Sun Dec 23, 2012, 11:36 PM

Hissyspit (40,025 posts)

Amelia Earhart Wasn't Scared To Cross The Atlantic In A Rickety Plane, But She Was Afraid Of This...

Last edited Sun Dec 23, 2012, 11:37 PM USA/ET - Edit history (1)

http://www.upworthy.com/amelia-earhart-wasnt-scared-to-cross-the-atlantic-in-a-rickety-plane-but-she-was

Rebecca Eisenberg

Amelia Earhart didn't want to get married. She wanted to fly planes around the world. Much to her dismay, however, marriage was expected of all young women. So when George P. Putnam, who had already proposed to her five times, proposed for a sixth time, she begrudgingly said yes.

But not before laying down some surprisingly modern boundaries first.

ORIGINAL: By Amelia Earhart. Found in the Purdue University Library by Amanda Hess. Thumbnail image from Wikimedia Commons.

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13 replies	Author	Time	Post
Amelia Earhart Wasn't Scared To Cross The Atlantic In A Rickety Plane, But She Was Afraid Of This... (Original post)	Hissyspit	Dec 2012	OP
I wonder what compelled her to say yes...	Luminous Animal	Dec 2012	#1
Money & career advantage, I think. She'd been born into a regional upper-middle-class family on	HiPointDem	Dec 2012	#13
that is the sweetest, the sappiest, most romantic thing i have ever read	unblock	Dec 2012	#2
Good for her: she wanted an open marriage.	CaliforniaPeggy	Dec 2012	#3
I read this as she was gay	BainsBane	Dec 2012	#12
Incredible letter - reveals her personal life.	Octafish	Dec 2012	#4
i don't think it's that she supported open marriage as much as	JI7	Dec 2012	#5
When I read that, what I get from it is how an incredibly intelligent person	Baitball Blogger	Dec 2012	#6
Honesty & Caring. Didn't someone well known teach this?	cbrer	Dec 2012	#7
Wow. I like her even more now. n/t	Whovian	Dec 2012	#8
She was making it very clear	EmeraldCityGrl	Dec 2012	#9
Why would anyone want to get married to a person who wrote that?	Marr	Dec 2012	#10
The heart wants what the heart wants.	Hissyspit	Dec 2012	#11

Response to Hissyspit (Original post)

Sun Dec 23, 2012, 11:43 PM

Luminous Animal (17,280 posts)

1. I wonder what compelled her to say yes...

Clearly she did not want to be married to the guy.

But, good for her for spelling out the terms.

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Response to Luminous Animal (Reply #1)

Mon Dec 24, 2012, 05:05 AM

HiPointDem (16,776 posts)

13. Money & career advantage, I think. She'd been born into a regional upper-middle-class family on

Last edited Mon Dec 24, 2012, 05:09 AM USA/ET - Edit history (1)

its way down. She had an inheritance in trust which ran out when she was a young woman. She had to sell her plane & go to work as a teacher.

He was a publishing heir.

Amelia Earhart's fame was sort of stage-managed:

A significant event in Putnam's personal and business life occurred in 1928, before the merger. Because of his reputation for working with Lindbergh, he was contacted by Amy (Phipps) Guest, a wealthy American living in London who wanted to sponsor the first-ever flight by a woman across the Atlantic Ocean.

(Phipps Guest came from the Carnegie Steel Phipps family & married into the British Guest family, also big steel money and very old money; still in the society pages today)

Guest asked Putnam to find a suitable candidate and he eventually came up with the then-unknown Amelia Earhart. As it turned out, they shared many common interests: hiking, swimming, camping, riding, tennis and golf. Having divorced in 1929, Putnam spent an extensive amount of time with Earhart, which resulted in an intimate relationship and, in 1931, their marriage.

Following Earhart's successful 1932 flight, Putnam organized her public engagements and speaking tour across the United States. Shortly after, he took charge of promoting her career and arranged for endorsement contracts with a luggage manufacturer and a line of ladies' sportswear. In addition, Putnam published two books Earhart wrote about her flying adventures.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_P._Putnam

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Response to Hissyspit (Original post)

Sun Dec 23, 2012, 11:45 PM

unblock (23,740 posts)

2. that is the sweetest, the sappiest, most romantic thing i have ever read

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Response to Hissyspit (Original post)

Sun Dec 23, 2012, 11:55 PM

CaliforniaPeggy (103,905 posts)

3. Good for her: she wanted an open marriage.

Many people don't agree with that now, never mind back then.

I respect her openness, her candor.

I wonder if they were happy...

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Response to CaliforniaPeggy (Reply #3)

Mon Dec 24, 2012, 04:35 AM

BainsBane (9,160 posts)

12. I read this as she was gay

And might have a lover.

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Response to Hissyspit (Original post)

Mon Dec 24, 2012, 12:48 AM

Octafish (33,393 posts)

4. Incredible letter - reveals her personal life.

A most modern woman in every way. Thank you for giving us the privilege of knowing her personal side, Hissyspit.

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Response to Hissyspit (Original post)

Mon Dec 24, 2012, 12:52 AM

JI7 (40,048 posts)

5. i don't think it's that she supported open marriage as much as

that she felt pressured to be married. but she didn't really want to so it was more of just doing it to make others happy or to fit into what is expected.

i guess similar to how someone gay might marry someone of the opposite sex.

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Response to Hissyspit (Original post)

Mon Dec 24, 2012, 01:13 AM

Baitball Blogger (11,202 posts)

6. When I read that, what I get from it is how an incredibly intelligent person

learned to cope by living a double life. One for appearances and the other for real.

Though I can understand why someone who was so ahead of her time would have to live like that back in the day, I do see how it creates complications once the cover life is exposed.

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Response to Hissyspit (Original post)

Mon Dec 24, 2012, 01:31 AM

cbrer (1,831 posts)

7. Honesty & Caring. Didn't someone well known teach this?

Oh yeah...Jesus.

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Response to Hissyspit (Original post)

Mon Dec 24, 2012, 01:36 AM

Whovian (2,866 posts)

8. Wow. I like her even more now. n/t

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Response to Hissyspit (Original post)

Mon Dec 24, 2012, 02:38 AM

EmeraldCityGrl (4,308 posts)

9. She was making it very clear

she was not going to be a good little wife and engage in
sex if she wasn't interested. He had her blessings to seek
a sexual relationship elsewhere if that was a problem for him.

Good for her. He really couldn't complain later since she
put it in writing. Wonder why they agreed to marry at all.

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Response to Hissyspit (Original post)

Mon Dec 24, 2012, 03:06 AM

Marr (13,639 posts)

10. Why would anyone want to get married to a person who wrote that?

And who asks someone six times to marry them? That guy must've been one deaf sonofabitch.

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Response to Marr (Reply #10)

Mon Dec 24, 2012, 03:21 AM

Hissyspit (40,025 posts)

11. The heart wants what the heart wants.

From Wikipedia:

Marriage

For a while Earhart was engaged to Samuel Chapman, a chemical engineer from Boston, breaking off her engagement on November 23, 1928. During the same period, Earhart and Putnam had spent a great deal of time together, leading to intimacy. George P. Putnam, who was known as GP, was divorced in 1929 and sought out Earhart, proposing to her six times before she finally agreed. code of faithfulness to me nor shall I consider myself bound to you similarly."

Earhart's ideas on marriage were liberal for the time as she believed in equal responsibilities for both "breadwinners" and pointedly kept her own name rather than being referred to as Mrs. Putnam. When The New York Times, per the rules of its stylebook, insisted on referring to her as Mrs. Putnam, she laughed it off. GP also learned quite soon that he would be called "Mr. Earhart." There was no honeymoon for the newlyweds as Earhart was involved in a nine-day cross-country tour promoting autogyros and the tour sponsor, Beech-Nut chewing gum. Although Earhart and Putnam had no children, he had two sons by his previous marriage to Dorothy Binney (1888–1982), a chemical heiress whose father's company, Binney & Smith, invented Crayola crayons: the explorer and writer David Binney Putnam (1913–1992) and George Palmer Putnam, Jr. (born 1921). Earhart was especially fond of David who frequently visited his father at their family home in Rye, New York. George had contracted polio shortly after his parents' separation and was unable to visit as often.

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