The Aviator and the Showman

Amelia Earhart, George Putnam, and the Marriage That Made an American Icon

De: Laurie Gwen Shapiro

Narrado por: Stefanie Powers

A New York Times Editors' Choice • CBS Sunday Morning Summer Book Report Pick • New York Times “Books to Read in July” • A Town and Country Best Book of July • An Amazon Best Book of July • A Barnes & Noble Best Book of July • A LitHub Best Reviewed Nonfiction in July • A BookBub Beach Read Pick • A New Yorker Best Book We Read This Week • Southern CALIBA and MIBA Regional Bestseller

"Laurie Gwen Shapiro has dug deep into the archives, and emerged with an exhilarating tale of the adventurous life of Amelia Earhart and the remarkable relationship that helped to forge her legend. Yet Shapiro goes even further—stripping away the myths and revealing something far more profound and intricate and true. The Aviator and the Showman is one terrific book.”—David Grann, New York Times bestselling author of The Wager and Killers of the Flower Moon

The riveting and cinematic story of a partnership that would change the world forever

In 1928, a young social worker and hobby pilot named Amelia Earhart arrived in the office of George Putnam, heir to the Putnam & Sons throne and hitmaker, on the hunt for the right woman for a secret flying mission across the Atlantic. A partnership—professional and soon otherwise—was born.

The Aviator and the Showman unveils the untold story of Amelia's decade-long marriage to George Putnam, offering an intimate exploration of their relationship and the pivotal role it played in her enduring legacy. Despite her outwardly modest and humble image, Amelia was fiercely driven and impossibly brave, a lifelong feminist and trailblazer in her personal and professional life. 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. 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 is a captivating figure to many, but the truth about her life is often overshadowed by myth and legend. In this cinematic new account, Laurie Gwen Shapiro emphasizes Earhart’s multifaceted human side, her struggles, and her authentic aspirations, the truths behind her brave pursuits and the compromises she made to fit into societal expectations. Drawing from a trove of new sources including undiscovered audio interviews, The Aviator and the Showman is a gripping and passionate tale of adventure, colorful characters, hubris, and a complex and a vivid portrait of a marriage that shaped the trajectory of an iconic life.

©2025 Laurie Gwen Shapiro (P)2025 Penguin Audio

Reseñas de la Crítica

“The Aviator and the Showman is a lavish, layered narrative, a primer on early aviation and the transition of publishing from genteel carriage trade to an industry increasingly reliant on blockbusters…[the book] reveals the magnitude of our celebrity worship, the wonder of what we don’t understand. Shapiro captures the thrill of a leap into the unknown, recalling the works of Jon Krakauer and Sebastian Junger.”—Hamilton Cain, LA Times

“[A]n eye-opening look into the lives of a Jazz Age power couple and their dangerous flirtation with fame. She exposes all sides of their interlocking personalities, virtues and failings. This is an exciting, well-written account that offers new insight into a historical figure many people think they know, but really don’t.”—The Washington Post

“Offers an account of the famous pilot's marriage to George Putnam . . . both a romantic and mutually beneficial professional relationship in the six years leading up to her death.”—People

Interesting, yet the main characters, empty shells

The book, well written, well researched, well narrated. The book is a myth buster. Necessary. The main characters, profoundly uninteresting & unsympathetic. The 1930s equivalent of the empty shells who populate the front covers of supermarket tabloids, People & Us magazines & the like. The endless fascination about Earhart’s disappearance can stop now. She was utterly ill equipped & ill prepared for that round the world flight. She knew it, her husband knew it too. Unfortunately she took her nice navigator down into the vast Pacific with her due to her own incompetent decisions.

Story

Text was often repetitious. Often sounded like an unvarnished ad for Amelia’s accomplishments. Sometimes short on facts and long on hyperbole.

Revealing, but needed a stronger editor

The aviation story of AE’s life is inherently of interest, as is her relationship with the deeply unappealing George Putnam; the research is comprehensive; and the narrative often flows engagingly. But the author seems to have been determined to include in the narrative every factoid and from every note she took during her research. The book would have been better if her editor had cut it by about 1/4.

The Real and facinating story! Page turner!

Loved it! Felt like you were right with them and all the accounts are backed up with deep research. Best book I've read in a long time. Love the narrators voice too. EXCELLENT all the way around. Highly recommend!

Amelia the Person, Not the Myth

I’ve been eagerly awaiting this book, and it absolutely delivers. Just when you think there’s nothing new to learn about Amelia Earhart—think again.

This book is packed with detail, yet never bogged down by it. The pages fly by as you’re drawn into the full who, what, when, where, and why of Amelia’s life. It offers a deeply personal look at what made her tick, revealing sides of her few have known. Get to know Amelia the person not the myth.

I can’t recommend it highly enough. A truly exceptional piece of research… certain to be a definitive tome in the Earhart canon.

Well Researched, Well Written

Shapiro fills in many important gaps for those of us who have basic knowledge of Amelia Earhart. No matter what my thoughts and feelings are immediately after finishing the book, I am aware that the author, part detective, part journalist—both archetypes committed to truth—did a masterful job. Although I have enjoyed following the many stories of those still searching for Amelia Earhart’s plane, this book grounds me in the reality that the simple truth of this aviator’s end is probably the likeliest: she crashed in the Pacific with Fred Noonan and died. The plane is probably at the bottom of the ocean. Continually resurrecting the search for Amelia’s plane is a way of refusing to let go of someone we love.

One repeated theme of Earhart’s lack of experience early on, and later, her lack of vital training hours, explains much of Amelia’s luck, and later, her final misfortune. Amelia also refused to stay up-to-date on aviator communication skills; she seemed flip about this, too, in spite of how nervous she was about locating Howland “island” (really a tiny spit of land in the middle of nowhere). Her ending is a series of poor judgement calls by her as well as those around her, all done while hurrying to finish so as to rake in cash during the 30s.

Finally, the very detailed story of George Putnam as Amelia’s promoter is much appreciated. Amelia was ambitious, really wanted to continue flying, and this union solved that problem. However, her constant public appearances cost her time in the air for practice, or even for joy. Ultimately, her persona as a champion of women’s rights is her legacy, and a gift to all of us, even today.

Long lists of friends and acquaintances that only people living in the 1930’s would recognize or care about.

I enjoyed the flying parts which is why I bought it. The reasons for the problems in the last chapter surprised me but I won’t reveal them here. The author needed an editor, or should have written two books. One about Amelia, the other about Putnam and the literati.

Complicated People, A Vanished World, and The Myth

Everyone interested in Earhart thinks they know how her life ended and her myth and afterlife began. But - how did she get there?

This is an amazing and enlightening book.

What I admired: deep and careful research, clear writing. The author brushes off layers of tall tales, sensational speculations, and lets the people emerge in all their messy glory.

An age appropriate biography of Amelia was one of the first books I read - 4th grade, I think. Her courage, accomplishments, and mysterious disappearance inspired me enormously and encouraged me to dare. Then during the 1960's several widely promoted hunts for her bones, plane, etc sparked new books and articles about her, building her myth, further obscuring the real person. Putnam, if mentioned at all, was "her husband."

In this double biography, the author achieves a remarkable feat of time travel. The early 1900's through the beginning of WW II, and the unimaginable birth and growth of aviation, might be a thousand years ago in our true understanding in spite of or maybe because of all the TV series and movies about the era that we've been consuming avidly during the past 30 years.

This book brings that time alive through the deeds, relationships, words, of the complex characters of Amelia, George, and their people.

It would be easy to condemn Putnam as a cruel opportunist who exploited Earhart as he pursued his own narcissistic schemes. On the other hand, it is probable that Amelia would never have achieved what she did without his social connections, genius as a publicist, and access to funding.

I was shocked to learn about Amelia's shaky training and comparative lack of flying hours when she became prominent. One the other hand, it throws her brave adventurousness into even brighter light.

What I did not like as much - I found the narrator who has a great reading voice delivered the script too slowly. Easy to remedy: turn up the app speed.

Tha story

Loved the narration! The narrator was superb from the beginning to end! She lent so much to this well-researched book!

Boring treatment of an interesting subject

This book is boring. It is pages and pages of “George is bad” without revealing anything new about Earhart.