Shocking 'truth' about Amelia Earhart and her marriage revealed by explosive new book

Daily Mail​

6 days ago

Amelia Earhart's publishing tycoon husband pushed her to ever more dangerous public relations stunts to further his own ambitions, an explosive new book has claimed.
The aviation trailblazer was married to George P. Putman for six years when she disappeared on her infamous flight around the world in 1937.
While their marriage was cut short, a new book alleges that during their time as a couple Putnam acted as Earhart's publicist and pushed her to the brink to sell books.
'The Aviator and the Showman: Amelia Earhart, George Putnam, and the Marriage that Made an American Icon,' by Laurie Gwen Shapiro takes a deep dive into their complex relationship, revealing how Putnam was pulling the strings.
'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,' Shapiro wrote.
'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's pioneering achievements earned her global celebrity, including when she became the first woman to fly across the Atlantic Ocean as a passenger in 1928.
One of those coordinating this flight was Putnam, who was married to his first wife at the time. He interviewed her ahead of deciding she would be the passenger selected.
Shapiro claimed in her book Putnam fell in 'love at first sight' because he saw all of Earhart's potential for commercial success.
According to Purdue University, after that first flight across the Atlantic, Putnam offered to help her write a book about her experience, following the formula he had established with Charles Lindberg.
Earhart moved in with Putnam while she wrote her book and during that time Putnam and his first wife divorced in 1929.
The aviation icon and Putnam wed in 1931 and one year after that she became the first woman to pilot a solo flight across the Atlantic - and on the same flight she broke the record for the longest flight by a woman, and the shortest time to cross the Atlantic.
Earhart was invited to the White House by Franklin D Roosevelt and his wife Eleanor, with the pilot offering the latter a trip in her plane.
In the following years, she planned a number of further record-breaking flights, many of which came to fruition.
Shapiro claimed it was during their first meeting to decide if Earhart should join the flight that Putnam fell in 'love at first sight' because he saw all of her potential for commercial success
On June 1, 1937, Earhart took to the sky in her Lockheed 10-E Electra with the aim of becoming the first woman to fly around the world.
She and her navigator Fred Noonan left Oakland, California then flew to Miami, down to South America, across to Africa and then east to India and South Asia.
A few weeks later they departed Lae in Papua New Guinea and planned to stop on Howland July 2, 1937 to refuel.
But Earhart and Noonan lost radio contact and were never heard from or seen again.