East to the Dawn: The Life of Amelia Earhart

by Susan Butler

The myths surrounding the life and legacy of Amelia Earhart run the gamut from the mundane to the ridiculous. Since her disappearance in 1937, people have questioned not only her actual death, but many aspects of her life, including the nature of the relationship with her husband, the flamboyant publishing magnate George Palmer Putnam, and even her very competency as a flier. Now, with East to the Dawn , Susan Butler offers the most comprehensive account to date of Earhart's extraordinary life—and finally sets the record straight.The image we have of Amelia Earhart today—a tousle-haired, androgynous flier clad in shirt, silk scarf, leather jacket, and goggles—is only one of her many personas, most of which have been lost to us through the years. Many of her accomplishments have been obscured by a growing obsession with the mystery of her disappearance. As well, Earhart herself was a master of putting on a woman constantly striving for success and personal freedom in the 1920s and '30s, she could scarcely afford to let on when something was troubling her. Through years of research, however, as well as interviews with many of the surviving people who knew Amelia, Susan Butler has recreated a remarkably vivid and multi-faceted portrait of this enigmatic figure. As a result, readers experience Amelia in all her not just as a pilot, but also as an educator, a social worker, a lecturer, a businesswoman, and a tireless promoter of women's rights; we experience a remarkably energetic and enterprising woman who succeeded in life beyond her wildest dreams, while never losing sight of her beginnings; and we experience a woman who battled incredible odds to achieve her fame, while ensuring that her success would secure a path for women after her.Some odds, are insurmountable, however, and this fact became painfully evident on the last leg of Earhart's round-the-world- flight. In the chapters describing the last flight, Butler deals with and dispels some of the most pernicious myths about Amelia—for instance, that her disappearance was planned as part of an espionage mission against the Japanese. Instead, she offers a less romantic but ultimately tragic that the Electra's limited navigational equipment was unable to find Howland Island—a piece of land the size of the Cleveland Airport—in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, and a great flier died at sea.Butler masterfully renders this portrait of the first lady of aviation in a story filled with drama, pathos, and humor. East to the Dawn is a landmark biography, and will be the definitive life of Amelia Earhart for years to come.

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

512 pages, Hardcover

First published October 16, 1997

About the author

American journalist and biographer

Reviews

[Chris D. · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a long well researched biography of Amelia Earhart. Butler has great enthusiasm for her subject and gives the reader a well-rounded portrait of one of the cultural icons of the twentieth century. Earhart comes off as adventurous, courageous, but also deeply flawed in her personal relationships and also quite a dilletante and she never seems to stay on one project for very long.

This book is very long, there is way too much information on the ancestors of Earhart, Butler's work could have used some editing and maybe if there was an editor the mistakes in the book would have been found. The worst one for me was when Butler was describing the early days of Atchison Kansas in the 1850's and Butler described this time as the railroad came to the area and states that soon the country was singing the song Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe. A strange statement since this song was written by Johnny Mercer in the 1940's for the Judy Garland movie The Harvey Girls.

Also, for a book which is about journeys and long flights there are no maps.

[Alison · Rating 3 out of 5]

As others who have reviewed this book have noted, this is the definitive, best-researched book on Amelia Earhart's life that has been published to date. What's interesting to me is that all of the reviewers go on, after stating this fact, to give glowing reviews to Earhart's life, and translate that to the book itself. While Earhart's life and personality are fascinating, the style of this book is tedious, and reading it was drudgery interspersed with a few surprising tidbits. I only forced myself to finish the book because a)it was a gift; b)I've been interested in Amelia Earhart since childhood; and c) I thought I should finish it so I could give it a complete review.

My two main complaints are style and context. It's clear that this book took 10 years to research. In fact, there are points in the book where the text reads like a list of facts that are strung together without anything connecting them. In other places, there are several instances where the author repeats the same descriptive phrase twice in the same paragraph. This happened several times in relation to new characters who were being introduced. This is unsettling as a reader because it makes the prose repetitive, and you wonder if the author thought you might not be paying attention, or if the author herself wasn't paying attention when she was writing. In addition, much of Butler's commentary is trite, and her style lacks consistency and the ability to engage the reader.

In terms of context, the author went too far in creating the context of Amelia's life. The first 100 pages or so chronicle Amelia's first 20 years and the history of her ancestors, 3 generations back. Those 100 pages felt like 400, and it was a tough slog through this opening section. Lots of unnecessary detail, and a long list of characters detracted from the main objective of setting the context of Amelia's family and upbringing. Further on in the book, the author continues to deviate from her main point to include random facts and relationships. While some of this can be acceptable to help the reader better understand the era in which Earhart lived, it was largely distracting and the author often wandered for paragraphs or pages at a time.

In short, Susan Butler did a very thorough job researching Amelia Earhart's life. I only wish that she had such a thorough editor who would've helped her condense her immense body of research into a clear, articulate and engaging biography.

[Bonnie · Rating 1 out of 5]

A most fascinating subject, written in such a tedious, lackluster, flat style. I almost gave up on this audio version several times but I am so interesting in Amelia that I made up my mind I would get through this book if it killed me. There are great nuggets of the life of Amelia tucked into the dry uninteresting lists of facts that tries to pass for writing. Sorry but this book is bad. I don't want to read about every person that Amelia ever interacted with and what they wore and who their parents and grandparents were.

[Lorna · Rating 4 out of 5]

East to the Dawn: The Life of Amelia Earhart was a meticulously researched biography of the adventurer Amelia Earhart that was very enjoyable. Earhart's accomplishments were many, particularly when you realize how difficult it was for a woman in the 1920's and 1930's in aviation. Earhart was instrumental in paving the way for many although she always claimed that she had never left her field of social work.

[Chrissie · Rating 4 out of 5]

ETA: The only thing that prevents me from giving this book five stars was that I wanted to hear the voices of Chapman and George Putnam. I wanted their personal words because I am sure they were hurt. To draw Amelia honestly, more of these two men's personal thoughts should have been given. Amelia was such a very strong woman. I admire her. Yet to view her honestly one has to acknowledge how her determination must have hurt others close to her. My rating is a rating of the book, not the person.

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After chapter 2:

I know already that this is going to be a very good book. I adore meeting imaginative, special individuals, people with spark. Amelia was just such a person. Can an author write about such a person and make even them boring? I think so. What I am saying is that Susan Butler, the author of this book, has the knack of knowing what to put in a book to make a person's "story" sparkle.

I must add this. In the beginning you are plunked down not understanding who is who. Many have the same name or a nickname. Such is extremely difficult with an audiobook! You begin with the great grandparents on both sides. I went to Wiki for a clarification of who is who; this allowed me to stop worrying and let me suck up the delightful details instead.

I am not all that interested in "the pilot" Amelia Earhart, but rather the person.

(There are three Amelias! Amy is Amelia’s mother. Both the “pilot” Amelia and her maternal grandmother often go by the nickname Meeley. Her sister Muriel is Pidge. Her father, Samuel Stanton Earhart, is called Edwin. Her maternal great-grandmother goes by Maria. This should help!)


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On completion:

I think you see very much by looking at a person’s childhood. I see it as a plus that the book goes back several generations. Amelia was born in Atchison, Kansas, in the home of her maternal grandparents. She came to live several years with her grandparents and she shared several personality traits with her maternal great grandmother. To understand Amelia you have to get the feel of her environment and her family background. I even appreciated the historical details of whether Kansas would be a free state or a slave state; this was an issue that shaped her whole family. In addition, there are amusing incidents related, like the ramp she constructed from the roof of the shed. This woman even as a child was always climbing up as high as she could, and she was thrilled by the speed of descent – “it was like flying”.


I definitely learned about Amelia. In fact she really was “not just a pilot, but also an educator, a social worker, a lecturer, a business woman and a tireless promoter of women’s rights” as stated in the book description. She was a whirlwind of a lady. She was feminine and strong. She knew what she wanted and she went after it. A person this strong can easily squash others. This is what makes me give the book four rather than five stars. Her strength simply must have been hard on other people. I am thinking of her beau, Sam Chapman, whom she kept hanging for years. I asked myself, “Is this a hagiography?” Well, she became such an American idol that it is hard to avoid singing her praise. Yet I would not classify the book as such. She makes mistakes, and she lies and that is given here too. Her ruthlessness is not shied from. I just wish that those whom she hurt could have been given a chance to speak from their heart.


All of her flying achievements are detailed. The word to emphasize is detailed. This may put off some readers. I found her achievements, the related history of aviation, as well as the in-depth discussion of her disappearance in 1937 fascinating. It has been thought that perhaps she was taken prisoner by the Japanese. Well forget that! I thought when one made a solo flight one was a-l-o-n-e. That is not so. There are navigators and co-pilots and …. These “solo flights” are the result of intense teamwork. Did you know that her first transatlantic flight in 1928, the first time a woman flew across the Atlantic, she was merely a passenger? OK, she was responsible for the flight log, but she didn’t even touch the wheel. The pilot was Wilmer Stultz with co-pilot Louis Gordon. Yet it is questionable if it would have happened had she not been there. Her role at Trepassey Harbor, Newfoundland, is significant. I did sometimes get lost with the technical aspects of the various airplanes.


I see Amelia more as a pilot and a feminist than a social worker. When asked where she stood in relation to social work after gaining such aviation fame, she replied, “She had never left it!” Those were her words. In a pickle where she had to choose between one or the other I am certain she would prioritize flying. She needed, above all else, independence financially and emotionally. Read to find out what she stipulated before she agreed to marry George Putnam!


Read to see how with the help of Eleanor Roosevelt she prevented Gene Vidal from getting fired as Director of the Bureau of Air Commerce. She loved Gene too.


I adored the audiobook narration by Anna Fields/Kate Fleming, even if I at times had to rewind to jot down facts. She knows exactly which words to emphasize. Such a reader helps you “digest” the significance of each word. Superb narration. A five star narration without a doubt.

[Jessica · Rating 3 out of 5]

I knew next to nothing about Amelia Earhart when I started this, and borrowed it on a whim from the library after reading a little bit about her while in line for Soarin’ at Disneyland. It was really interesting to learn about not only her, but aviation in its early days.

This book was clearly very well researched but oh my god was it long. I could have done without the chapters upon chapters detailing the life of Amelia’s grandparents and parents before she was born. Similarly the unimportant details of her waiting around in Newfoundland for adequate weather to start her journey across the Atlantic seemed to go on forever, while the more exciting parts of her actually flying across the Atlantic, or her attempt around the world were summarized in a few short paragraphs.

Reading about the disappearance was a lot more heartbreaking than I was anticipating. You know it’s coming but hearing her last few transmissions and about the search that proceeded it was so sad. Especially since it sounds like she was so close to the island where she was scheduled to land.

Overall, I learned a lot, the book was incredibly well researched, but it could have been cut down quite a bit.

[Richard · Rating 4 out of 5]

Susan Butler has written a biography about a great American adventurer. Everyone today knows Amelia Earhart as a famous flier from the days when aviators were constantly fascinating the public with their, often deadly, exploits. The 1960's captivation of the public with the voyages of the astronauts had its origin in the worship of pilots who first flew from one city to the next, across a continent, to the poles or across an ocean. Amelia is rightly remembered as one of these pilots but, as Butler emphasizes, she was more than the figure who carried that label. Butler early-on makes it clear that this "amazing flier, easily the greatest female pilot of her time" (p. xii) was much more, as demonstrated by her permutations as fashion plate, lecturer, educator. Toward these ends, Butler has conducted a great deal of research, unearthing, in the process, valuable sources hitherto skipped or unknown to previous biographers, including a personal interview with Amelia's close cousin Kathryn Challis, and access to Kathryn's diary, as well as an unpublished biography by Amelia's journalist friend Janet Mabie. Butler's personal interviews included Anne Lindbergh, who, with her husband Charles, were personal friends of Amelia and her husband George Putnam, and Amelia's sister Muriel Earhart Morrissey, listed as living as of the publication date of this book.

The author's admiration of her subject is strengthened by her mother's connection with aviation. Grace Liebman was also a pilot in the 1930's. She flew, as Butler states in her web site, when most people were afraid to get into airplanes. It was an accomplishment to fly an airplane in those early days, especially for a woman, because the flying world was dominated by men. Amelia Earhart's contribution to flying derived from her hard-won achievement of fame and fortune by way of her natural talents. She never stopped encouraging other women to follow her example of learning to fly, and working to provide them with the means to that end. Butler would classify her as an important feminist leader of the 1930's, through her writings, speeches and leadership, especially in her role as chief motivational force behind the Ninety Niners, the women's' flying organization named after the number of its initial members. Butler's mother Grace belonged to the Ninety Niners, and was personally acquainted with Earhart.

Many interesting details are therefore provided about Amelia's family history, and her childhood years in Atcheson and Kansas City, Kansas. We learn how she and her sister had to continually adjust to living in new towns as her alcoholic father changed jobs, and as the family finances continued to decline before the divorce of her parents. She went to live in Philadelphia to attend college, but took a detour to work as a volunteer involved in the physical recovery of severely wounded soldiers in military hospitals in Canada during World War I. These experiences led to her commitment to study medicine, and she enrolled at Columbia University. She left Columbia, however, to rejoin her family in California, never publicly admitting, then or on other occasions, how troubling it surely was to have her personal life constantly interrupted by family financial problems. She learned to fly while she was in California. Living around Los Angeles, and being involved in aviation, even as a beginner, at that time allowed her to become acquainted with some of the early fliers and businessmen who would become well known in the future aviation industry.

Amelia was by then of course showing her disdain of the typical young woman's preoccupation with finding a man to marry, and settle down. Her life took on new purpose when she went to work at the Denison House settlement house in Boston, while engaging in flying whenever finances and circumstances permitted. The Settlement House reformist movement started in Great Britain in the latter Nineteenth Century and spread to the United States. Their philosophy was grounded on a desire to alleviate the suffering of the poor in industrialized cities. Settlement houses were staffed by idealistic middle class women who would provide educational services and assist in exposing the impoverished people in their area to the cities' cultural attractions. Denison House provided aid, English and citizenship classes, medical care for immigrants, and classes in such subjects as Italian art, elocution and embroidery; the premises were offered as space for early union meetings. This may sound rather patronizing today but the settlement houses established the legitimacy of the discipline of social work. Amelia's identification with the house was so strong that she would continue to describe herself as a social worker who could fly an airplane, when interviewed about her future accomplishments.

1928 was a watershed year for Amelia because she would become famous, and meet her future husband. Charles Lindbergh was propelled to world renown, and became the most admired man in America, when he became the first person to fly nonstop across the Atlantic Ocean the year before. Amy Guest, a rich woman, would have loved to find a way to be the first woman to fly across the ocean, but she wasn't about to make the rash decision to risk her neck in the pursuit of this highly dangerous undertaking. She financed a plane and flight crew of pilot and mechanic to make the flight. She drew upon her friend Richard E. Byrd, the Polar air explorer, for expertise in the trip's planning. The word went out in the Boston area that a well-educated woman, preferably with flying knowledge, was needed to fly on the trip as a passenger, and Amelia ended up on the short list of candidates. The transatlantic flight of the "Friendship" occurred in June 1928. Amelia became an instant celebrity for being the first woman to fly nonstop across the ocean.

The latter part of the book describes the progression of Amelia's personal and professional life during the 1930's. George Putnam was a book publisher and master publicist who could combine both disciplines to publish books from explorers, big game hunters and aviators who he helped to become famous. He and his wife Dorothy became close personal friends of Amelia and helped her in her business involvements. Eventually their marriage dissolved by mutual consent. Amelia, uneasy with the idea of being potentially restricted in her pursuit of her dreams by being married, was initially made uneasy by George's marriage proposal. She agreed to the wedding after much thought and input from trusted friends. The day of the wedding, she gave George a written letter listing the conditions she needed to have guaranteed if she were to be happy in marriage. This is the crucial point which Butler uses to prove the independent thinking and self-reliance of Amelia. It is reprinted in the book, with its demand of freedom from "any medieval code of faithfulness" (p. 251) by either party, and her earnest need to be able to work or play where she could be herself, as needed. Butler describes this "extraordinary statement" as affirmation of Amelia's fearlessness and self-assurance as well as George's self-confidence and devotion to the relationship by accepting the terms of sexual freedom and the preeminent value of work over marriage.

The marriage did thrive, with George often placed in the position of working to make Amelia's various flying expeditions go smoothly. There was also the issue of the relationship Amelia developed with Gene Vidal, a brilliant, good-looking early aviation entrepreneur who undoubtably had an intimate relationship with Amelia for several years. Their affair did not affect the domestic tranquility of her marriage with George, even though Amelia was instrumental in getting Gene appointed to the position of Director of the Bureau of Air Commerce through her personal friends, Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt.

The 1930's were a time of increased activities which only served to strengthen Amelia's flying skills while adding to her fame. Her ultimate accomplishment was her flight across the Atlantic Ocean in 1932, exactly five years after Charles Lindberg became the first pilot to cross the ocean non-stop. The ocean was crossed by air non-stop several times since 1927 by two-man flying crews, but the technical difficulty and danger posed by this trip was demonstrated by the fact that numerous pilots had died trying to fly the route, and no one had flown the same trip solo. Amelia, in a Lockheed Vega, became the first solo flier across the ocean since Lindbergh, and of course the first woman solo pilot to do so. In addition to her activities promoting flying, especially for women, her partnership with Gene and other businessmen in forming airlines, and her new position as part-time professor at Purdue University, she flew back and forth across the United States on record-attempting flights, took part in the highly popular Bendix Trophy flying competitions, and flew the Pacific Ocean between Hawaii and Oakland, California.

She was approaching her fortieth birthday and must have been thinking about how long she would be doing endurance flying when she decided she would go for the record for circumnavigating the world in an airplane. The famous flyer Wiley Post had accomplished the flight twice, and held the record of traveling the longest distance in the fastest time, but he had only flown a little over seventeen thousand miles. Amelia was going to be the first person to fly around the globe at the equator. She had the best backing available to prepare for the trip. Purdue University had purchased a state-of-the-art Lockheed Electra two-engined, pressurized airplane for "research" purposes, with the understanding Amelia would use it for her record attempt. She could draw upon the Lockheed company facilities to have the airplane's construction expedited and modified to her exacting needs, and draw upon the advice of the company's rising wonder-kid aircraft designer, Kelly Johnson. The political and business connections of Amelia, George and Gene would place the United States military at her assistance, with Army and Navy air facilities and skilled mechanics available along with the posting of Naval and Coast Guard ships in the ocean to help with navigation, and, if necessary, rescue.

The Pacific Ocean could only be crossed in stages by air in those days. That is why the only fliers to cross the ocean flew in planes equipped with pontoons, and the prestigious Pan Am international air service relied on "Clippers", flying boats in need of refueling layovers at a chain of islands crossing the ocean. Flying a land plane like the Electra without floats required some long spans to be negotiated, the longest being between Hawaii and New Guinea, where very few islands existed. The government had already helped Pan Am build up its supply bases at Guam, Wake and Midway Islands, under the urgency of establishing a presence in the Pacific to "prove up" (p. 363) American sovereignty in the face of possible Japanese military encroachments. Now, good friend and lover Gene used the Bureau of Air Commerce resources to Americanize the "Line Islands" south and west of Hawaii, named Jarvis, Baker and Howland. Young Hawaiian men were sent to colonize the islands, living there in shifts under the supervision of the Department of the Interior. Gene arranged to have a landing strip built at Howland, eighteen hundred miles from Hawaii, and Amelia would be the first flier to be able to take advantage of it.

Susan Butler, of course, provides a thorough, and informative, description of the fateful 1937 around-the-world attempt. There were actually two attempts by Amelia that year. The original flight took off in the spring from Oakland, heading West. In addition to her two crew members, she was accompanied by Paul Mantz. Mantz was already famous as a stunt flyer and expert pilot of everything with wings; he had flown planes in every Hollywood film imaginable and would continue for decades in this capacity until he would be killed flying the crate used in the 1965 James Stewart film, "The Flight of the Phoenix." Mantz, with his vast experience, was along to observe the plane's performance during that first leg. He took the controls to land the plane, and a very hard landing led almost to disaster later. Upon taking off for the Hawaii-Howland leg of the trip, the weakened landing gear collapsed with Amelia at the controls and the plane suffered heavy damage. It would take months for Lockheed to put the plane in service again. In the meantime, the Earhart-Mantz friendship would be over. Mantz, bitter at being accused of causing the end of the adventure, spread rumors following Amelia's death that she was lost at sea because she was not experienced enough of a pilot to undertake such an expedition. Butler debunks Mantz's sour grapes accusations. It is interesting that no images of Mantz are contained in the book's picture section.

Amelia, of course, did take off again several months later, flying East this time. This means that the Howland to Hawaii leg of the trip would occur near the end. Another change concerned the crew. Amelia would be assisted by renowned navigator Fred Noonan, as in the first attempt, but they would leave radio operator Harry Manning behind this time. Amelia and Fred successfully handled the grueling ordeal as far as Lae, New Guinea, where the last photographs of them would be taken before they fell off the face of the earth. Of course, the disappearance of Amelia Earhart was only the beginning of a phenomenon of searches of Pacific Islands based on a never-ending supply of speculation, with a slew of books purporting to answer the question of where the Electra ended its trip and why. Butler's belief is that communication and navigation problems, combined with crew fatigue, caused the plane to need to ditch in the ocean and sink after more than twenty-one hours of traveling toward Howland.

As Butler notes, Amelia was aware of the deaths of so many of her contemporary pilots before she began her last trip. Butler recalls how she was America's sweetheart as well as a famous adventurer who seemingly effortlessly set records and, in the process, made us proud to be Americans. Perhaps because she died in her prime, we can't let her go. As Butler concludes, "She is thirty-nine forever. She has become America's dream woman." (p. 420)

[J Godwin · Rating 4 out of 5]

If want all the nitty gritty details of not only this pioneering woman aviator but also many others of that era, of the planes and their modifications, and more, then this is the book for you! The only reason I did not rate this as a 5 is because it included a bit too much detail for my taste. The writing was excellent, the author obviously did TONS of research, and the narrator for the audiobook was absolutely amazing as she sounded exactly like Amelia Earhart would have.

I truly feel like I know Amelia now and the author treated all the information as facts and she lets the reader make his/her own judgments or conclusions. Ms Earhart was a remarkable trailblazer for women's empowerment as well as the field of aviation. Not only did she fly like an ace, her energy and intelligent comprehension of motors, engineering and aerodynamics were instrumental in the founding of airports, airways, and even airlines. You will feel ready to tackle anything after reading this book!

[Edward Champion · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a decent though hardly definitive biography of one of the most amazing women of the 20th century. But it suffers from Butler's feeble grasp of aviation (even though, to her credit, she DOES accurately point to how dangerous solo flying was in the 1920s) and her priority of gossip (interesting, but still) over the personality details that made Earhart who she was. Is it interesting to know that Amelia wore pants because she was painfully self-conscious of her ankles? Yes, particularly since it inspired other women to wear pants. Am I fascinated with the way that Earhart negotiated the terms of her marriage to George Putnam? Of course. But Butler doesn't really connect all this to how formidable she was in planning her flights or making a bundle on the lecture circuit. So I was somewhat frustrated while reading this book. Amelia deserves a better biographer than Susan Butler, but this is a mostly solid collection of "edited highlights."

[Julie · Rating 4 out of 5]

A slooooooow start as the reader will be thrown head first into the history of her grandparents/land/personal details of events that take place years before her birth. All in all - once that happens, the book is easier to read (with lots of background info on every aspect of her life). She is still America's Sweetheart and I'm glad I read it - she's always been a hero of mine.

[M.J. Rodriguez · Rating 5 out of 5]

Anyone who is a fan of Amelia Earhart or classic aviation will really enjoy this book. It is a biography of the leading woman aviatrix in the twentieth century. I was captivated by Amelia's journey from the Midwest to the Pacific Ocean, where she mysteriously disappeared shortly before her 40th birthday. She set a precedent for women who aspired to become pilots.

[Nick Thorne · Rating 2 out of 5]

Amelia Earhart is truly amazing, however this book is poorly written. It reads like a long drawn out Wikipedia article. The first 100 pages about her family history are really irrelevant. Please read a book on Amelia, just not this one.

[Lana · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was alternately interesting and dull. I learned a lot about Amelia's early life. I appreciate that there wasn't a lot of wild conjecture about her disappearance, but I think some more info about the most popular sightings and stories would have been nice.

[dolly · Rating 1 out of 5]

dnf page 258. very boring and author is too hero-worshipping of amelia to be objective.

[Lis Carey · Rating 4 out of 5]

In the late twenties and the 1930s, Amelia Earhart was one of America's heroes--America's heroine, as Butler reminds us was the terminology at the time, when gendered terms were still regarded as the norm rather than a bit weird. What's left to us now is an image of Earhart just out of the cockpit, or about to step into it, and the memory of her disappearance on her around-the-world flight.

But Earhart was much, much more than one image and one heartbreaking last flight. She was far more even than "just" a daredevil pilot in the years when aviation was establishing itself and just beginning to be commercially viable.

Butler digs into Earhart's background, her family background as well as her challenges and achievements before that last, iconic, and tragically ended round-the-world flight.

From her early life sent to live the winter months with her lonely grandmother in Atchison, Kansas, to the increasingly strained years with her parents and sister as her father drank and her parents' marriage deteriorated, she was the bright, adventurous light. She was also often the practical and responsible anchor in the strained family home, sacrificing many of her own opportunities to take care of her mother and sister. Yet along with pursuing a higher education despite the financial constraints, she also began flying early. Her parents had reconciled and her father moved them out to California, and Amelia Earhart discovered flying.

What surprised me is that, after a number of bumps and challenges along the way, the career she established herself in was social work, and the city she did it in was Boston. Who saw that coming? I didn't! How she got from Miss Earhart of the Boston settlement house Dennison House, to Amelia Earhart, first woman to cross the Atlantic in an airplane, makes a fascinating story. From there, we embark on her other adventures, and on the equally public writing, public relations, and teaching that, for her, for the flyer who said she still considered herself a social worker, were an integral part of what she was doing.

The real revelation, for me, is how involved she was in the early development of commercial aviation.

Of course, we all know the ending, the flight from which she did not make it home. Even there, though, I learned quite a bit.

Recommended.

[Jack Terry · Rating 1 out of 5]

I only finished reading this book because I knew so little about Amelia Earhart before I started reading it - namely the fatal attempt to circumnavigate the world - that learning anything would be a bonus. I feel like I learned about her in spite of the author's best intentions. When the author wasn't be repetitive she was being contradictory. Chronology and logic had no room in this book, characters and events were mentioned, discarded and then brought back out of context many chapters later. Twice she referred to her Pacific flight as an example of the challenges Earhart had overcome in comparison to the societal pressures she was facing, yet hadn't even described the flight yet.

She seemed obsessed with Earhart's financial situation even if she continually flip-flopped on it: she first mentioned how poor her childhood had been, but when then later describing her childhood mentioned they had their own train car provided by her father's job. She was constantly struggling with poverty yet could buy a car and a plane. In the span of a half a page the author said both that Earhart was making enough to have paid off her debts and that she was still $1,000 in debt. So which one is it?

The people are as flat as the story. I feel like I learned nothing about who Earhart and the people in her life really were. She was engaged to one person, married to another, and carrying on at least one affair (and possibly more) but we never learn much about any of these people. There is as much time spent describing her grandparents and ancestors as there is her fatal expedition. Earhart was so much more than just a pilot - social worker, feminist, educator - that it would be a tragedy if there isn't a much better biography out there.

[Christina · Rating 5 out of 5]

After reading this incredible book by Susan Butler i have a great appreciation for Amelia Earhart and all that she did for aviation and women during her time. so many people are only taught that she was the first woman to cross the Atlantic solo and she was a great aviatrix and about her unfortunate death and nothing else. Earhart was an extrodinary person, she was brilliant and courageous. how many people knew that not long before she disappeared she taught at Perdu University in Michigan on aviation? this book is what students should learn about her not just her journeys and death... yes they are a big part of her history but they're just the tip of what really made Amelia Earhart so enduring and fascinating. Susan Butler did amazing job uncovering the Amelia Earhart many do not know about.

[Sarah Booth · Rating 4 out of 5]

A complete in depth research and overview of Amelia Earhart's life. As has been mentioned by one reviewer, the book does go on a bit much about her relatives and those who were the responsible for bringing her into this world and what their lives were like than may have been necessary, but sometimes it's good to have a solid foundation to see into a persons life as it was fashioned by the people raising them. The story covered Amelia's great achievements and her private personal life that might have raised an eyebrow at the time. Earhart was a woman completely her own boss and a trailblazer ahead of her time, who trumped all sterotypes and was the exception to every rule. The book did drag - in that you know what the ending is going to be and it's not particularly happy, but it does give you a great education and look into her life.

[Natalya · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really enjoyed this book. Amelia is very inspiring. Shows how to live if you want an eventful life. I especially enjoyed her poem courage.

Courage is the price which life exacts for granting peace.
The soul that knows it not, knows no release
From little things;

Knows not the livid loneliness of fear
Nor mountain heights, where bitter joy you can hear
The sound of wings.

How can life grant us boon of living, compensate,
For dull gray ugliness and pregnant hate
Unless we dare

The soul's dominion? Each time we make a choice we pay
With courage to behold resistless day
And count it fair.

Beautiful

[Jillwitucki · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the biography of Amelia Earhart, and it's so interesting. Can you believe that when she began to fly, women pilots were not allowed to fly when they were on their menses!!!!!!!!! (Well, you know how Crazy and unstable we women are). This is just one of so many interesting views of the times that she had to overcome to make her dreams come true. It's a great read--very well written.

[Joy H.]

RE: _East to the Dawn: The Life of Amelia Earhart_ by Susan Butler

IMDb mentions this book in the writing credits of the 2009 movie, "Amelia". See the IMDb page at:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1129445/f...

[Kay · Rating 4 out of 5]

at the start of this book I could have give up but no I carried on it was OK I found it to keep repeating itself quiet a bit.
The story on Amelia don't really start till 20 pages in.

[Maude Martin · Rating 2 out of 5]

I couldn't finish this book and had to put it down after 200 pages. It was horrible. Just a list of facts strung together.

[Douglas Ogurek · Rating 4 out of 5]

Before reading East to the Dawn, all I remembered about Amelia Earhart was that she was a female pilot who disappeared during her attempt to become the first woman to circumnavigate the globe via airplane. I didn’t even know she had a fellow in the plane with her when she was doing that.

This book fleshes her out as one of the most influential female characters in American history. It details not only that doomed flight but also Earhart’s many other accomplishments. Despite all Earhart’s flying feats, what truly makes her a hero is her passion for women’s empowerment.

She repeatedly broke records for altitude, speed, and distance. For instance, she was the first woman to cross the Atlantic in a plane both as a passenger and flying alone. At her height in the mid-1930s, Earhart was the most popular woman in America, and maybe the world. The book reports that she was pulling in (mostly through the lecture circuit) about $40K a year at a time when half of men were making less than $1,000 annually. She would draw crowds of thousands and make front page news in The New York Times. And Eleanor Roosevelt was practically begging her to stay at the White House.

East to the Dawn portrays its protagonist as a precocious adventurer, from building a mini roller coaster as a child and climbing on buildings on her college campus to racing across the Atlantic. It also reveals just how dangerous things were for pilots back then. When she was testing one plane, for example, Earhart crashed three times.

The book also hints at sexual independence and states that if Earhart was not happy in a year, her new husband, publisher George Putnam, would have to agree to a divorce. It goes on to discuss her relationship with another man while she was married to Putnam. Earhart’s open relationship with Putman reinforces her desire to avoid being controlled like her alcoholic father Edwin controlled her mother.

Although image was critical for Earhart—she once slept on a new leather jacket for three nights to make it look more worn—she also demonstrated humility. My favorite anecdote involves 250,000 fans greeting her in Boston following a key flight. Afterward, she visited her former place of employment, where she was a social worker before she caught the flight bug. When Earhart left, reporters asked her coworkers what she said about the flight. She didn’t say anything about herself, they said. She only asked about us.

The final part of the biography covers the heroine’s doomed flight with her navigator Fred Noonan. Much of this section discusses them getting lost and shifting course. I listened to the audiobook version, which causes difficulty in visualizing how this all plays out from a geographic standpoint. It might be more effective to go with the book version and consult a map or globe for a clearer understanding.

East to the Dawn describes the life of a fiercely independent woman with an energetic personality defying the odds to attain fame in a male-dominated endeavor. Her disappearance overshadows her legacy. While she may have broken many records with her flights, perhaps her highest achievement is what she did for women.

[Jill Moore · Rating 5 out of 5]

Most of the world knows AE as a master aviator and an enigmatic legend that disappeared during an attempted round-the-world flight in 1937. What this book does is capture the lesser known facts of her life outside of flying, and gives a glimpse into her indomitable spirit, her guts, her fearlessness in all things.

Family - She was adored by family and friends as a girl. She was everyone's favorite babysitter and storyteller. Amelia's father was an alcoholic and her parents eventually divorced, leaving her mother to financially struggle with two young daughters to care for. Amelia never complained openly of this.

College - She went to Columbia University for pre-med and left the program when the cost was too much.

Social Work - She worked as a teacher in 1925, and then as a social worker at Denison House (a women's settlement house) in Boston. Amelia was in charge of adult ed, girls' programs, and organizing women's clubs, like the Syrian Mothers Club and others. She coached girls' basketball and fencing.

Author and Poet - She published two books in her lifetime. Her poem entitled Courage is a masterpiece.

The work that she did to further women's opportunities in aviation and careers in general was astounding and inspirational. As a lecturer, she traveled the US, speaking to more than 136 groups totaling more than 80,000 people. In 1935 and 1936, she was a lecturer at Purdue University, where she would hold the young women students rapt with her ideas on women, education, and careers while sitting atop a grand piano, swinging her legs.

I'll leave you with this quote from one of her lectures that no doubt enraged the male professors and students. "Many divorces are caused by the complete dependence of the female. At first there is a strong sexual attraction that sometimes masquerades as love. Everything goes well until the first financial crisis jars the man's confidence and threatens the woman's security. The woman can't help. All she can be is dependent because that is what she's been trained to be. Instead of standing beside the man, giving him encouragement by contributing her own efforts, she becomes accusatory and sullen and the sex drive that passed for love is no longer enough to satisfy either of them. If we begin to think and respond as capable human beings able to deal with, and even enjoy, the challenges of life, then we surely will have something more to contribute to marriage than our bodies." 1937. Wow.

[Megan · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’ve been rating and reviewing books on Goodreads for multiple years now and I feel once again I have to say it is difficult to rate this book in terms of stars. The subject matter of this books was incredibly interesting and I feel like I learned a great deal about Amelia Earhart- especially considering that what I knew about her before was essentially what you can find in kids’ books. In terms of content this book is great but it isn’t very well written. Butler makes strange jumps in her narrative that don’t always connect. There are also some mechanical errors that I would think a proofreader would have caught. At times it could even be distracting. So much so that this incredibly interesting book took longer to read.

But enough tearing down... why did I give a book that wasn’t well written 3 stars instead of 2? Because this biography didn’t feel like it had some hidden agenda. This book didn’t tear Amelia down or make her a saint. It’s clear Butler doesn’t think much of AE’s hubby, but for the most part it doesn’t feel judgmental. I feel like it even stays true to the attitude Amelia had about feminism- it promoted a strong woman and recognized that she wasn’t the only one, but didn’t make men seem like the enemy.

As a woman in the twenty-first century it is both inspiring and depressing to see how far women have come (inspiring how far how fast, depressing that it wasn’t so long ago that things were so bad). And I think this book captures that sentiment well. Warts and all I think the “real” portrait of Amelia is inspiring.

[Mary Keen · Rating 3 out of 5]

recently saw an excellent biography on TV and got interested. Well narrated, iMO

This book gave me lots of information and understanding about an amazing woman, but all the background on her family and every single thing that had any relation to her life or her relatives made me long for the by-gone Readers' Digest condensed books --or a ruthless editor. I think the author worked so hard at her research that she wanted to include every minor detail.

Side comment: As a person always frustrated with my straight hair, i was interested that she worked hard to make her hair look attractive --i tho't she had had naturally wavy hair which looked great with no tho't on her part. Also that such a perfect person was concerned that her legs were unattractive and happy to cover them up with slacks.

Amelia Earhart did overcome a lot in her early years, including riches to rags, but came out a sort of renaissance woman, at least in her college years.

I was glad when the book finally got into her actual preparations for the flight and the attempt itself, of course knowing the sad outcome, but not how it happened.

Overdrive @ 1.25 speed.

[Charles Wilson · Rating 5 out of 5]

A compelling and believable history of the life of a true heroin.

Of the many books I have read on the life and loss of Amelia Earhart “East to the Dawn” is (in my opinion) the most believable and factual “life history” of this dedicated aviation pioneer.

While there are, and probably always will be conflicting opinions about the demise of A.E. and F.N. the truth is that the real ending to this story may never be known; did A.E.’s plane crash at sea and sink to depths unknown? were A.E. and F.N. rescued by Japanese forces only to die (in one manner or another) in captivity?

Books have been written in support of these and other conclusions, some factual, others less so; some rely on first hand contact with those who say they saw, or say they heard, or say they think, in the end different readers will believe what they believe. In any event an objective reader should conclude that this telling of the story is worth the time it took to read it....
Enjoy...

[Mary · Rating 4 out of 5]

I finished this biography the morning before news broke of the newly discovered photograph supposedly showing Amelia and Frank alive after the disappearance of their plane in 1937. Although the appeal of Amelia's story clearly hasn't wained for the public, Butler's biography paints a picture both of why it has not, and also why it should not. Looking deeper into Amelia's family heritage and tumultuous childhood, and giving modern readers a thorough schooling on the state of women's rights - both legally and culturally - during the 1920's and 30's, I realized that the real significance of Amelia's rise in the public eye goes far beyond that of a charismatic explorer having exciting adventures, but is in fact an important part of the narrative of women's progress towards not just freedom, but also agency and equal regard.

[Jeremy Moore · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was disappointed with how long this book took to get through. I was ready to read a book about Amelia Earhart the person - not just the aviator, and hoped it would include as much detail as exists on her disappearance. What I read instead was a book that felt it was out to prove how meticulously researched a book could be. I get it, you read every single journal even remotely related to Earhart's life. But I don't need to know that her grandparents wrote her parents out of their will - at least I don't need to read (listen) about it for over an hour.

The book has interesting information, just hidden in a densely written overdetailed slog. I would have given up if not for a strong interest in her disappearance - I was let down at the end. I understand that the nature of a disappearance means there isn't as much to know as you want to, but I thought there was more story to tell.