“With Your Wings,” an inspirational story about a black pilot that Steinbeck wrote for Welles’ radio show disappeared soon after it was aired. There are no records of “With Your Wings” appearing in book or magazine form. Even some Steinbeck experts know little about it.
But 70 years after Welles’ introduction in the midst of World War II, “With Your Wings” is getting a second release. Andrew F. Gulli, managing editor of the Birmingham, Michigan-based quarterly The Strand Magazine, came upon the transcript recently while looking through archives at the University of Texas at Austin. He features it in The Strand’s holiday issue, which comes out on Nov. 7, 2014.
In introducing “With Your Wings” to listeners, Welles noted it was written by “one of the first talents of American literature” especially for the broadcast. The July 19, 1944 episode of Orson Welles Almanac is embedded below. “With Your Wings” begins at the 23:35 mark.
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