The Truth Of It: Amelia Earhart's Private Journal

In 1937 Los Angeles, Amelia Earhart edits her personal journals of the last ten years into a coherent account of her life that she can leave as a keepsake for her unborn baby should she die before the child reaches adulthood. She begins in 1928 Boston, where as a settlement house worker and weekend pilot she has come to accept that she probably will never be able to fulfill her expensive aviation ambitions. Amelia jumps at the unexpected chance to be the first woman to fly the Atlantic as part of a three person team. After a tense flight, their airplane, the Friendship, lands with only fifteen minutes of fuel left.
Back in the United States, Amelia Earhart’s feat has made her a household name. She is persuaded by publisher George Putnam to leave her settlement house work and pursue record-setting flight as a full-time career. Putnam is divorced by his wife, and marries Amelia. In May of 1932 Amelia flies alone across the Atlantic. She is the first woman to do so, only the second person. She becomes the toast of Europe, sought out by presidents, kings, and dictators. Amelia and George tour Europe, their marriage as joyous as their public triumph.
It doesn’t last. As the depression deepens, George loses Putnam’s, his publishing company. Amelia continues to make record flights, but she feels pushed by her celebrity to make each flight more resounding then the last. Approaching forty and weary of public life, Amelia makes plans for a final record-setting flight: she will fly around the world, picking an equatorial route that no one else has dared before. But, she discovers she is pregnant. She must make the flight before her child is born. Then she will retire and be “just a woman.”