George Palmer Putnam

George Palmer Putnam (September 7, 1887 – January 4, 1950) was an American publisher, writer and explorer.

George Palmer Putnam was born in Rye, New York on September 7, 1887, the son of John Bishop Putnam and the grandson of his namesake, George Palmer Putnam, founder of the prominent publishing firm that became G. P. Putnam's Sons.

He studied at Harvard University and the University of California, Berkeley.

In 1911, Putnam married Dorothy Binney (1888–1982), the daughter of Edwin Binney, inventor and co-owner, with cousin C. Harold Smith, of Binney & Smith Inc., the company that made Crayola crayons.

He was mayor of Bend from 1912 to 1913.

They had two sons, David Binney Putnam (1913–1992) and George Palmer Putnam, Jr. (1921–2013), and for a time lived in Bend, Oregon, where Putnam was the publisher and editor of the local newspaper, the Bend Bulletin.

Although the couple had no children, he had two sons by his previous marriage, explorer and writer David Binney Putnam (1913–1992) and businessman George Palmer Putnam, Jr. (1921–2013).

Earhart was especially fond of David who frequently visited his father at their family home in Rye, New York.

George had contracted polio shortly after his parents' separation and was unable to visit as often.

Putnam left Bend in 1915 to become the private secretary to Oregon Governor James Withycombe.

Within a few years, George and Dorothy moved to the East Coast, where Putnam entered the family publishing business in New York City.

During World War I, Putnam served with the United States Army field artillery.

In 1926, under the sponsorship of the American Museum of Natural History, he led an expedition to the Arctic, up the west coast of Greenland.

The following year he headed another expedition for the American Geographical Society to collect wildlife specimens on Baffin Island.

In July 1927 Putnam was responsible for the blockbuster publication of "We", Charles Lindbergh's autobiographical account of his early life and his Orteig Prize winning non-stop transatlantic solo flight from New York to Paris in May of that year.

The book was one of the most successful non-fiction titles of all time, selling more than 650,000 copies in less than a year and earning its author over $250,000.

In 1927, Putnam's wife, Dorothy Binney, traveled to South America and began a long, well-chronicled affair with George Weymouth, a man 19 years her junior; Putnam would leave Binney two years later.

Many thought that George had left his first wife for Amelia Earhart, although for Binney, it was her own ticket out of an unhappy marriage.

A significant event in Putnam's personal and business life occurred in 1928, before the merger.

Because of his reputation for working with Lindbergh, he was contacted by Amy Phipps Guest, a wealthy American living in London, who wanted to sponsor the first-ever flight by a woman across the Atlantic Ocean.

Guest asked Putnam to find a suitable candidate, and he eventually came up with the then-unknown aviator, Amelia Earhart.

As it turned out, they shared many common interests: hiking, swimming, camping, riding, tennis and golf.

When Putnam first met Earhart he was still married to Binney.

After she completed her flight across the Atlantic, Putnam offered to help Earhart write a book about it, following the formula he had established with Lindbergh in the writing of "WE".

The resulting Earhart book was 20 Hrs. 40 Min. (1928).

When they began writing, Putnam invited Earhart to live in his home, because he felt it would make the process easier.

Shortly after, Binney left for South America.

George and Dorothy divorced in 1929.

Putnam had undertaken to promote Earhart in a campaign that included lecture tours and mass-market endorsements for luggage, Lucky Strike cigarettes (this caused image problems for her, and McCall's magazine retracted an offer) and other products.

Known for his marriage to (and being the widower of) Amelia Earhart, he had also achieved fame as one of the most successful promoters in the United States during the 1930s.

In 1930, the various Putnam heirs voted to merge the family's publishing firm with Minton, Balch & Co., which became the majority stockholders.

George P. Putnam resigned from his position as secretary of G. P. Putnam's Sons and joined New York publishers Brewer & Warren as vice president.

Putnam and Earhart made their relationship official shortly after his divorce was finalized, but they didn't marry until 1931.

Earhart's ideas on marriage were liberal for the time, as she believed in equal responsibilities for both "breadwinners" and pointedly kept her own surname.

GP, as she called him, soon learned that he would be called "Mr. Earhart".

There was no honeymoon for the newlyweds because Earhart was involved in a nine-day cross-country tour promoting autogyros and the tour sponsor, Beech-Nut chewing gum.

Following Earhart's successful 1932 solo transatlantic flight, Putnam again organized her public engagements and speaking tour across the United States.

In addition to her first work, Putnam published two other books Earhart wrote about flying, The Fun of It (1932), a memoir of her flying experiences and an essay on women in aviation and Last Flight (1937), consisting of letters and memorandum compiled by Putnam after her disappearance.

Earhart joined the faculty of Purdue University College of Technology in 1935 as a visiting faculty member to counsel women on careers and as a technical advisor to the Department of Aeronautics.

Earhart disappeared in 1937 while on her second attempt to complete a circumnavigational flight of the globe.