Letters from Amelia: An Intimate Portrait of Amelia Earhart

'Letters from Amelia' began quietly with the discovery of four neglected cardboard cartons in an attic in Berkeley, California. Inside were rare photographs and more than 100 revealing letters from the legendary pilot to her beloved mother. The first was a four-year-old's thank-you note. The last, three short lines, was written just prior to her final 1937 flight, when she vanished into a Pacific mist of conjecture. Fitted together they portray the remarkable evolution from child to adult of a warm, sensible, fun-loving tomboy whose rare determination and bravery led her to become the first woman to fly the Atlantic solo.

Although the letters shed no new light on the mystery of her last mission, they magnificently uncover the sou of a very private person who became one of the most acclaimed public figures of her day. She was a feminist who met with kings and princes but for all her blazing accomplishments still was down-to-earth enough to write to her mother