THE AVIATOR AND THE SHOWMAN

A groundbreaking aviator.

Journalist Shapiro, unsatisfied with “whitewashed” biographies of Amelia Earhart, offers an evenhanded portrait of the iconic aviator, focusing on her relationship with publishing tycoon George P. Putnam. In 1921, Earhart was living in Los Angeles when she took her first flight and felt “unexpectedly” drawn to flying; lessons led to performances in air rodeos and some local acclaim. In 1927, while teaching English in a Boston settlement house, she was also working at a fledging airfield, when she came to Putnam’s attention. A wheeler-dealer known as the publishing world’s P.T. Barnum, he was looking for a woman to sign on as a passenger for a transatlantic flight. Immediately, he felt smitten with the charming young Earhart; she was drawn to the adventure. To her surprise, the flight made her a star. “Wherever Amelia went,” Shapiro writes, “she ignited a frenzy of excitement that not only thrilled audiences but also allowed George to revel in her reflected glory.” She took tea with George Bernard Shaw, sat in a box at Wimbledon, dined with Lady Astor, and was showered with ticker tape in parades in New York and Boston. Putnam became her wily manager, tireless publicist, and, in 1931, after repeated proposals, her husband. He profited financially, to be sure, from her feats: the longest nonstop flight by a woman and the fastest crossing of the Atlantic; the first woman to fly solo nonstop from coast to coast, setting a woman’s speed record; the first person to fly solo across the Pacific. In 1937, she embarked on her most challenging—and final—flight: around the world. Capturing the tension and peril of early flying, Shapiro conveys, as well, Earhart’s unflagging ambition and courage.

A sympathetic, well-researched biography.