By BRENT MARTIN
St. Joseph Post
An author of the latest biography of Amelia Earhart says there is so much more to Earhart than her unexplained disappearance in 1937 while trying to circumvent the globe.
In fact, Laurie Gwen Shapiro says that disappearance and the subsequent hunts to find Earhart overshadow an incredible life.
Laurie Gwen Shapiro has written The Aviator and the Showman: Amelia Earhart, George Putnam, and the Marriage that Made an American Icon.
Shapiro says Earhart became famous, in large part, because of her marriage to publisher George Putnam.
“She was a rock star,” Shapiro tells KFEQmmunity. “He promoted her as the queen of aviation and at the end of the 20s people were sick of the flapper sensibility and the aviators were gods. So, the big names were Lindbergh, Earhart, and Byrd.”
Shapiro will be in Atchison, Kansas this weekend as part of the 28th Amelia Earhart Festival, a return to the birthplace of Earhart which Shapiro visited twice during her research for the book. Shapiro took five years to research and write the book, which was released earlier this week. Shapiro will headline a special author event at the Amelia Earhart Hangar Museum Friday morning at 10 o’clock.
Shapiro says she portrays the real Amelia Earhart, not the one of legend. She says her extensive research unearthed a real woman; a woman of great accomplishment.
“She’s not a bad person, I will say that, if anyone’s worried that I uncovered this terrible ghost,” Shapiro says. “But she’s flawed and I think that’s fine. She’s brave. She’s flawed. She could be lazy. She did not learn Morse Code, even though she had crashed on a trip going the other way around the world before the one that we lost her on.”
Shapiro says the mystery surrounding Earhart isn’t about how she died, but how she lived. Earhart advocated for aviation at its outset. She achieved fame when, in 1932, she became the first woman to fly nonstop, alone across the Atlantic.
Shapiro says she attempts in her book to present a woman in full.
“It’s deeply reported; you have the receipts for your reporting, but it’s also storytelling,” Shapiro says. “And that’s what I hope people get from my book is on top of the history, they’re also getting a great story. And this is a story of ambition and this is a story of marriage.”
Shapiro says Putnam took the raw material of Earhart’s accomplishments and built the enduring image of Earhart that continues to this day.
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