A number of biographies provided the basis of characterizations in this book, in particular Hollywood Pilot (1967), by Don Dwiggins, an excellent biography of Paul Mantz. The autobiography Age of Heroes (1993) by aviator Henri Keyzer-Andre with Hy Steirman includes the fascinating possibility that the Japanese “Zero” fighter plane may have benefited from engineers having access to Amelia’s “flying laboratory.” The autobiographical travel books of Irving and Electa Johnson were essential in creating not only their characters but Heller’s ocean voyage, specifically Westward Bound in the Schooner Yankee (1936) and Yankee’s Wander World (1949). The only world cruise the Johnsons seem not to have written a book about is the one including the Amelia Earhart side trip; their article “Westward Bound in the Yankee” in The National Geographic (January 1942) purports to describe that trip, their third, but is in fact a condensation of their 1936 book on the first voyage.
Other biographies that proved helpful include: Aviatrix (1981), Elinor Smith; The Body Merchant — The Story of Earl Carroll (1976), Ken Murray; Diz — Dizzy Dean and Baseball During the Great Depression (1992), Robert Gregory; The Forrestal Diaries (1951), edited by Walter Millis with E. S. Duffield; James Forrestal — A Study of Personality, Politics and Policy (1963), Arnold A. Rogow; The Hunt for “Tokyo Rose” (1990), Russell Warren Howe; Jackie Cochran — An Autobiography (1987), Jacqueline Cochran and Maryann Bucknum Brinkley; Wanderer (1963), Sterling Hayden; and the biography of a business (Marshall Field’s), Give the Lady What She Wants (1952), Lloyd Wendt and Herman Kogan.
Material on the Irish Republican Army was drawn from The I.R.A. (1970), Tim Pat Coogan, and The Secret Army — A History of the IRA (1970), J. Bowyer Bell. Restaurant and nightclub color were derived from Dining in Chicago (1931), John Drury, and Out with the Stars (1985), Jim Heimann; baseball reference from The Gashouse Gang (1976), Robert E. Hood. The following WPA guides were consulted: California, Illinois, Iowa, Los Angeles, Ohio, Michigan, and Missouri. Aviation references include China Clipper — The Age of Great Flying Boats (1991), Robert L. Gandt; This Was Air Travel (1962), Henry R. Palmer, Jr.; United States Women in Aviation, 1930–1939 (1985), Claudia M. Oakes; and Women Aloft (1981), Valerie Moolman.
I would again like to thank editors Michaela Hamilton and Joseph Pittman for their support and belief in Nate Heller and me — Joe was extremely patient when I called into question my reputation for meeting deadlines by requesting extension after extension, as I attempted to meet the challenges of this material; and of course my agent, Dominick Abel, for his continued professional and personal support.
My talented wife, writer Barbara Collins, helped me through this difficult, rewarding project, providing frequent impromptu trips to the Muscatine Public Library, and constant insightful criticism, keeping me aloft as much as possible, and lovingly walking me away from crash landings.