20 Hours, 40 Min: Our Flight in the Friendship

The legend of Amelia Earhart has grown so large that this book, her account of her first flight across the Atlantic Ocean in 1928, is a refreshing glimpse into her remarkable spirit of adventure. In simple, candid prose, Earhart recounts the events in her life that led to her interest in flying. Dropping out of high school to help with the war effort (World War I) she found herself in Canada working as a nurse, riveted by stories of pilots flying over Europe. From a fascination with flying to her first lesson to her mastery of the mechanics of aviation, Earhart emerges as a pioneer and a character deserving of her tremendous fame and admiration. One year after Charles Lindbergh's solo flight across the Atlantic, Earhart made the journey described in this book. She was not flying, but served as navigator to pilot William Stultz. Their landing in France propelled Earhart to international fame. She would eventually make the flight by herself, in 1935, but it is the flight described in 20 hrs, 40 min that launched her incredibly celebrity.
Using expanded entries from her flight logbook (written in pencil and in the dark) Earhart relates the story of how she came to be connected with the flight of the Friendship and what she wanted to accomplish by it. Earhart ends her book with a discussion of women, aviation, its history, its future and its problems contemporary to the time in which she wrote. In addition to her top-notch writing, Earhart included several facsimiles of the original pages of her flight log and a great many photographs from this historic flight. Written at the height of the golden age of aviation, this book captures the spirit and enthusiasm of an incredible period of history.