The Aviator and the Showman
Amelia Earhart, George Putnam, and the Marriage that Made an American Icon
by Laurie Gwen Shapiro
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Pub Date Jul 15 2025 | Archive Date Sep 13 2025
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Description
“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.
Available Editions
| EDITION | Other Format |
| ISBN | 9780593295908 |
| PRICE | $35.00 (USD) |
| PAGES | 512 |
Available on NetGalley
Featured Reviews
Brendan D, Reviewer
Laurie Gwen Shapiro had me at the prologue.
Her newest book, the Aviator and the Showman, looks at the intertwined lives of Amelia Earhart and her (eventual) husband/handler/manipulator/bad cop/person everyone hates, George Putnam. What sold me in the prologue was Shapiro's stated intent to look at all aspects of the legend of Amelia Earhart. Shapiro is clear that Amelia was a complex person who could be wonderful, flighty (you can be dang sure that pun was intended), supremely confident, and amazingly arrogant. She was beloved by almost anyone who met her, but she also married one of the most unpleasant men on the planet according to many sources. He was her attack dog, but how much did she know about what he did on her behalf? And also, was it ever really on her behalf or was it to line his own pockets?
I love it when a book is informative while leaving me thinking. Shapiro presents the facts as best she can and leaves the reader with the facts to decide for themselves. I don't want an author to tell me who a person was. I want them to give me the knowledge to make my own decisions. It especially helps that Shapiro knows how to tell a story. The book is not short, but it is also never boring. Each chapter contains so much insight and even finds some time for name-dropping and side characters. Thankfully, Shapiro masterfully knows when to take a quick side quest but never lets diversions get in the way of the main story. Shapiro will also add some witty asides and some harmless conjecture for effect, which I enjoyed, but I know some people want their non-fiction to be laser-focused on the facts. I never found it distracting and Shapiro always calls it out when she's not sure or the record is unclear.
In the end, this book finally gave me what I wanted. After reading or watching documentaries about Amelia, I finally understand why she was so captivating to the public during her heyday. She's not a legend anymore, but she is something much better than that after reading this. She is a fully realized person all her own. As for Putnam, well, he was whoever he needed to be to make great copy.
(This book was provided as an advance copy by Netgalley and Viking Books.)
