George P. Putnam
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This article is about the American publisher, author and explorer who lived from 1887 to 1950 and was married to Amelia Earhart. For his grandfather, the American book publisher who lived from 1814 to 1872, see George Palmer Putnam.
| George P. Putnam | |
| Born | 7 September 1887 Rye, New York |
|---|---|
| Died | 4 January 1950 (aged 62) Trona, California |
| Occupation | Publisher Author Promoter |
| Spouse | Dorothy Binney Putnam Amelia Earhart Jean-Marie Cosigny James Putnam Margaret Havilland Putnam |
| Children | David Binney Putnam and George Palmer Putnam, Jr. (with Dorothy Binney Putnam) |
| Parents | John Bishop Putnam |
George Palmer Putnam (7 September 1887 – 4 January 1950) was an American publisher, author and explorer. Known for his marriage to Amelia Earhart, he had also achieved fame as one of the most successful promoters in the United States during the 1930s.
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[edit] Early life
Born in Rye, New York, he was the son of John Bishop Putnam and the grandson of his namesake, George Palmer Putnam, who was the founder of the prominent publishing firm that became G. P. Putnam's Sons. He studied at Harvard University and the University of California.
During World War I, George 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 1911, he married Dorothy Binney, the daughter of Edwin Binney inventor and co-owner, with cousin C. Harold Smith, of Binney & Smith Inc., the company that made Crayola crayons. They had two sons, David Binney Putnam and George Palmer Putnam, Jr., and for a time lived in Bend, Oregon where Putnam was the publisher and editor of the local newspaper, the Bend Bulletin. He was mayor of Bend from 1912 to 1913.[1] He left Bend in 1915 to became the private secretary to Oregon governor James Withycombe.[1] Putnam was also the manager and editor of the Medford, Oregon Mail Tribune, and in 1980 he was inducted into the Oregon Newspaper Hall of Fame for his work there.[2] He created the Mail Tribune in 1909 after combining two newspapers, the Mail and the Tribune, and ran the paper until 1919.[3]
[edit] Business interests
Within a few years, the family moved back to the East Coast where George Putnam entered the family publishing business in New York City. There, he was responsible for the publication of the Charles Lindbergh autobiography We. Because of his reputation for working with Lindbergh, he was contacted in 1928 by Amy Guest, a wealthy American living in London who wanted to sponsor the first-ever flight by a woman across the Atlantic Ocean.
[edit] Amelia Earhart
Guest asked Putnam to find a suitable candidate and he eventually came up with the then-unknown Amelia Earhart. Following her successful flight, Putnam organized Earhart's public engagements and speaking tour across the United States. Shortly after, he took charge of promoting her career and arranged for endorsement contracts with a luggage manufacturer and a line of ladies' sportswear. In addition, Putnam published two books Earhart wrote about her flying adventures.
In 1930, the various Putnam heirs voted to merge the family's publishing firm with Minton, Balch & Co. who 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. Having divorced in 1929, the extensive amount of time Putnam spent with Amelia Earhart resulted in an intimate relationship and, in 1931, they married.
During their marriage, Putnam continued to manage his wife's career. On a personal level, they shared many common interests: hiking, swimming, camping, riding, tennis and golf. Following his wife's 1937 disappearance while attempting to set another flying record, Putnam published Earhart's biography in 1939 under the title Soaring Wings. Putnam later donated many of Earhart's belongings, including a flight jacket, to Purdue University where she had worked as a career counsellor. Other personal effects were sent to the Women's Archives in New York. In 1938, he set up a new publishing company, George Palmer Putnam Inc. in California.
The following year, Putnam had his wife declared dead on 5 January 1939 and remarried on 21 May 1939 to Jean-Marie Cosigny James.[4]
[edit] Later years
With America's entry into World War II in 1941, George Putnam rejoined the active military, serving as an intelligence officer, enlisting as a Captain and rising to the rank of Major by 1942. In 1945, he and "Jeannie" divorced; she had initiated the action, citing incompatibility. Shortly after, he remarried again to Margaret Havilland.
In late 1949, Putnam fell ill, suffering from kidney failure and he died in Trona, California in 1950, aged 62, and was cremated, his ashes interred in the Chapel of the Pines Crematory in Los Angeles.
George Putnam authored a number of books, including:
- Smiting the Rock
- Hot Oil
- In the Oregon Country
- Death Valley and Its Country
- Hickory Shirt
- Soaring Wings (1939 biography of Amelia Earhart)
- Wide Margins (1942 autobiography)
[edit] Honors
The George Palmer Putnam 491⁄2 Award was originated to recognize the exceptional support of individual 491⁄2s or a group. Putnam had proposed the award as a means to include anyone who supports an individual Ninety-Nine, a Chapter or Section, or the organization as a whole. His wife, Amelia Earhart had been the first president of The Ninety-Nines.
In 1927, the Boy Scouts of America made Putman an Honorary Scout, a new category of Scout created that same year. This distinction was give to "American citizens whose achievements in outdoor activity, exploration and worthwhile adventure are of such an exceptional character as to capture the imagination of boys...". The other eighteen who were awarded this distinction were: Roy Chapman Andrews; Robert Bartlett; Frederick Russell Burnham; Richard E. Byrd; George Kruck Cherrie; James L. Clark; Merian C. Cooper; Lincoln Ellsworth; Louis Agassiz Fuertes; George Bird Grinnell; Charles A. Lindbergh; Donald Baxter MacMillan; Clifford H. Pope; Kermit Roosevelt; Carl Rungius; Stewart Edward White; Orville Wright.[5]
[edit] References
[edit] Notes
- ^ a b National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet: Drake Park Neighborhood Historic District, Deschutes County, City of Bend, Oregon Retrieved: 25 October 2007.
- ^ Oregon Newspaper Hall of Fame, Oregon Newspaper Publishers Association Retrieved: 25 October 2007.
- ^ Stiles, Greg."Future of Mail Tribune's unclear." Mail Tribune, 2 August 2007. Retrieved: 25 October 2007.
- ^ Lovell 1997, p. 310, 314.
- ^ [http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,723029,00.html Around the World, Time (magazine)29 August 1927 Access date: 24 October 2007
[edit] Bibliography
- Chapman, Sally Putnam, with Mansfield, Stephanie. Whistled Like a Bird: The Untold Story of Dorothy Putnam, George Putnam, and Amelia Earhart. New York: Warner Books, 1997. ISBN 0-446-52055-1.
- Goldstein, Donald M. and Dillon, Katherine V. Amelia: The Centennial Biography of an Aviation Pioneer. Washington, DC: Brassey's, 1997. ISBN 1-57488-134-5.
- Lovell, Mary S. The Sound of Wings. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1989. ISBN 0-312-03431-8.
[edit] External links
| Persondata | |
|---|---|
| NAME | Putnam, George P. |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | |
| SHORT DESCRIPTION | Publisher, Author, Promoter |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 7 September 1887 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Rye, New York |
| DATE OF DEATH | – 4 January 1950 |
| PLACE OF DEATH | Trona, California |
