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The Sound of Wings: The Life of Amelia Earhart
The Sound of Wings The Life of Amelia Earhart Author:Mary S. Lovell When Ameila Earhart disappeared in 1937 during her attempt to fly around the world, she was already known as America's most famous female aviator. Her sense of daring and determination, rare for women of her time, brought her fame from the day she became the first woman to cross the Atlantic in an airplane. — Previous biographies have concent... more »rated on trying to explain Earhart's disappearance. In this definitive biography, Mary Lovell takes a different approach and delivers a brilliantly researched report on Earhart's life.
The Sound of Wings describes Earhart's childhood in Kansas at the turn of the century; her close relationship with her alcoholic father; her early fascination with airplanes; the impact of Lindbergh's 1927 transatlantic flight on her life; her first meeting with G.P. Putnam, Lindbergh's publisher and public relation's agent; and the peculiar business / matrimonial relationship that Earhart and Putnam formed between 1927 and her disappearance ten years later.
Lovell adds to the drama and the mystery of Earhart's story by examining Putnam's role in her rise to fame: his literary and social connections, his huge appetite (and genius) for publicity, and the couple's overwhelming concern for Amelia's image that culminated in her last fateful flight. Just as Straight On Till Morning explored the milieu of British East Africa in the 1930's, The Sound of Wings vividly captures the romance and reckless daring of the fifteen- to twenty-year period that was "The Golden Age of Flight."
This biography is based on original documents, letters, and logbooks of Earhart and her contemporaries, along with press reports, interviews with Earhart and Putnam's families, and recently declassified U.S. Navy records. Also included are black and white historic photos of Earhard's life. Spanning the years from Earhart's birth to Putnam's death in 1950, this absorbing biography presents the life of an uncommonly courageous woman, and of the brilliant man who helped her dreams take wing.« less