author
Alfred W. (Alfred William) Lawson
1869–1954
A larger-than-life figure who moved from professional baseball to early aviation and finally to his own eccentric philosophy, he lived several remarkable careers in one lifetime. His books are often remembered for the bold, homemade certainty with which they tried to explain everything from flight to human society.
1 Audiobook
Born Again
by Alfred W. (Alfred William) Lawson
About the author
Born in London on March 24, 1869, Alfred W. Lawson grew up in North America and first made his name in baseball. He played professionally, managed teams, and promoted leagues before turning to aviation, where he became an energetic early advocate for commercial flight and published aviation journals.
Lawson is also associated with ambitious aircraft projects and with popularizing the word "aircraft" in the early 20th century. Later in life he became the founder of "Lawsonomy," a utopian belief system that mixed economics, health ideas, and sweeping theories about how the world worked.
That unusual mix of athlete, aviation booster, inventor, publisher, and movement founder makes him a strikingly singular author. He died in 1954, but his writing still stands out as the work of someone determined to build not just machines or businesses, but an entire worldview.