Amelia Earhart: The Thrill Of It

When people hear the name “Amelia Earhart”, most think of the groundbreaking woman pilot, who sadly disappeared on her flight somewhere above the Pacific Ocean. Besides being a pilot, Earhart was a photographer, poet, hospital worker, truck hauler, fashion designer, social worker, and student of chemistry, physics, and medicine. Amelia Earhart: The Thrill of It by Susan Wels discusses the incredible life Amelia Earhart lived along with fascinating photographs, artifacts, letters, documents, and maps. It puts forth unseen documents and new information, which adds to the enigma that is Amelia Earhart. This book will entertain any person with an interest in educating themselves in mysterious events, and a woman who paved a path for more to follow.

She prefaced how there are multiple layers and talents that fall under Earhart, most of which have not been discussed before. At the onset of the biography, Wels introduces Amelia’s family, and considers her childhood. Earhart was considered a “tomboy” for the age she lived in, taking interest in physical activities like baseball as well as playing with imaginary friends. She loved reading and writing poetry, using writing as an outlet throughout her life. When Earhart was young, her father suffered from an alcohol problem, causing him to lose his job. Soon the family was very poor and struggled to stay afloat. Amelia excelled in high school, especially mathematics. After a couple of moves, Amelia ended up in Chicago with her sister and mother, for her father and mother had separated for a while. In her previous schools, Earhart was very involved in her education and extracurricular activities, but excluded herself once she was in Illinois. Soon, Amelia was trying to decide what to do with her life, finding inspiration in the stories of trailblazing women before

While in Canada, she found interest in riding horses. One man impressed with her riding abilities, an officer in the Royal Flying Corps, invited her to watch him fly his plane. That was the first time Amelia had watched planes fly in such a way, and she was in love. Before she could take any action on her aviation desires, she nearly died from the flu and ended up in New York City as a premed student once she had recovered. Once again, Amelia found herself moving to Los Angeles, where the field of aviation was taking flight. Soon, Earhart made the decision that she wanted to fly. On January 3, 1921, Amelia received her first flying lesson, and within a month, was completely obsessed. Earhart began to attract attention from the public, as women flyers were rare, and suddenly gathered quite a bit of fame. Amelia further advanced her career, being the first woman to set multiple aviation records for females, including being the first to fly nonstop solo coast to coast, the first to fly solo two-thousand four hundred-eight miles across the Pacific Ocean from Honolulu, Hawaii to Oakland, California, and many more. As more time passed, Earhart found herself setting up to attempt a ludicrous task, one that few humans had completed before-flying around the world. On June 1, 1937, five hundred people gathered to watch Amelia take flight. Earhart and her