion, fighting for his adopted homeland as a pilot. After a brief interwar interlude as a nightclub band drummer, manager, and owner—rubbing shoulders with the likes of Louis Armstrong, Josephine Baker, Langston Hughes, and Pablo Picasso, and spying on Germans for the French—he volunteered again with the French military when WWII broke out. After being injured as the Germans advanced into France, military and consular personnel advised him to flee the country to avoid being executed by the Nazis. He settled in New York City with his teenage daughters and became variously a longshoreman, a traveling salesman of French perfumes, and an elevator operator at Rockefeller Center. Keith vividly describes Bullard’s experiences—including his medal-worthy military exploits, the luck that allowed him to cheat death repeatedly, and the bizarre parallels between his life and the movie Casablanca. This may be a biography, but it reads like a novel. (Nov.)

From the Publisher

Phil Keith and Tom Clavin have resurrected the memory of a man who was larger than life; a man born to a former slave and a Native American mother in racially-hostile Georgia who refused to play the hand he was dealt, and lived life on his own terms. All Blood Runs Red should be required reading for anyone who has ever dreamed big. A truly inspiring and uplifting story of courage and triumph, and an opus for an unsung hero.”—Nelson DeMille


“Eugene Bullard lived enough for a dozen interesting men, and All Blood Runs Red tells his story in a captivating way that keeps the pages turning for the next chapter. Keith and Clavin bring us a well-crafted book about a truly admirable American.”—Gregory A. Freeman, author of The Forgotten 500: The Untold Story of the Men Who Risked All for the Greatest Rescue Mission of World War II


“An exultant trumpet song to the human spirit. My God, how I admire this man.”—Robert Coram, author of Boyd: The Fighter Pilot Who Changed the Art of War


“An incredible, meticulously researched, star-studded tale of the grandson of a slave, who broke nearly every barrier he encountered, becoming history’s first African American fighter pilot, a storied boxer, a member of Parisian high society in the Jazz Age, a character in a Hemingway novel, a World War II spy, and a friend to the likes of F. Scott Fitzgerald, Cole Porter, Josephine Baker, and Louis Armstrong. All Blood Runs Red is a true 'moveable feast' that will forever change the way you see 20th century history.”—Kristin Harmel, international bestselling author of The Winemaker’s Wife and The Room on Rue Amélie


“Keith and Clavin constantly keep readers guessing about Bullard's next move. Terrific detective work revealing a man determined to forge his own destiny when his country said he couldn't.”—Kirkus Reviews


"A dazzling biography."—Publishers Weekly STARRED review


"Compelling."—Library Journal


“An excellent and significant portrait of a long forgotten, now rightfully reclaimed hero.”—Booklist STARRED review


“Phil Keith and Tom Clavin recount Bullard’s stunning story in this fast-paced, deeply reported biography.”—Atlanta Journal Constitution


“Recommended for readers who enjoy compelling biography and fast-paced narrative.”—Library Journal

“A thrilling read.”—San Francisco Chronicle


“Breathtaking… Even a slice of Bullard’s life would make for a compelling biography. Keith and Clavin cover it all, bringing a singular American figure out of obscurity.”—Tampa Bay Times

“An engaging portrait of a true free spirit.”—Christian Science Monitor


“A heroic story, an uplifting portrait of a unique individual, and an engaging account of a glamorous age framed by the two world wars.”—East Hampton Star


“Well-researched…Keith and Clavin succeed in encapsulating the life of one of the 20th century’s unheralded greats.”—HistoryNet

Kirkus Reviews

2019-08-18
The picaresque adventures of a former slave's son who achieved glory in both world wars and was nearly forgotten by his own country.

Two intrepid authors and researchers—military historian and former Navy aviator Keith (America and the Great War: A 100th Anniversary Commemorative of America in World War I, 2019, etc.), a Purple Heart recipient, and Clavin (Wild Bill: The True Story of the American Frontier's First Gunfighter, 2019, etc.)—team up in this dogged effort to excavate the facts of the amazing life of Eugene Bullard (1895-1961). In 1959, France recognized the achievements of the American pilot and soldier with its highest honor, the Legion of Honor, which subsequently gained Bullard, then an elevator operator at Rockefeller Center, his 15 minutes of fame on The Today Show. However, there was much that was never revealed in Bullard's remarkable trajectory from indigent runaway to Jazz Age impresario and many details he fudged or perhaps forgot in an era of turbulent race relations when he later wrote his autobiography. Two traumatic events in his childhood propelled him to strike out on his own at age 11: the death of his Creek Indian mother when he was 6 and a white mob's threatening to lynch his Haitian-born laborer father after a violent altercation with his foreman. Bullard managed never to look back, and the "French connection" from his roots propelled him to "a land where racial prejudice did not exist"—or so he imagined. The authors diligently pursue his story: learning to box in Scotland and then arriving in France just as World War I broke out; getting wounded at Verdun before embarking on a legendary, if short-lived position as a fighter pilot, probably the first black American to do so; and forging a career as a nightclub and athletic club owner in Paris before his next soldierly stint in World War II. Keith and Clavin constantly keep readers guessing about Bullard's next move.

Terrific detective work revealing a man determined to forge his own destiny when his country said he couldn't.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940172950469
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	11/05/2019
Edition description:	Unabridged

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