Tom Tibbets

Writer whose published works contribute to contemporary literature and nonfiction. The Tibbets name in American history is most prominently associated with Paul Tibbets (1915–2007), the U.S. Army Air Forces pilot who commanded the B-29 Superfortress Enola Gay and dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945. Tibbets's memoir Return of the Enola Gay (1998) and his extensive interview testimony are key primary sources for the history of the atomic age.

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PeriodContemporary

Nationality

1. Biography

A short life of the author

Tom Tibbets is a writer whose published works appear in contemporary literature and nonfiction.

The Tibbets name in American history is indelibly associated with Brigadier General Paul W. Tibbets Jr. (1915–2007), who piloted the B-29 Superfortress Enola Gay on the mission that dropped the “Little Boy” atomic bomb on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945. Tibbets’s memoir, Return of the Enola Gay (1998), and his numerous oral history interviews provide first-person testimony about the most consequential military mission of the twentieth century.

Collecting Tibbets

For collectors interested in the Tibbets name, Paul Tibbets’s Return of the Enola Gay (1998, Enola Gay Remembered) signed copies are sought by collectors of World War II and atomic age history.

Memorabilia and signed material associated with the Hiroshima mission command extraordinary prices at auction. Tibbets’s refusal to apologise for the mission remained a subject of public debate throughout his long life.