Tuesday, December 11, 2012

Amelia Earhart's Hard Bargain

She'll always be an true American darling and her country's First Lady of the Air.   She may have been a mediocre pilot but she was as bold and determined an aviatrix as there's ever been.   Now it turns out she was also something of a wild child.  Here is a letter setting out her prenuptial terms to publisher and eventual husband, George Palmer Putnam.


7 comments:

  1. Hey, as a huge Amelia fan, I hope no one is portraying this as new information? It's been known and published for many decades. I keep an excerpt of this letter on wall beside my computer monitor. It's a touchstone for me.

    She was not mediocre, by any means. She was way more skilled and talented than Lindbergh, among others.

    To learn more about Earhart, I highly recommend the book "Still Missing," by Susan Ware.

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  2. I'm with you on everything, Laura, except for her flying skills. I've read quite a bit suggesting she wasn't a particularly good pilot and had a poor grasp of risk management. Brave, absolutely, and fiercely determined. I know from personal experience those are two qualities that can lead to radically different outcomes at any given time.

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  3. Amelia, it was just a false alarm.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N6d2RG2Rl64

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  4. Well, I've read a lot that says otherwise. :) Many modern aviators believe she was one of the most talented and highly skilled of all time.

    I also love the link with Joni. Too of my great idols.

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  5. Let's be frank here...or politically not correct as is want for some ...why is it people have to find a negative about people who were or are intelligent, adventurous and brave? Even if she wasn't a particularly good pilot, she showed other women what they can achieve regarding flying and other skills.

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  6. I guess what bothers me about Earhart is the role her publisher husband played in promoting her and how she eclipsed and consigned into obscurity a number of really amazing American female aviators. There's no arguing that Earhart was brave but she was also a showboat.

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  7. was brave but she was also a showboat. As are many arrogant people who have money enough.

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