![EARHART, Amelia (1897-1937). American aviator. A collection of 4 autograph letters signed ("Amelia" "Lucifer Earhart" "A.M.E.") to "Lev" [Helen Le Vesconte], 2 woodcut Christmas cards (one signed), Los Angeles, Boston, New York, 10 March 1921 - 11 January 1925. [With]: Five original photographs. one of Earhart with nursing colleagues, 2 of her in the cockpit of her plane (one with autograph caption), and some ephemera.](https://www.christies.com/img/LotImages/1999/NYR/1999_NYR_09178_0183_000(115056).jpg?w=1)
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EARHART, Amelia (1897-1937). American aviator. A collection of 4 autograph letters signed ("Amelia" "Lucifer Earhart" "A.M.E.") to "Lev" [Helen Le Vesconte], 2 woodcut Christmas cards (one signed), Los Angeles, Boston, New York, 10 March 1921 - 11 January 1925. [With]: Five original photographs. one of Earhart with nursing colleagues, 2 of her in the cockpit of her plane (one with autograph caption), and some ephemera.
YOUNG EARHART, BEFORE HER TRANS-ATLANTIC FLIGHT
An excellent, exhuberant series of letters written in the period she first became involved with aviation. After training as a nurses aid, and serving in the hospital service in World War I, Earhart enrolled as a pre-med student at Columbia University. In 1920 though, she left her studies, joined her family in Los Angeles and, after attending an air show in Long Beach, decided to take up flying. Alluding to her dramatic change of career, she writes to a nursing friend, Le Vesconte: "[I] fear the name of Amelia Earhart will be taboo...However flying is great and is worth I believe the blow to respectablitiy sustained. I contemplate falling still lower within the next few weeks..." A few months later, Earhart writes that "the family decided the flying game too dangerous [due to] several unfortunate affairs near at home...so I was compelled to earn enough capital to finish paying for my plane [a prototype of the Kinner airplane, 'The Canary']...because I didn't see the flying game was too dangerous." After selling the "Canary" and buying a car, nicknamed "The yellow peril", Earhart drove cross-country to Boston. In her letter of 1924, she writes that "the yellow boat rolled into Boston yesterday morning." One year before agreeing to attempt to fly across the Atlantic, Earhart writes that she is in "New York for purposes of self improvement...I am turning into a permanent spinster and working girl...I have no job yet but I know someone in New York (pop. 3,672,476) wants me." Earhart enjoyed the attempt to set aerial records, and in October 1922 set a women's altitude record; in April 1926 she was contacted by Capt. H.H. Railey who asked if she would like to be the first women to fly across the Atlantic (accomplished in June 1928). Exactly five years later she would become the first woman to fly the Atlantic solo. She disappeared in an attempted round the world flight in 1937.
YOUNG EARHART, BEFORE HER TRANS-ATLANTIC FLIGHT
An excellent, exhuberant series of letters written in the period she first became involved with aviation. After training as a nurses aid, and serving in the hospital service in World War I, Earhart enrolled as a pre-med student at Columbia University. In 1920 though, she left her studies, joined her family in Los Angeles and, after attending an air show in Long Beach, decided to take up flying. Alluding to her dramatic change of career, she writes to a nursing friend, Le Vesconte: "[I] fear the name of Amelia Earhart will be taboo...However flying is great and is worth I believe the blow to respectablitiy sustained. I contemplate falling still lower within the next few weeks..." A few months later, Earhart writes that "the family decided the flying game too dangerous [due to] several unfortunate affairs near at home...so I was compelled to earn enough capital to finish paying for my plane [a prototype of the Kinner airplane, 'The Canary']...because I didn't see the flying game was too dangerous." After selling the "Canary" and buying a car, nicknamed "The yellow peril", Earhart drove cross-country to Boston. In her letter of 1924, she writes that "the yellow boat rolled into Boston yesterday morning." One year before agreeing to attempt to fly across the Atlantic, Earhart writes that she is in "New York for purposes of self improvement...I am turning into a permanent spinster and working girl...I have no job yet but I know someone in New York (pop. 3,672,476) wants me." Earhart enjoyed the attempt to set aerial records, and in October 1922 set a women's altitude record; in April 1926 she was contacted by Capt. H.H. Railey who asked if she would like to be the first women to fly across the Atlantic (accomplished in June 1928). Exactly five years later she would become the first woman to fly the Atlantic solo. She disappeared in an attempted round the world flight in 1937.