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Fly girls : how five daring women defied all odds and made aviation history / Keith O'Brien.

By: Material type: TextTextPublisher: Boston : Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2018Description: xiv, 338 pages, 16 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations, portraits ; 24 cmContent type:
  • text
Media type:
  • unmediated
Carrier type:
  • volume
ISBN:
  • 9781328876645
  • 1328876640
Subject(s): Genre/Form:
Contents:
The miracle of Wichita -- Devotedly, Ruth -- Real and natural, every inch -- The fortune of the air -- The fairest of the brave and the bravest of the fair -- Flying salesgirls -- The right sort of girl -- City of destiny -- If this is to be a derby -- There is only one Cleveland -- Good eggs -- Mr. Putnam and me -- Law of fate -- Give a girl credit -- Grudge flight -- Spetakkel -- All things being equal -- That's what I think of wives flying -- They'll be in our hair -- Playing hunches -- A woman couldn't win -- The top of the hill.
Summary: "High adventure and high ideals merge when a corps of intrepid female aviators battle to take part in the hugely popular air shows of the 1920s and 1930s. Ultimately, one of our heroines would win a race that earned her the right to be called America's best pilot"-- Provided by publisher.Summary: "Keith O'Brien weaves together the stories of five remarkable women: Florence Klingensmith, a high school dropout who worked for a dry cleaner in Fargo, North Dakota; Ruth Elder, an Alabama housewife; Amelia Earhart, the most famous, but not necessarily the most skilled; Ruth Nichols, who chafed at the constraints of her blue blood family's expectations; and Louise Thaden, the mother of two young kids who got her start selling coal in Wichita, Kansas. Together they fought for the chance to race against the men--and in 1936 one of them would triumph in the toughest race of all."--Dust jacket flap.
List(s) this item appears in: 2023 National Aviation Week Fiction notes: Click to open in new window
Holdings
Item type Home library Collection Shelving location Call number Materials specified Status Date due Barcode Item holds
Adult Book Adult Book Dr. James Carlson Library NonFiction 629.1309 O13 Available 33111009386257
Adult Book Adult Book Main Library NonFiction Adult Display - Second Floor 629.1309 O13 IN THE SKY Checked out 05/30/2024 33111009690179
Adult Book Adult Book Northport Library NonFiction 629.1309 O13 Available 33111008239770
Total holds: 0

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER



"Exhilarating." --New York Times Book Review



"Riveting." --People



"Keith O'Brien has brought these women--mostly long-hidden and forgotten--back into the light where they belong. And he's done it with grace, sensitivity and a cinematic eye for detail that makes Fly Girls both exhilarating and heartbreaking." --USA Today



The untold story of five women who fought to compete against men in the high-stakes national air races of the 1920s and 1930s -- and won



Between the world wars, no sport was more popular, or more dangerous, than airplane racing. Thousands of fans flocked to multi-day events, and cities vied with one another to host them. The pilots themselves were hailed as dashing heroes who cheerfully stared death in the face. Well, the men were hailed. Female pilots were more often ridiculed than praised for what the press portrayed as silly efforts to horn in on a manly, and deadly, pursuit. Fly Girls recounts how a cadre of women banded together to break the original glass ceiling: the entrenched prejudice that conspired to keep them out of the sky.



O'Brien weaves together the stories of five remarkable women: Florence Klingensmith, a high-school dropout who worked for a dry cleaner in Fargo, North Dakota; Ruth Elder, an Alabama divorcee; Amelia Earhart, the most famous, but not necessarily the most skilled; Ruth Nichols, who chafed at the constraints of her blue-blood family's expectations; and Louise Thaden, the mother of two young kids who got her start selling coal in Wichita. Together, they fought for the chance to race against the men -- and in 1936 one of them would triumph in the toughest race of all.



Like Hidden Figures and Girls of Atomic City, Fly Girls celebrates a little-known slice of history in which tenacious, trail-blazing women braved all obstacles to achieve greatness.

"High adventure and high ideals merge when a corps of intrepid female aviators battle to take part in the hugely popular air shows of the 1920s and 1930s. Ultimately, one of our heroines would win a race that earned her the right to be called America's best pilot"-- Provided by publisher.

"Keith O'Brien weaves together the stories of five remarkable women: Florence Klingensmith, a high school dropout who worked for a dry cleaner in Fargo, North Dakota; Ruth Elder, an Alabama housewife; Amelia Earhart, the most famous, but not necessarily the most skilled; Ruth Nichols, who chafed at the constraints of her blue blood family's expectations; and Louise Thaden, the mother of two young kids who got her start selling coal in Wichita, Kansas. Together they fought for the chance to race against the men--and in 1936 one of them would triumph in the toughest race of all."--Dust jacket flap.

"An Eamon Dolan Book."

Includes bibliographical references (pages 270-327) and index.

The miracle of Wichita -- Devotedly, Ruth -- Real and natural, every inch -- The fortune of the air -- The fairest of the brave and the bravest of the fair -- Flying salesgirls -- The right sort of girl -- City of destiny -- If this is to be a derby -- There is only one Cleveland -- Good eggs -- Mr. Putnam and me -- Law of fate -- Give a girl credit -- Grudge flight -- Spetakkel -- All things being equal -- That's what I think of wives flying -- They'll be in our hair -- Playing hunches -- A woman couldn't win -- The top of the hill.

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