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 Putnam had left his first wife for
Amelia Earhart, although for Binney, it was her own ticket out of an unhappy marriage. In 1930, the various Putnam heirs voted to merge the family's publishing firm with Minton, Balch & Co., which became the majority stockholders. Putnam resigned from his position as secretary of G. P. Putnam's Sons and joined New York publishers Brewer & Warren as vice president. 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. Putnam and Binney 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. 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". 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. Following Earhart's successful 1932 solo transatlantic flight, Putnam again organized her public engagements and speaking tour across the United States. 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. 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. Putnam also published her biography in 1939 under the title
Soaring Wings: A Biography of Amelia Earhart. Although a major blaze at the Putnam residence in Rye destroyed many family treasures and Earhart's personal mementos, Putnam later donated some of Earhart's belongings, including photographs, private letters, and a flight jacket, to Purdue University, where she had worked as a career counselor. Other personal effects were sent to the Women's Archives in New York. Putnam had Earhart declared dead on January 5, 1939, and remarried on May 21 of that year to Jean-Marie Cosigny James. ==Later years==