East to the Dawn

The Life of Amelia Earhart

By: Susan Butler

Narrated by: Anna Fields

Length: 18 hrs and 41 mins

Publisher's summary

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. Through years of research and interviews with many of the surviving people who knew Amelia, Susan Butler has recreated a remarkably vivid and multifaceted portrait of this enigmatic figure. Listeners will experience Amelia in all her permutations: 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 battled incredible odds to achieve her fame, succeeded beyond her wildest dreams, and yet never lost sight of her beginnings, ensuring that her success would secure a path for women after her.

©1997 Susan Butler (P)1998 Blackstone Audio Inc.

Critic reviews

"Certainly the single best book that we now have on Earhart's life....Earhart comes into sharper, more realistic focus through Butler's lens." (Washington Post)
"Filled with wonderful details about Earhart's glamorous lifestyle and the wild, dangerous world of early aviators....the still enthralling figure of the aviator...powerfully come[s] through." (Kirkus Reviews)
"The reader closes East to the Dawn with the lingering realization of how truly contemporary Amelia Earhart remains and with a new understanding of the love and admiration she earned from colleagues and the public at large....her insistence on being her own person while fighting for causes larger than herself continue to command our respect and fuel our dreams." (Los Angeles Times)

I have fallen in love with Amelia

Anna Fields does a very good job narrarating this book. I decided to read/listen to this because I myself am a pilot and had always admired AE. After seeing the recent movie starring Hillary Swank, I wanted to know more about this amazing woman. East to the Dawn is another classic example of "the book is much better than the movie." The big screen could never provide the detail that Susan Butler provides. From flying to helping her gender live up to their potential, she was passionate, smart, and effective in her pursuits. One of AE's famous quotes was "The most effective way to do it, is to do it." To me, this simply summarizes her way of life and what made her so special.

I now know Amelia

It's an interesting book in that I now know, presumably, Amelia as a person. Her entire life including every family member, friends and foes (actually, I do not think she had any enemies). It is rich with history regarding the beginnings of air flight when it was truly a daring feat. Anyone who is a fan of aeronautics will definitely enjoy this book. For me, it was a little more difficult to get through -- although it was worth the read to learn so much about that time and the types of people who became interested in flying virtual death traps. Even if you have seen the PBS special programs, regarding Amelia, this with take you to much greater heights! However, I have not finished the book yet -- I have a about 4 hours left out of a 19 hour book.

Educational, well-written and touching

I bought this audiobook because I wanted something interesting for my commute. I got it in this bio. It's very very detailed (who knew that Amelia went to school in Philly?! I didn't!) and recounts her entire family - sisters, cousins, parents and all the issues that come with them. My first thought was, "Why are you telling me about these people? Why should I care?"

The reason is this: by learning about Amelia's origins and formative years, you learn why she became the woman she was.

We all know the end - her plane was lost near Howland Island in the Pacific Ocean. But the author very nicely fills in the blanks.

Finding out 'the rest' just makes her disappearance all the more heartbreaking.

A must-read for anyone interested in stories of influential women, history or aviation.

Disappearance gets too little attention.

I might have preferred an abridged edition. This version is long, with a lot of details about Amelia's early life, including grandparents and great grandparents! It does present a more complete rendering of Amelia than you will find in many books, but all this detail can be tedious.

I thought it interesting that the book did not mention the idea that Amelia was a lesbian or bisexual, though it is clear that Amelia's interest in men was always secondary to her flying, and her marriage may have been one of convenience.

I felt Amelia's disappearance got too little attention. It is discussed, but easily comprises less than 10 percent of the book. After all, her disappearance is what interests many people more than anything else. Whole books have been written about the disappearance. I recently listened to one of these ("Finding Amelia"). If you want to know more about the disappearance, and get a different take on some of the details surrounding it, I recommend that book, though it too can be tedious in its own way.

I felt "East to the Dawn" was the better book, more professionally written, with a better structure and a better sense of balance. The writer presents a sane picture of the disappearance that is not couched in conspiracy theories. Interestingly, the Nikumaroro Island theory is not mentioned at all, though that theory has gotten a lot of attention in recent years.

The Definitive Biography

Much like "Hughes" was the definitive biography of Howard Hughes, "East to the Dawn" is for Amelia Earhart. Both books show all facets of these aviation pioneers. And both dive into the little details of not only the subjects but also of the environment in which they lived.

The narration is lovely, and easy to follow. The only negative is that the genealogy of Ms. Earhart at the beginning is a little dry (though important for a definitive biography). It picks up tremendously once the book focuses on Amelia.

Knowing more about women and aviation

This book was very informative, interesting about the life and limitation of Amelia Earhart. It doesn't try to make her more than she was, more or less perfect. It is fascinating in the advances of avionics at the time, and the roles women had to assume. The narration is fantastic, I sure do miss Anna Fields.

Spoiler-proof History

We all know what happened. So, no biography of Amelia Earhart can give us a surprise or a happy ending.

That said, this was a most interesting listen. I'm not a history-of-flight addict and mostly wanted to hear an outstanding woman's story of life in a man's industry. I learned a lot about her and, incidentally, about flying. Earhart is presented here as a fully-dimensional person, with great strengths and pretty great faults too, at times.

Perhaps because of my lack of fascination with flying itself, the book was somewhat too long for my taste. I stayed with it and, as I have said, learned a lot. Anyone who has a particular interest in the history of aviation may well treasure every word of this long biography. For the rest of us, it's a good look at an intriguing woman and at an exciting era in American history, but it's a bit too long.

Great book with too many details

Like others have already said, the book is interesting but poorly edited. Very enjoyable at best but drags on from time to time. Great narration and interesting topic!

Excessive Glorification Not Deserved

An interesting read but the author spends the first half describing how our heroine lies, cheats, misrepresents herself to get jobs, positions that she does not deserve, e.g., three months at a university that offers an engineering degree justifies putting engineer BSEE on her resume.

Lying to get a position she did not deserve, parlays that into meeting influential and wealthy people just so she can claim to be the first woman across the Atlantic while she sat on a pile of gas cans behind the pilot and co-pilot to get a female version of Charles Lindberghs;s recognition is ludicrous.

The author finishes up with an unabashed glorification of how streets, towns and even airports were named after her. I guess the message is marry money; throw in a big dash of deception to get what you want is OK.

Other than that it is an easy read.

Do we need to hear every detail?

Any additional comments?

Clearly the author did her research but instead of choosing what to put into the story to make it interesting she put in what seems like every detail anyone ever shared with her about Amelia and her family. And she says over and over 'and even 70 - or 60 or whatever - years later' this person 'still remembers" what ever tiny detail "about Amelia." Often she sites a detail I can remember about people I knew as a child that were NOT famous 15 years after we played together. The narrator seems bored, poor inflection and poor flow in reading the story. Tired to get through more than a few hours, then had to ask myself, why? And stopped it right there.