The Fun of It. Random Records of My Own Flying and of Women in Aviation

Earhart, Amelia; [Ellis, Mae]; [Knabenshue, Roy]; [Willard, Charles F.]

Published by Harcourt Brace and Company, New York, 1932

Sixth printing of Amelia Earhart s autobiography, warmly inscribed to fellow aviatrix Mae "Peggy" Ellis in 1937, only months before Earhart s fatal plane crash. The Fun of It is dedicated to "The Ninety-Nines," the organization of women pilots founded in 1929, with Earhart serving as their first president. In these pages, she shares her journey to becoming a pilot, sparked by her first flight with aviator Frank Hawks: "As soon as we left the ground, I knew I myself had to fly. Miles away I saw the ocean and the Hollywood hills seemed to peep over the edge of the cockpit, as if they were already friends." Beyond her own adventures, Earhart celebrates the wider history of women in aviation, from the first balloonists to her contemporaries in flight. One of those contemporaries was Mae Ellis, a pilot at Union Air Terminal in Burbank, which ranked as the third-largest air terminal in the nation by 1935. Earhart s own Lockheed Electra 10E airplane was repaired in Burbank shortly before she announced her final plan to circumnavigate the globe; it is likely that she inscribed this copy to Ellis on that occasion. Three photographs of Ellis s biplane, one dated September 8, 1937, are tucked in an envelope marked "Hawaii, Peggy Ellis / Mae Young Ellis" in an unknown hand, laid into this copy. The book is additionally signed by American aeronautical pioneers Roy Knabenshue, who in 1905 became the first pilot to make a dirigible flight over New York City, and Charles F. Willard, the first famous barnstormer. A wonderful aeronautical association copy, inscribed by the most famous aviatrix in American history, handed down and signed by fellow pathbreakers in the field of flight. Single volume, measuring 8 x 5.25 inches: [10], 218, [2]. Original brown cloth lettered in cream. Frontispiece portrait of Earhart; thirty black-and-white plates throughout text. Inscribed by Earhart to a fellow aviatrix on front free endpaper: "To Mae Ellis / in memory of Union Air Terminal / Amelia Earhart / 1937." Later presentation inscription on front pastedown, dated 1960, from John F.B. Carruthers of Claremont Men s College to the Library of the Southern California Historical Society, with additional signatures of aviators Roy Knabenshue and Charles F. Willard. Historical Society library stamp to verso of frontispiece; bookseller stamp to lower pastedown. Lacking dust jacket and 78-rpm Silvertone phonograph record. With: three candid photographs of Mae "Peggy" Ellis and her plane in Hawaii, one stamped September 8, 1937, laid in. Seller Inventory # 1003862

Bibliographic Details

Title: The Fun of It. Random Records of My Own ...
Publisher: Harcourt Brace and Company, New York
Publication Date: 1932
Binding: Hardcover
Dust Jacket Condition: Dust Jacket Included
Signed: Signed by Author(s)