The Aviator and the Showman: Amelia Earhart, George Putnam, and the Marriage that Made an American Icon

by Laurie Gwen Shapiro

A New Yorker Best Book of 2025 • An NPR Book We Love 2025 • A History Best Book of 2025 • A Smithsonian Magazine Best History Book of 2025 • A New York Post Best Book of 2025 • A New York Times Editors' Choice • CBS Sunday Morning Summer Book Report Pick • New York Times “Books to Read in July” • A Town and Country Best Book of July • An Amazon Best Book of July • A Barnes & Noble Best Book of July • A LitHub Best Reviewed Nonfiction in July • A BookBub Beach Read Pick • A New Yorker Best Book We Read This Week • Southern CALIBA and MIBA Regional Bestseller

“Laurie Gwen Shapiro has dug deep into the archives, and emerged with an exhilarating tale of the adventurous life of Amelia Earhart and the remarkable relationship that helped to forge her legend. Yet Shapiro goes even further—stripping away the myths and revealing something far more profound and intricate and true. The Aviator and the Showman is one terrific book.”
—David Grann, New York Times bestselling author of The Wager and Killers of the Flower Moon

The riveting and cinematic story of a partnership that would change the world forever

In 1928, a young social worker and hobby pilot named Amelia Earhart arrived in the office of George Putnam, heir to the Putnam & Sons throne and hitmaker, on the hunt for the right woman for a secret flying mission across the Atlantic. A partnership—professional and soon otherwise—was born.

The Aviator and the Showman unveils the untold story of Amelia's decade-long marriage to George Putnam, offering an intimate exploration of their relationship and the pivotal role it played in her enduring legacy. Despite her outwardly modest and humble image, Amelia was fiercely driven and impossibly brave, a lifelong feminist and trailblazer in her personal and professional life. Putnam, the so-called “PT Barnum of publishing” was a bookselling visionary—but often pushed his authors to extreme lengths in the name of publicity, and no one bore that weight more than Amelia. Their ahead-of-its time partnership supported her grand ambitions—but also pressed her into more and more treacherous stunts to promote her books, influencing a certain recklessness up to and including her final flight.

Earhart is a captivating figure to many, but the truth about her life is often overshadowed by myth and legend. In this cinematic new account, Laurie Gwen Shapiro emphasizes Earhart’s multifaceted human side, her struggles, and her authentic aspirations, the truths behind her brave pursuits and the compromises she made to fit into societal expectations. Drawing from a trove of new sources including undiscovered audio interviews, The Aviator and the Showman is a gripping and passionate tale of adventure, colorful characters, hubris, and a complex and a vivid portrait of a marriage that shaped the trajectory of an iconic life.

Genres: Biography, Nonfiction, History, Aviation, Audiobook, Biography Memoir, Womens

509 pages, Kindle Edition

Published July 15, 2025

About the author

Laurie Gwen Shapiro is an award-winning documentary filmmaker and journalist whose writing has appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Times, New York, The Daily Beast, Lapham’s Quarterly, Slate, Aeon, The Forward, and the Los Angeles Review of Books. Her documentary film awards include an Independent Spirit Award for directing IFC’s Keep the River on Your Right, and an Emmy nomination for HBO’s Finishing Heaven. Shapiro is the 2022 winner of the Silurians Press Awards Gold Medallion for Best People Profile for “He Bombed the Nazis, Outwitted the Soviets and Modernized Christmas” for The New York Times and the 2021 winner of Best NYC Essay or Article from the GANYC Apple Awards for “The Improbable Journey of Dorothy Parker’s Ashes” for The New Yorker. The Stowaway (Simon & Schuster) was her best selling first full-length work of nonfiction, and was an Indie next selection. Her next nonfiction book will be The Aviator and the Showman, for Viking Books. July 2025.

Reviews

[Brendan (History Nerds United) · Rating 5 out of 5]

Laurie Gwen Shapiro had me at the prologue.

Her newest book, the Aviator and the Showman, looks at the intertwined lives of Amelia Earhart and her (eventual) husband/handler/manipulator/bad cop/person everyone hates, George Putnam. What sold me in the prologue was Shapiro's stated intent to look at all aspects of the legend of Amelia Earhart. Shapiro is clear that Amelia was a complex person who could be wonderful, flighty (you can be dang sure that pun was intended), supremely confident, and amazingly arrogant. She was beloved by almost anyone who met her, but she also married one of the most unpleasant men on the planet according to many sources. He was her attack dog, but how much did she know about what he did on her behalf? And also, was it ever really on her behalf or was it to line his own pockets?

I love it when a book is informative while leaving me thinking. Shapiro presents the facts as best she can and leaves the reader with the facts to decide for themselves. I don't want an author to tell me who a person was. I want them to give me the knowledge to make my own decisions. It especially helps that Shapiro knows how to tell a story. The book is not short, but it is also never boring. Each chapter contains so much insight and even finds some time for name-dropping and side characters. Thankfully, Shapiro masterfully knows when to take a quick side quest but never lets diversions get in the way of the main story. Shapiro will also add some witty asides and some harmless conjecture for effect, which I enjoyed, but I know some people want their non-fiction to be laser-focused on the facts. I never found it distracting and Shapiro always calls it out when she's not sure or the record is unclear.

In the end, this book finally gave me what I wanted. After reading or watching documentaries about Amelia, I finally understand why she was so captivating to the public during her heyday. She's not a legend anymore, but she is something much better than that after reading this. She is a fully realized person all her own. As for Putnam, well, he was whoever he needed to be to make great copy.

(This book was provided as an advance copy by Netgalley and Viking Books.)

[Alan Chrisman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Best researched book I've read; reality from myth. Little known story of man(showman) behind the famous female aviator. He turned the social worker/part time flyer into a commercial product during Great Depression with public looking for heroines and the new technology, aviation, his gimmicks and increasingly risky projects. The independent thinking, feminist, went along with (even marrying him). The combination of factors that led to her final around the world attempt ending in tragedy. Trying to find the tiny pacific island to refuel without proper radio or experience, despite her earlier Atlantic solo success. A real roller coaster of a true story and characters better than any fiction. Strongly recommend.

[Sara · Rating 4 out of 5]

My ratings for the individual components of this book:
The research: five stars - Shapiro really put everything she had in this book. I also like how it showed warts and all instead of trying to explain away or ignore flaws.

The writing: four stars - I am deducting one star because the beginning had a thing I hate in non-fiction which is "she must have felt/thought." I know some like this because it makes them feel closer to historical figures or connect people emotionally, but it's a peeve for me.

Amelia Earhart: four stars - I am deducting a star because she fell for George Putnam. But I love the sections where it was solely about her.

George Putnam: one star - BOOOOOOOO! The reason why so many women kept flocking to him is because they confused the massive amount of red flags for a carnival.

[Linda Rae · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have such mixed feelings about this book.

There is a big difference between a book that is written in a style to be a commercial success and a book that dutifully provides details about its subjects. I feel like the author/editor couldn't make up their minds about which way to go.

The first half was a bit of a slog, even Amelia's record breaking transatlantic flight was rendered in a very mundane way. It definitely picked up in the latter part while describing her round the world flight and her disappearance near Howland Island.

I did learn quite a bit about her partnership with her husband, George Putnam. He was quite the huckster and hype man (and a pretty nasty guy)! But my biggest disappointment was that I never felt I really got to know the real Amelia Earhart.

Would I recommend this to the casual reader? Nope!

(Just look at how few readers have reviewed it on Goodreads!)

[John Roberts · Rating 2 out of 5]

Buried somewhere under dozens and dozens of pages of extraneous and uninteresting factoids is a reasonably interesting story. If you can stay awake, you may find it. Amelia deserves better.

[The Bookish Elf · Rating 5 out of 5]

In an era saturated with Amelia Earhart mythology, Laurie Gwen Shapiro's The Aviator and the Showman: Amelia Earhart, George Putnam, and the Marriage That Made an American Icon emerges as a refreshingly honest biographical examination that strips away decades of romantic legend to reveal a far more complex and fascinating truth. This meticulously researched dual biography illuminates not just the famous aviator, but the equally ambitious man who shaped her public persona—and perhaps sealed her fate.

Unmasking the Mythmaker

Shapiro, an award-winning journalist and author of the acclaimed The Stowaway, brings her investigative instincts to bear on one of America's most enduring mysteries. Rather than rehashing familiar territory about Earhart's disappearance, she focuses her lens on the decade-long marriage that transformed a social worker with flying aspirations into an international icon. The result is a narrative that feels both intimate and expansive, revealing how two driven individuals created something larger than themselves—at considerable personal cost.

The book's central thesis challenges the sanitized version of Earhart's story that has dominated popular culture for decades. Shapiro presents Amelia not as the wholesome role model of children's biographies, but as a complex woman who was "ambitious, courageous, intelligent, curious, sexual, overconfident, lazy, kindhearted, shrewd, and flawed." This multifaceted portrait extends equally to George Palmer Putnam, the "PT Barnum of publishing" whose volatile temperament and relentless promotion both elevated and endangered his wife.

A Partnership Born of Ambition

The narrative begins with their first meeting in 1928, when Putnam was seeking "the right sort of girl" for a secret transatlantic flying mission. Shapiro expertly reconstructs this pivotal encounter, showing how Earhart—despite her modest background as a Boston social worker—possessed the patrician bearing and photogenic qualities that Putnam recognized as marketable. What emerges is not a simple love story, but a calculated partnership between two individuals who understood the power of celebrity in the Jazz Age.

Shapiro's portrayal of their courtship and marriage reveals the tensions inherent in their relationship from the beginning. Putnam's first wife, Dorothy, serves as more than a peripheral figure; her perspective provides crucial insight into George's character and the strain that his obsession with Amelia placed on everyone around him. The author handles these domestic complexities with nuance, showing how personal desires and professional ambitions became inextricably intertwined.

The Machinery of Fame

Perhaps the book's greatest strength lies in its detailed examination of how celebrity was manufactured in the pre-television era. Shapiro demonstrates how Putnam orchestrated every aspect of Earhart's public image, from her carefully staged photographs to her ghostwritten books. The revelation that Putnam edited and manipulated even Amelia's prenuptial agreement for his posthumous memoir speaks to his compulsive need to control the narrative.

The author's journalistic background serves her well in tracking down previously unknown sources, including undiscovered audio interviews and family documents. These materials allow her to challenge long-held assumptions about the Earhart-Putnam relationship. The book reveals instances where George's promotional zeal crossed ethical lines, including staged publicity stunts and manipulated media coverage that would seem outrageous by today's standards.

The Price of Ambition

Shapiro doesn't shy away from the darker implications of the Putnam publicity machine. She argues convincingly that George's relentless push for increasingly spectacular stunts contributed to a "certain recklessness" that ultimately influenced Earhart's final, fatal flight. The 1937 around-the-world attempt emerges not as a noble quest for aviation glory, but as a financially motivated venture designed to generate book sales and lecture fees during the Great Depression.

The author's treatment of Earhart's relationships—both with Putnam and with other men in her life—is particularly nuanced. Rather than engaging in salacious speculation, Shapiro presents evidence that suggests Amelia maintained an understanding with George about the nature of their marriage, even as both pursued other romantic interests. This mature handling of complex adult relationships elevates the book above mere gossip.

Narrative Craftsmanship

Shapiro's prose style captures something of the era's energy while remaining accessible to contemporary readers. Her background in documentary filmmaking is evident in her ability to structure complex material chronologically while maintaining narrative tension. The book reads like a well-paced novel despite its scholarly foundation, with chapter titles that cleverly reference both aviation terminology and period cultural touchstones.

The author's decision to eschew the common "AE" and "GP" abbreviations in favor of full names reflects a deeper commitment to humanizing her subjects. This choice, explained in a thoughtful note on name usage, signals Shapiro's intention to move beyond the simplified iconography that has surrounded both figures.

Critical Perspectives

While The Aviator and the Showman succeeds admirably in its primary goals, certain aspects merit critical examination. The book's focus on the Putnam marriage occasionally overshadows other significant relationships in Earhart's life, particularly her connections with fellow female aviators. Additionally, while Shapiro effectively debunks various conspiracy theories about Earhart's disappearance, readers seeking detailed technical analysis of the final flight may find themselves wanting more.

The author's evident sympathy for Dorothy Putnam, George's first wife, sometimes threatens to tip the narrative balance. While Dorothy's perspective provides valuable insight, the repeated emphasis on her suffering occasionally feels heavy-handed. Similarly, the portrayal of George as almost pathologically manipulative, while well-documented, risks reducing him to a one-dimensional villain.

Historical Context and Significance

Shapiro excels at placing the Earhart-Putnam partnership within its broader historical context. The book effectively shows how their relationship both exploited and challenged gender norms of the 1920s and 1930s. Earhart emerges as a complicated feminist figure—one who advanced women's opportunities in aviation while conforming to certain expectations about marriage and femininity for publicity purposes.

The author's exploration of the publishing industry during this period provides fascinating insight into how adventure narratives were packaged and sold to the American public. Putnam's innovations in celebrity promotion presaged modern entertainment marketing in ways that feel remarkably contemporary.

Literary Merit and Accessibility

The book succeeds in bridging the gap between scholarly biography and popular narrative. Shapiro's extensive research—including interviews with descendants and previously untapped archival sources—provides authoritative grounding without overwhelming general readers. The inclusion of period photographs and documents enhances the reading experience while supporting the text's arguments.

The author's handling of dialogue and scene reconstruction demonstrates careful attention to historical accuracy while maintaining narrative flow. When she speculates about private conversations or internal thoughts, she clearly signals these interpolations, maintaining reader trust while bringing historical figures to life.

Final Assessment

The Aviator and the Showman represents biographical writing at its finest—thoroughly researched, thoughtfully constructed, and fearlessly honest. Shapiro has crafted a book that simultaneously demythologizes and humanizes its subjects, revealing how two ambitious individuals created an American icon through their complex partnership. While the book occasionally suffers from an overabundance of detail and some narrative imbalance, these are minor flaws in an otherwise exceptional work.

The book's greatest achievement lies in its restoration of agency to both Earhart and Putnam. Rather than depicting Amelia as either a helpless victim or a flawless hero, Shapiro shows her as a woman who made calculated choices about her career and public image, accepting both the benefits and costs of fame. Similarly, Putnam emerges not as a mere exploiter but as a complex figure whose genuine admiration for his wife coexisted with his manipulative promotional instincts.

For readers seeking to understand how legends are made and maintained, The Aviator and the Showman provides an invaluable case study. It reminds us that the most enduring stories often arise from the intersection of personal ambition and historical moment, shaped by individuals who understand the power of narrative to transform not just careers, but entire legacies. In revealing the machinery behind the Earhart myth, Shapiro has paradoxically made both Amelia and George more fascinating than their carefully constructed public personas ever suggested.

[Katie · Rating 3 out of 5]

The story is written in an interesting way and it pulls you in. I like how the author made it a biography of a marriage — because both Earhart and Putnam used each other for their personal ambitions, not to say they didn’t have respect for each other as well. I read a lot of history and biography and it felt like the author took a little too much liberty at times, but it’s her book and she didn’t hold back her interpretation. Once in the book she wrote, “he literally had gone to hell.” I’m not sure how that got past her editor. I think what she meant to say was he figuratively went to hell. Overall I enjoyed the book and really appreciated her approach. I can’t give it 4 stars because of the inclusion of her interpretation as fact.

[Joy D · Rating 4 out of 5]

Published in 2025, this book is a double biography of famous aviator Amelia Earhart and her husband George Putnam. The book focuses on their partnership that began in 1928 when Amelia Earhart, then a young social worker and hobby pilot, arrived at the office of George Putnam, a publishing executive looking for the right woman to join a crossing of the Atlantic by plane. The narrative covers Amelia’s and George’s life stories, the details behind Amelia’s aviation accomplishments, and tragic Around-the-World flight in 1937.

The book excels at highlighting the complex relationship dynamics between these two high profile personalities. Rather than focusing on legend and myth, Shapiro emphasizes Earhart's foibles, struggles, and ambition; the facts behind her courageous feats; and the difficulties she had in fitting into social expectations for women. She comes across as an early feminist. The book draws from a treasure trove of new sources including previously undiscovered audio interviews. The author states that she is attempting to provide an accurate portrait, and this is certainly not a hagiography (nor is it a take-down).

It suggests that Earhart and Putnam’s professional and personal relationship was instrumental in creating the Earhart legend while also contributing to the circumstances that led to her disappearance. To me, it is clear what happened, and there were a variety of reasons for it. A small change in one of many factors could have made the difference between success and disaster. It is compelling non-fiction that not only brings these people to life but also depicts the era in which they lived.

[Nancy Willard · Rating 3 out of 5]

Audio……so hard to tell truth from fiction, even in ostensibly well researched non fiction. Interesting account of Amelia Earhart’s life, but sometimes seems full of gossipy sensationalism. Very unflattering picture of George Putnam, while presenting AE as angelic, if almost childishly naive.

[Melody Stiles · Rating 3 out of 5]

I could have lived the rest of my life without needing to know the weather on the day Amelia Earhart was born. And that is just a taste of the tedium of details in this book. While it truly gives you what is most likely a fair and honest look at all involved, and all of the circumstances that contributed to the plane crash that claimed her and her navigator’s lives, it was simply so exhausting getting to the end of the story, I barely cared anymore. Then you’re finally done! But no! Steal yourselves for the last 30 some percent of the book is pages of thanks and acknowledgments and notes and etc, etc. I only wish I were joking. And I admit it. I now feel like all of the rave reviews of this book from every conceivable book reviewer were planted by none other than George Putnam himself and I bought it, hook, line and sinker!

[avocet]

wanted to read after reading the excerpted piece in the new yorker; listened to about a third of it and it is truly meticulously researched and constructed, i just wasnt prepared for it to be so so long 🙈

[Jennifer Moore · Rating 4 out of 5]

Title: The Aviator and the Showman
Author: Laurie Gwen Shapiro
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

This is a longer nonfiction book. My online book was 477 pages. It was an eye opener for me about what I have learned in life about the accomplishments of Amelia Earhart as well as introduced me to George P. Putnam. Outside of knowing Putnam and publishing go together, I knew nothing about him. I did find myself googling things about people and events along the way to see images and get a quick snapshot to help my understanding.

George P. Putnam was a spin doctor. He reminded me of a current ‘uge political figure that deemed what he said as the truth, regardless of what proof might be presented to say otherwise. His influence and power extended far and wide, so people who dared to set him straight found themselves on the wrong end of his wrath. At the halfway point in the book, I was completely convinced that all the lies and twisted truths he put out into the world are what cause Earhart to not successfully complete her final mission. He saw her as a cash cow and exploited her in the way that profited him the most.

Now let’s talk about Amelia. I went into this book curious about the in depth research Shapiro put in over time and how it might deepen my picture of her. The one word that never wavers in thinking of what she accomplished is bravery. What I didn’t expect is how it would change my impression of Earhart in other descriptors. Strong, independent, pioneering were ways I would describe her before. As I was reading, I felt the pendulum swing to words like complex, shortsighted about safety because ambition was the driving force, non contentious/passive with her husband’s actions. Yes, she wanted to push herself to learn and lead as much for women in aviation that she could, but in my opinion her ties to Putnam acted more as an albatross more than a boost in her safely accomplishing all she wanted to do.

Shapiro has written an insightful look at Earhart and the impact of having Putnam in her life. Did she accomplish more than she would’ve without him? Yes. Was it with integrity, safety, and honesty? No. Maybe generationally, I felt she should’ve spoken up more to correct his misspeaks, but again, there are powerful people in our world today who surround themselves with silent followers instead of accountability partners.

Thank you to NetGalley and PENGUIN GROUP Viking Penguin for the advanced copy. Opinions expressed are my own. This book will be republished on July 15, 2025.

#netgalley #arc #bookstagram @vikingbooks @lauriestories #theaviatorandtheshowman

[Janice · Rating 2 out of 5]

A Kansas girl myself, I grew up hearing and reading the whitewashed, tall tales version of my hero Amelia Earhart. From the get go Shapiro makes that pretty clear. Unfortunately, so much unneeded detail, I expected to be told the brand of flour sack used for her bloomers, that I quickly lost interest. Rest in peace Amelia.

[Kim Gorode · Rating 5 out of 5]

George Putnam is scummy.

[Nancy Mitcham · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very interesting from a historical perspective but way too much day to day week to week detail.

[Lilyanne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Before this book, all I knew about Amelia Earhart was that she was a ground-breaking female aviator who disappeared mysteriously at sea. Now I think that most of that previous sentence is false.

Her 1937 disappearance at sea was not mysterious. It was explained in the New York Times just a few weeks later as follows. She and her navigator flew over the great expanse of the Pacific ocean without sufficient knowledge or equipment to find their destination, a tiny patch of land half-way between Indonesia and Hawaii. Laurie Shapiro details how Amelia struggled to properly use her radio to communicate with the ground crew eagerly waiting for her at her destination. And how she and her navigator shed extra weight like a parachute, lift rafts, and a radio user's manual, before departing. In short, she was reckless. But, per the New York Times, "had she not had a touch of recklessness…she would not have been Amelia Earhart."

All of Earhart's aviator friends told her not to make this risky trip. And they all blamed her husband George Putnam for egging her on. To quote my father-in-law, "I didn't even know she was married!" I can see why friends and family of Amelia's would be eager to make him the villain, and indeed, there's no lack of evidence that he was a jerk. Back when Amelia was merely a self-described aviation hobbyist, Putnam launched her career and then hitched a ride on her shooting star, making money off her at every opportunity. He even launched an Amelia Earhart clothing line at Macy's, an icky idea even by today's influencer standards. But reader, she married him. She knew what she signed up for, in both her husband and her final flight.

Yes, she did have some amazing feats to her name. I will not turn up my nose at Amelia's ability to survive so long in an enterprise where, regardless of skill level, equipment failed, weather changed, and pilots regularly crashed and burned. But her feats seem like amazingly good luck compared to many other female aviator peers who were more skilled, but did not have a politically powerful husband constantly promoting her to the press. A very revealing contrast to Amelia was Elinor Smith, a younger fan-girl of Amelia's who grows up to be a skilled aviator that Putnam blacklisted so that Elinor couldn't get the sponsorships that would rival Amelia.

Sad to say, I like Amelia Earhart a lot less having read this book. I think the best I can say for her was that she was very savvy in her choice of husband. She likely saw in Putman someone who would do the promotion necessary for a woman of that era to make a career out of aviation. But both of them were so busy with the promotion piece of her career that they neglected the fundamental training that she needed much more of. Like the famous test pilots of The Right Stuff, she was a little nuts. Unlike them, she focused on self-promotion over skill. But of course, those men had opportunities for developing their skill that she did not.

4/5 stars because this book made me think, but there's was slightly too much unnecessary detail. It could have been about one hundred pages shorter. For instance, does the fact that the Putnam's home aide went on to work for Disney help me understand their marriage? No, it does not.

[Kristin · Rating 4 out of 5]

For those of us old enough to have seen few female role models in our childhood, Amelia Earhart was a beacon. One of my earliest Scholastic book purchases was a biography of the bold “aviatrix” who tragically disappeared during her great sojourn around the world at a time when aviation was still new and exciting. Because no remnants of Amelia, her navigator George Noonan, or her plane have ever been found, her death became one of American history’s greatest mysteries (and naturally a source of numerous and perpetual conspiracy theories).

Laurie Gwen Shapiro takes a fresh look at Earhart’s story, with an equal focus on her remarkable and lesser-known but important partner/husband, George Putnam. As suggested by the title, The Aviator and the Showman, George was instrumental in creating the legend of Amelia Earhart even as other female pilots were objectively far more accomplished and talented—and his strange, frenzied career is as interesting as the story of Amelia’s rise to fame. Yet Shapiro paints a warm picture of Amelia—a determined and brave woman who cut corners in her aviation career but was, by all accounts, a genuinely kind and caring person. George, on the other hand, is portrayed as a conniving, pushy, and self-interested hack, who loved Amelia but exploited her in equal measure.

This is a thoroughly researched story. I think anyone who has been captivated by her story will still find much to admire in Amelia Earhart. I never knew that she was well read, wrote poetry, and believed passionately in progressive causes. (I suspect if she had survived she would have been questioned by Senator Joe McCarthy in later years.) But I also never knew how many falsehoods were told about her accomplishments and even her licensure over the years. And the story of her final trip is one that is distressing for its many foolish missteps and failures.

There is something uniquely fascinating about the speed with which the aviation industry developed after the Wright brothers first succeeded in making men fly. To see the dedication of Amelia Earhart and other women in the first quarter of the century is inspiring—there was nothing safe about the endeavor at all, yet women ventured into this unlikeliest of fields at a time when it was all new. Earhart may not have been the greatest of the women aviators of her era, but she was the one who made the world see women in a different light, and who inspired generations to come. Her story, as told in this book, is one for the ages.

[Christine Eskilson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rounded up from 3 1/2 because this well-researched book gives many details about Amelia’s life but the author’s speculative asides annoyed me.

[Julie Martin · Rating 2 out of 5]

Both Amelia and Putnam are so unlikable. The book is a wordy mess. Brutal.

[Phyllis · Rating 1 out of 5]

Dull, poorly edited, and the author was apparently getting paid by the word.

[Cherie Hicks · Rating 5 out of 5]

You already know how it ends for her.
The Aviator and the Showman, an excellent biographical of Amelia Earhart and her promotor-turned-husband, shows all the ways it went wrong and the missteps leading up to her disappearance over the Pacific in 1937.
Laurie Gwen Shapiro was thorough in putting us in Earheart’s early 20th century America, including the roaring ‘20s and the depressing ‘30s, and how her relationship with George Putnam evolved. He was a hustler from an almost-well-to-do publishing family and everything was transactional for him, including his marriage to the aviatrix.
Putnam pushed Earhart to accomplish feats that bordered on insanity – so he could publish a book on her exploits – and some that weren't completely true. She always went along with him as it appears she loved him, Shapiro quoted her friends as saying.
But Shapiro suspects it was more than that. Earhart was ahead of her time, and not just in the skies. She was a progressive, a feminist, a supporter of civil rights and she flirted with socialism and eugenics – as many liberals did at the time – soon regretting the latter. She was a social worker at heart with a profound kind and giving spirit. But she was surrounded by rich friends/supporters (you will recognize many names) and often enjoyed the trappings of that lifestyle.
Bottom line, Amelia Earhart wanted to be a trailblazer, and her cad husband helped her become one.
She knew death was on any potential horizon and it didn't slow her down.
The Aviator and the Showman: Amelia Earhart, George Putnam, and the Marriage that Made an American Icon is a little long, almost 500 pages with bibliography, acknowledgments, etc. It tracks, in detail, that last flight, every stop along the way – I got out my map to follow her fascinating journey – that, if finished, would have made her the first female pilot to circumnavigate the world. (She already was the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic, the first PERSON to fly solo from Hawaii to California, etc.)
Published just this year, it was a very worthy read and easy to follow, well as easy as it could be knowing it wasn't going to end well.

[Linda Stasi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Amelia Earhart, who was yesteryear's idea of an influencer, did what a fairly large select group of daring women attempted to do back in the day--be the first woman to fly across the Atlantic. But here's the thing: she did so as a passenger...not the pilot. This was a stunt promoted by a married publisher, George Putnam, who was looking for a young woman with flying experience who could write an adventure book. Like an impresario picking members of a boy band, he picked Amelia out of the pack.
Putnam was the black sheep of the publishing empire and was more PT Barnum than GP Putnam, He was a scoundrel, a pathological liar and a publicity genius (and became Earhart's husband). He publicized Amelia's passenger flight across the Atlantic as though she'd been the pilot, got her to do ever more dangerous publicity stunts and was usually semi-broke.
Amelia for her part became a very good pilot but according to this book, not a careful one.In fact she had left behind important maps and equipment on her final doomed fight.
Book has lots of good info but about a third too long. The early part of the book reads as a tiresome history of her not-all-that-interesting family. I forced myself to plow thru as though these pages but it was like reading a college-level text book. Once past that business it becomes more interesting and worth the read. This book in my opinion suffers from a lack of an editor who can separate the wheat from the chaff and get us to the chaff a lot quicker.

[Diana · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very absorbing biographies of AE and GP and what brought and kept them together. I somehow expected this to cover more of the aftermath of Earhart's disappearance, but that's not what it is about. I had not read an in-depth history of either figure before, and it was illuminating.
Side thoughts:
- The author (Shapiro) takes pains at several points to emphasize the unfairness of the racism and sexism of conventional attitudes of the time. It comes across a little bit 4th-wall-breaking, but that could just be the novelty of the experience for me. (In other modern books, I feel the author issues a blanket disclaimer in the prologue or early in the book to the effect that "these were the views of the these folks at this time.")
- I am relieved Putnam never turned his goals toward national public office. The sheer chutzpah of insecure white men such as he... wow. The space they take up and the schemes they promote. wow.

[Nancy Loe · Rating 2 out of 5]

What a missed opportunity this book is.

The author produces much damning evidence of just how manipulative and money-hungry her scheming husband was. But then she descends into florid accounts of their True Love - see the quotes I’ve saved for a few examples.

Shapiro reveals just how unskilled Earhart was, the result of Earhart’s rather lackadaisical inclinations combining fatally with Putnam’s money-making schemes intruding on her flying time.

The author begins on a sour note, describing Earhart one of the “sought-after bachelorettes of the time,” followed by too much detail about her clothes, shoes, and appearance. Roosevelt “smoked” Hoover in the 1932 election. This modern language often defeats the sense of time and place Shapiro labors to create.

But mostly the biography fails because Shapiro never addresses what Earhart saw in her obviously louche husband. Perhaps it is unknowable, but the book would have benefitted from the writer trying to address this major issue.

[Laurie Summer · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’ve been fascinated by Amelia Earhart since I was a little girl, and wrote a book report about her. This account of her life, career, marriage, and impact as a pilot, adventurer, role model, and feminist helped me to develop a complex understanding of Earhart—and I love her even more for it. As a feminist, I realize that the women who came before me, even those in very different fields or walks of life, have impacted my journey in abundant ways. I’m grateful that Amelia’s story was told here, and that her full, beautiful humanity was represented. Highly recommend!

[Cathlina Bergman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Digital book and audiobook. 550 pages and 22 hours long???? Chapters are entirely too long; a couple were over two hours long on audiobook.

Very detailed--sometimes too detailed, especially over minor players--account of Earhart and her husband George Putnam who planned and executed her historic flights. I found it interesting but with a few too many detours into side characters. I need to know from people who’ve read more books about Earhart if this book really has anything new and interesting to say, but I enjoyed it and learned a lot!

[Anika (Encyclopedia BritAnika) · Rating 4 out of 5]

At over 500 pages/22hours, this book is thick. Did we need it all? Probably not. Did I learn so much about how Amelia Earhart was absolutely not qualified or trained to do her flights and duh of course she was going to crash? Yes. Absolutely fascinating how the history taught doesn’t match at all the facts, all probably helped along by her charlatan husband.

[Jeana Lawrence · Rating 5 out of 5]

An eye opening biography of Amelia and her marriage to George Putnam. Her life and experience is totally different from the stories you read as a kid and it just astounds me how little things could’ve changed the ending of her story. Very well written.

[Joanne Swenson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Unsettling, exciting, and with disturbing detail (feigning omniscience?). Amelia’s catapults into the American imagination through the publicity genius and narcissism of George Putnam. The author makes it clear that her untimely death is his fault.

[Jan Martinson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great history, story of Amelia Earhart and her lesser known husband George Putnam! Really enjoyed the stories of women in aviation!