New-In Signed Amelia Earhart Memoir

New to our Colorado shop is a very collectible, signed first edition of Amelia Earhart’s 20 Hs. 40 Min.: Our Flight in the Friendship. In the book, Earhart's shares her experience of being the first woman to cross the Atlantic Ocean by airplane in 1928. Our printing is signed by Earhart on the first free endpage!

The genesis of that record-setting journey can be traced to Charles Lindbergh’s historic solo trip across the Atlantic the previous year, an event that captured the public interest with intensity and frenzy. The wealthy socialite Amy Phipps Guest was first to express interest in being the first woman to travel by plane across the Atlantic. But after deciding that such a flight might be too dangerous for her, Guest offered to sponsor that trip for “another girl with the right image.” Earhart was ultimately given the opportunity to be that person. Earhart’s interest in flight and close physical resemblance to Charles A. Lindbergh made her an easy choice for the project coordinators and promoters, aviator Richard Byrd and publisher George Putnam. 

On the morning of June 17th 1928, Amelia Earhart was one of three individuals departing on a plane from Trepassey Harbor, Newfoundland for her pioneering flight across the Atlantic Ocean. Wilmer Stultz was the pilot of that plane, a Fokker F.VIIb/3m aircraft known as the Friendship. Lou Gordon was the co-pilot as well as mechanic. Earhart was nominally considered just a passenger, although she was assigned the task of keeping the flight log. 20 hours and 40 minutes after leaving Newfoundland, Stultz landed the plane in the town of Burry Point, Wales. As a result of this flight, Earhart became the first woman to fly across the Atlantic Ocean.

Thousands of people were on hand to give Earhart, Stultz, and Gordon a hearty welcome after their plane landed in Wales. Upon returning to the United States, the three of them were treated to a ticker-tape parade in New York City and a reception at the White House with President Calvin Coolidge. 

Although Earhart was dubbed by the United Press as “Queen of the Air,” did not overstate her role on that history-making flight and made it clear that she never even handled the airplane’s controls at any point. She even said in one interview, “Stultz did all the flying — had to. I was just baggage, like a sack of potatoes.” She added, however, that perhaps someday she would make that flight alone, an accomplishment that took place just four years later.