Amelia Earhart
A Biography
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- $22.99
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- $22.99
Publisher Description
She died mysteriously before she was forty. Yet in the last decade of her life Amelia Earhart soared from obscurity to fame as the best-known female aviator in the world. She set record after record—among them, the first trans-Atlantic solo flight by a woman, a flight that launched Earhart on a double career as a fighter for women's rights and a tireless crusader for commercial air travel. Doris L. Rich's exhaustively researched biography downplays the “What Happened to Amelia Earhart?” myth by disclosing who Amelia Earhart really was: a woman of three centuries, born in the nineteenth, pioneering in the twentieth, and advocating ideals and dreams relevant to the twenty-first.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
With a combination of daring and adroit public relations, Amelia Earhart reigned as ``Queen of the Air'' during the period between her first transatlantic flight in 1928 and her untimely disappearance over the Pacific nine years later. This fast-paced, richly detailed biography reveals an aloof, independent woman who grimly endured the public clamor and cross-country lecture circuit in order to fund her desire to fly. In 1931 she married her publicist, George P. Putnam, whose brash schemes to capitalize on her aviation feats became increasingly foolhardy, leading up to her final, fatal effort to fly around the world. The author shows Earhart was also a tireless champion of women's rights, pacifism and commercial aviation, which was still in its infancy. While some questioned her aptitude as a pilot, few denied the promotional appeal of this attractive ``Lady Lindy.'' Rich, whose varied career has included journalism, photography and teaching, vividly reminds us how primitive and dangerous early flight was. Illustrations not seen by PW.
