Whistled Like a Bird

PUBLISHERS WEEKLY 30 JUN 1997

Few of us have a grandmother like Dorothy ("Dofry") Putnam (1888-1982). Born into the Binney family, whose fortune was based in those ubiquitous Smith and Binney Crayola crayons, she married George Putnam, a scion of the publishing house. She also became friendly with famed aviator Amelia Earhart. The fairy tale took on a grimmer tone when Dofry fell in love with her sons' young tutor, the Binney-Putnam marriage broke up and her former husband married Amelia. Dofry married twice more, first an alcoholic who abused her, then a coffee planter, who quickly left her a widow. During all these years, 1907-1961, she faithfully kept her diaries, which she bequeathed to her granddaughter, Sally Putnam Chapman. The result is this book written with freelancer Mansfield--a cross between the social portrait of the rich and famous in the early part of this century and an encounter with the joys and sorrows of a woman who appeared to have everything. Previously unpublished notes and cables between Amelia Earhart and George Putnam are included, as well as extensive quotations from Dofry's diaries. Neither grandmother nor granddaughter is a prose stylist, and Chapman's habit grates of presuming to know her grandmother's thoughts at all the crises in her life. But as the raw material of a memorable slice of history and a glimpse of Earhart as wife and stepmother, this is both titillating and absorbing. Photos not seen by PW.