interviews and call in segments. this is authors include supreme court justice sotomayor, we have goodwin and john meacham and fox news host brian kill made. follow along with all of our social media sites @booktv. tomorrow young adult author, jacqueline woodson joins us for our special edition. including the award winner brown girl dreaming. this is her most recent. she will answer questions. booktv continues on labor day with encore broadcast of the national book festival and jacqueline woodson. a profile of the publisher and a discussion between the librarian of congress and the national archivist on collections in the digital age. that is all this weekend three days of booktv. no for a complete schedule, go

to booktv.org. we kick off with keith o'brien and his account of a group of female pilots that made aviation history. [inaudible conversations] >> hey, good evening everybody! my name is lydia mcoscar, events director here at brookline brooke smith. i would like to thank all of you lovely folks for coming out this evening. it means so much to us that you are willing to spend your money at community brick-and-mortar family-owned businesses and keep recline a really thriving hope of culture that it is. please, a round of applause. before we get underway will like to take a moment and silence your cell phones if you

do not mind. if you enjoy two nights reading you can snag a fire off the table over there or follow us online brookline book smith.com. or you can go to instagram, twitter or our newsletter on our website to stay up-to-date with all of our events. we're well into the fall schedule make sure not to miss out. also on that you can buy two nights book, fly girls. we pick up your copy make sure that you get a raffle ticket because there is some "fly girls" swag to be raffled after the reading. if you got a book already and it did not get a ticket make sure to get one before you go. do not leave right at the end because you might be missing swag. keep that in mind. [laughter] okay, so that is the nuts and bolts. with that out of the way i would like to take a bit about tonight event. keith o'brien is a former reporter for the boston globe and frequent contributor to

mpr. he does all things considered, morning edition in this american life. and is right for new york times, political among others but he's author of outside shot and the brand-new "fly girls" have five daring women defy all odds and made aviation history. as readers we are so lucky to have someone with this journalistic trifecta dove into history i was not even aware of. in fact if you asked me a few weeks ago to close my eyes and picture a daredevil i would have a grizzled dude on a motorcycle with a leather jacket. you see that kind of archetype conjured up? you know what i'm talking about. i hate to admit this but the vision of a mother of two a plane and never would've crossed my mind. even though she and a handful of other women pilots between the two world wars risked their lives inside the cockpit and out. has taken a decommissioned postwar aircraft -- and wonder

whether the men hate you enough to sabotage the vehicle you're currently flying and imagine what a riveting read you're in for with "fly girls" please put your hands together for keith o'brien. [applause] >> thank you so much. and lydia mcoscar, thank you for the wonderful introduction. i am so humbled by the words. with those visions in our mind, of the archetype that lydia just discussed, i would like to make a confession. i do not particularly like to fly. i do not like turbulence, is not like the little sounds that a plane makes in the middle of the flight for inexplicable reasons. [laughter] i definitely do not like take off. you know the moment when you're barely done out when we going hundred miles an hour and leaping up into the air so fast that you can feel the weight of

the plane and the air on your chest if you move further and further away from the ground from safety. i do not like that feeling at all. i have to fly for work. i do like to travel for pleasure so not flying for me is not an option. so, inevitably, you will find me from time to time in the 29th row of coach, a middle site white knuckling the armrest as if i alone am holding up the plane. a few years ago i was on one of these flights. i was flying from new orleans to chicago. it was one of those flights were the pilot comes on beforehand and tell you is going to be a bad flight. it was hot, it was stormy, dark and the pilot was right. in the middle of this flight, we are bouncing around in the sky in the night and i am in my seat like trying to squirm up into a tiny little ball but ultimately that would be insane to be an adult on a plane squirming up into a tiny little ball. and the woman next to me, totally noticed.

and she finally took pity on me. she turned to me and said, honey, i think i can help you. i have xanax. [laughter] truth, this happened! so that is made. that is me as a flyer. it begs the question why someone like this, someone like me, but spent the last 2 and a half years of his life researching and writing about planes at a time when air travel was exponentially more dangerous than it is today. why would i do that? why? the answer is, it has nothing to do with airplanes. i was drawn to the story. the strata would ultimately become "fly girls" because it was the story of an epic request. populated by characters who were willing to risk everything and sacrifice everything to do

the thing they love. characters who would fly through adversity after adversity. entrenched discrimination, the deaths of their friends, keep going and then triumph in the end. i mean, that is a story i would hope anyone would want to tell. i knew i wanted to tell it. and it is a real honor to be here tonight and share this story with you. especially here at brookline booksmith. some of you may know i am a former reporter for the boston globe. i lived in the city for many years. [applause] thank you. i lived in the city for many years. my first child was born in the city. and you know, i used to come to this bookstore and think, how the heck am i ever going to get

a book placed here? and so, it is a real feel to be a tonight. please, would everyone take pictures of me with this behind me just so that later i can propose actually here doing this. [laughter] whenever i am telling a story, whether it is for the globe or it is for magazines or for national public radio or a book, i always like to think of it in terms of moments and scenes, identify those important things early on and build on those. i wanted to begin tonight with you, with a moment. met in chicago. september 1933. the waning days of summer. labor day weekend. the city had been struggling in the grip of the great depression now for years. with record unemployment, redline down the street and flap houses so filled with thieves there was still everything from you. even your shoes. but that weekend, labor day was going to be different in chicago. 400,000 people were streaming into the city by railcar and automobile. they were coming for an

exciting event. they were coming for the air race. forget about what you know about modern-day airshows. our polished scripted flying events. races was a real sport which winners and losers, massive jackpots for the victors and also enormous crowds. it was unquestionably, undoubtably one of the most popular sports of the time. it was definitely the most dangerous. inevitably pilots flying these single propeller open cockpit planes at a high rate of speed, 50 to 75 feet off the ground, would crash. they would often die right there in front of the grandstand. with dangers like these, many men believed that air racing

was no place for a woman. it sounds absurd today. it is sexist, demeaning, clearly wrong. but in the late 1920s, it's important to remember that there were laws still on the books that forbade women from doing all sorts of things. in rhode island and virginia, only the father was considered the sole legal guardian of a child. only a father could determine a child's general welfare, religion or education. by law, anyway, the mother had no say. in georgia and maryland, a father who died, could will that his child or children be raised by someone other than his wife. someone other than the mother of the children. and the mother, the wife, could do nothing to stop it. in iowa, women cannot run for

state legislature. in new york, they could not work the night shift. no waiting tables after 10:00 p.m.. no driving taxicabs anytime of day in a major american city. indeed, loss forbade women from working as many as 15 different professions in this time. and they denied them other basic rights. around this time mid to late 1920s, a theater roof collapse in washington d.c.. killing a small boy. the mother wished to sue the company for negligence. a case she likely would have won. but the lord prevented her. only the father can collect damages in the wrongful death of a minor. and the boys father was already dead. meaning the mother in this case had no husband, no child and no recourse. women wishing to fly, face similar challenges. the story in this book begins

in 1927. 1928. seven years, eight years removed, from winning the right to vote. at that time there were roughly 30 million registered female voters in the country. 30 million adult women in the country, fewer than a dozen in 1928. fewer than a dozen with pilots license on file with the department of commerce. that made the few women who did fly, true radical. in chicago on labor day 1933, one of these women was about to do the most radical thing of all. she was going to race the men. in her plane with this machine around pylons, small towers, placed on the ground and triangular course. at a high rate of speed. she was 29 years old, divorced and afraid of nothing.

her plane was so fast and known to be dangerous. it was built right here in massachusetts. springfield, not far from here. for a brief period of time this particular model of plane was the kind of plain you wanted to have in the air races, even though it had killed many men before. this woman knew what she was doing. she knew how to fly it. at the end of the first lap that labor day in chicago, the crowd knew it too. as she reached the pilot from the grandstand flying about 75 feet of the deck at 200 miles an hour, she banged her plane so hard, so perfectly that it stood up on one wing. just look at that girl. one said, just look at that girl. have you ever seen such a beautiful race? she was trailing the two

leaders but she was vying for third place. she was right there. and then on a flap at the home pylons, a problem. the right wing of her fast plane, began to bubble under the strain of speed. pieces of it began to rip away and fluttered to the ground like so much confetti. and with the wind now whistling through the wings, she did what she was supposed to do. she peeled off course, flying away from competitors and the crowds. she flew south toward chicago out over glenview road and lake avenue. she was trying to save the people on the ground and struggling to gain elevation gain altitude to save herself. everyone now on a field chicago watching the little red plane in the sky. knowing one of two things is about to happen.

she's going to bail out from a dangerously low altitude or she is going to crash. and either way, it probably was not going to end well. that woman's name was florence -- you probably have not heard of her. most people have not. we think about women and aviation in the 1920s and 30s , we tend to think about one woman. amelia ehrhardt. as if she was all alone. flying so low in the sky. but in the time that she flew, other women were flying with her. forming this small, scrappy squadron. they were just as bold, just as brave as she was, arguably some of them were even more skilled in a cockpit. today, we have forgotten almost everything about them. and we have forgotten their

battles and their losses, friendships and rivalries. what they fought for, how hard they fought. we have even forgotten their impossible victory. with this book, you know, i hope to change that. reminding readers of these women who stood up for themselves and each other again and again. defiant in the face of rules intended to keep them in their place. and confident in the knowledge of who they were. i would like to introduce you to a few of them. ruth elder was a flashy alabama housewife. on her second husband and working at a dentist office now in lakeland, florida.

it was not the life she'd expected for herself. it was not like she wanted. in 1927, she would decide and she would be the first woman to ever fly across the ocean. across the atlantic. it was a dream for which ruth elder would pay an awful price. amelia ehrhardt, social worker from boston. right here on tyler street downtown. she came next. we forgotten our mythology that she did not begin as a solo champion flying across the ocean. she began as a social worker here it was plucked from obscurity in 1928 by wealthy businessman including the new york publisher, george putnam. and place on a plane flown by men across the ocean. a plane that would make her

famous. ruth nichols, daughter of wall street wealth. born on the upper east side of new york and raised in westchester county. before the depression away, the stock market crash, her family had money. ruth nichols had options. those options would soon dwindle. she wanted everything that amelia had. florence -- a farmers daughter from minnesota crossed the red river. who is daring to the point of being reckless as a child. got a job at a drycleaners and parlayed it into the racing career that she wanted. and finally, louise -- who was really the most unusual, the rarest sort of aviator at the time. louise would not just a woman. who was flying planes and racing planes. she was a mother.

having a first child in 1930, and her second in 1933. at a time when men, husbands and our culture believed that a woman should stay home after they have their children. the home and raise those children. louise did something very unusual at the time and something i think all of us can appreciate now. she tried to have it all. to juggle her personal dreams and ambitions. with her children and her love for them. because of some of the sacrifices louise would make over your four children, she too, would be forgotten. one of the questions i've gotten a lot in recent days and also recent months, about this woman, how are they the same or

different? and, it's a difficult question to answer because really they were both. some came from money, some did not. some were educated, some were not. their fathers were lawyers and wall street traders, bus drivers and laborers. but they did have a few characteristics in common. that i actually try to identify early on while i was still writing because at that would help me understand them better. one thing is sort of obvious. from a young age, when they were still just girls, they knew they were different. louise did not want to wear the frilly white dresses that her southern mother wanted her to wear around town. she wanted to wear pants and overalls. she wanted to play sports. amelia earhart was cutting her hair short from a young age. trying to hide the fact from her mother. by cutting off one inch at a

time. [laughter] they were all daring! florence klingensmith rode motorcycles in rural minnesota at a time when young women in rural minnesota did not ride motorcycles. and perhaps even more surprising, a little streetcar in a town of morehead, minnesota she chose not to ride in the seats with everybody else but would cling to the cow catcher up front riding along, skimming across the rails. to the horror of her high school classmates. these women were also what we will call today, early adopters. you know, they chose to fly, they chose this path at a time when flying was still very dangerous. when many men did not want to fly. they predicted early on, each of them, predicted early on that flying was the future. not just a sport, not just a

thing i want to do right now. it is the future. that one day everyone would fly. i think the other interesting thing about this woman to me the most interesting thing of all was how they were raised. you know, i mentioned how different their situations were. but they did have one thing in common. that was their fathers. at a time when a father could tell, especially his daughter, the son as well, was it expected of him or her. what kind of job he or she would get. who he or she would marry. these father certainly could have told their daughters, no, you will not fly. their mothers at times struggled with the path these women chose. but the father either approved by turning the other way or at times, actively encouraged their daughters to follow their

own dreams. to fly if they wanted to. at times, stephen introduced them to flying themselves. and as a parent myself, i think that that is pretty relevant advice. let your child wear his or her hair short if they want to. let them wear pants or address if they want to. let them follow their own path when they want to. because you never know where it's going to lead. so i would like to read briefly from the book, just briefly. and then i will be happy to take any questions you might have. i will set up this reading real quickly. we are in early september 1927. charles lindbergh has just successfully flown the atlantic four months earlier.

he has not done it, mind you, just for the pioneering spirit of it all. charles lindbergh was flying for a jackpot. the first man who could fly successfully from paris to new york or new york to paris. would get a jackpot of $25,000. a lot of money in 1927. when he made that flight, he was the only rich from the jackpot and famous, but he was then put on a goodwill tour of america where he got paid an additional $50,000 just to visit towns, riding a parade and move on to the next place. so as these prayers are happening in the summer of 1927, a young woman in lakeland, florida decides she wants in. she will fly across the ocean for free. her name is ruth elder. ruth elder breezed into long on that september landing at roosevelt filled with the

subtlety of a gail. colorful sweaters were tight and her brown hair was bobbed in the latest style. the alabama native almost never appeared with a rainbow scarf around her head pinning back her wild curls. trent of the single engine plane was a brilliant shade of orange. the color choice had less to do with flair and practicality and a wide expand of gray blue ocean. it was easier to find the floating wreckage of satan orange plane then a silver one. but elder and her male copilot, a floridian named george had no intentions of putting her plane in the water. it was too beautiful, too perfect all the way down to the name painted on the fuselage in large sweeping cursive script. american girl. gas bought, read-- runway ready

she told everyone commanding attention. give us a weather break and we will break off now. what is your hurry one reporter asked? i been dreaming and planning this ever since i learned to play two years ago. the lindbergh did it and i was more determined. i wanted to be the first girl to turn the trick. i will do it. you only want to fly to paris because you're a girl another reporter asked? well, they have evening gowns there i hear, she joked.the more seriously she added i'd never been to europe i might as well go this way. get some clothes, gullible, comeback by boat, take it easy. no flying back for me. the reporters wanted to know everything about her. when she married, engage? where she and holderman together maybe? no elder report.no and no. especially to the last question. say, listen and insulted person interjected. i am married!

elder was afraid but was she back out in the end, be honest. she replied no and no, even perfect peaches. elder was in new york for all of and a half an hour. had not even left the airfield to check into her room at the nearby garden city hotel and already, the new york press was picking her part. reporters described her nose perfectly powdered. they called her vein, criticizing her purse or her knickers. they push the 24-year-old woman again and again to admit that she was not truly serious about her transatlantic plans. what is this you're doing another bewildered newspaperman asked her? advertising a movie or just getting yourself well enough known to be offered a contract? no, elder said. i'm really going to fly to paris. do you understand? i'm here to fly, she said. quickly. looking out at the reporters and beyond them the long runway where lindbergh had prevailed. elder must have felt as if she

flown the american girl not to long island, but to an altogether different world. she was from alabama. one of seven children raise by sarah and jay elder downtown on noble street. the house there was latest in the string of modest homes rented by the elders with money -- all of which was not good enough for ruth for the oldest child and thrillseeking daughter. she left home shortly after her 18th birthday and move 60 miles west of birmingham. the city, she called. she rented a room in a boardinghouse there. her parents figured she'd be back soon. instead, elder began leading a life that she kept secret. and now desperately hoped to hide from the new york reporters. she got a job selling lingerie at a department store and got a husband. but the marriage didn't take. she was divorced in 1925, married again.

this time to an electric sign salesman. together the pair moved to lakeland, florida for a time anyway, they lived in ordinary life east of tampa. elder got a job in a dentist office and her husband introduce her to flavoring. also florida businessmen were fond of golf and -- in elder, she saw an opportunity. the floridians wanted to put her over the ocean with george holderman, a well-known local pilot to most of the flying and elder do most of the smiling. they pitch the idea to some wealthy snowbirds from west virginia on a golf course in lakeland. these men saw value in the plan. as financial backers, they would get rich by shooting footage of elder and selling it to hollywood. there was just one caveat, she would have to say that she had never been married. the men were marketing a product. and it cannot be labeled, mrs.

womack. west virginia and intrigue agreed to put a $35,000 to buy a plane and make it happen. believing elder was the right woman for the job. she was men like to point out, the most beautiful pilot they'd ever seen. so pretty when said, it doesn't seem right. she was to put it another way, the fairest of the brave and the bravest of the fair. she would make it to paris or she wouldn't. she lived to tell the tale or she would die. either way, the reporters will get their story, either way the west virginia's war on sure and she figured it would be better to play out her years then working at a dentist office. -- inevitably, they ended up crying at something he complained. but elder wore him down. not with her beauty, but with determination. i have lived for a while

without amounting to a plug nickel she told one reporter. after arriving in new york. i want to do something that will make people notice me. that may give me opportunity to get somewhere in the world. is it worth risking your life? the reporter asked. yes, it is, she replied. there was really only one way for elder to screw up the deal. by losing to another woman that had dreams, money and an airplane of her own per that woman was staring out at the ocean too. 300 miles to the north. [applause] i would be happy to take any questions you might have. anything at all. yes. >> i definitely can resonate with your comment about the father. because i truly have experienced the same thing.

my dad said you can do anything you want to do. you're probably not going to do what i did, so i did. and with the flying bit, very young i flew for 10 years. it was the best experience of my personal life. so that is what got me here today. but it is the -- >> thank you so much for coming. >> is the perseverance of women and what they been through over the years. they think you're trying to communicate in the story. so, that is why am interested in your book. and this is a good way to portray it, i think. i'm actually curious when you did your research -- commercial pilots, how many are there and how many are women? from a percentage of their executives in the cockpit. >> sure. the question is, how many women

pilots are there, what is the percentage? so, before i get into the numbers i will give a little history. in 1934, there is a window which my story takes place. an airline called central airlines hires a woman named helen ritchie. to be the first female commercial airline pilot. it does not go well. the male pilot union, again, all males refused to admit her. and the government plays all kinds of restrictions on helen as to when she could or could not fly. in this kind of weather, that kind of weather, this number passengers, etc. restrictions that male pilots did not face. within months, helen ritchie is essentially forced out. she quits, resigns, she is out. i say all that to say, what i found to be stunning is not just that.

but that as i try to find out for myself, when did the next female airline pilot get hired? the answer is 1973. 39 years later! 39 years later! frontier in american airlines each hire a pilot that year. i've been fortunate through the research and the book coming out in recent weeks, to meet one of those women. she was 24 years old from florida. when american airlines hired her. she knew she was just as good as the men. at the time she's a woman flies no different than a man does. the plane was the great equalizer. and yet, still, this woman faced the same kind of adversity that the characters in "fly girls" did 45 years earlier. she faced snide remarks.

people who suggested that she leave american and get hired somewhere else. i think for me as a journalist, perhaps, most shocking, was a headline that the los angeles times ran about this pilot. in 1973. it is just a little feature. one of those little features that is inside the paper. the little headline was, airline pilot flies by seat of her panties. 1973! a major american newspaper. and you know, you have grown you've heard it, i've grown too. you know who else still rumors that headline? the pilot herself, her name is bonnie capito. she is a great pioneer in her own right. yes? >> about 25 years ago, i was

living in central california and a friend of mine inherited her mothers biplane. her mother apparently one of the first amelia earhart -- race for women. i remember lying in that plane. i did it once. from fresno to an air show and we flew over the mountains. i was in the front cockpit. she was flying from the back. and coming back, she had some trouble. so we landed on an open field. she took care of it, got back up in the air. and it flew very smoothly. >> a great story! for those in the back, it was a story about flying a vintage biplane much later and having some trouble, landing on an open field, fix what was wrong and took off. what i found interesting is that that kind of stuff

happened all the time. imagine today, if you're flying in a delta flight and the pilot so were going to land in this field here. and it looks pretty flat. it looks pretty flat. and i'm going to fix whatever the flow issue is and then were going to get back up and on our way. and you know, you do not fly with a mechanic. when my narrative begins in 1927, almost every airfield is dirt or posture. the first modern air races, i call them the modern air races because it's really the year where the air races became a show and a vent along the lines of our super bowl. it was held in los angeles. in 1928. in los angeles at the time they had about 11 little airships in the metro area. they were really small. and you know, this was they want to something big and grand with a could put on a show. and so they convinced the city

of los angeles to purchase about a thousand acres of barley field near englewood. that is where they would hold these races in 1928. it was known at the time as mines field. today, we'll know it as lax. yes? >> you said at the beginning that the pilots license were issued by the department of commerce. i'm assuming at this time that there was no tsa. [laughter] when did it become sort of a federal like you had to get a federal pilots license or was only the commercial licenses at that point? >> great question. the question is, when did it become essentially a regulated industry? when do people have to get a license and why was it the department of commerce doing instead of the faa air tsa? all great questions.

it was actually 1926 where by the end of the year everybody realizes that we have a problem here. there's a lot of people flying and we are not regulating it at all. chicago tribune around this time ran a story about what they call wildcat. flight pools. they are identified according to them something like three dozen wildcat site pools in the chicagoland area and one of the lines of the story that sticks with me is the reporter wrote that based on how poorly trained they were, and what little training they had, and what little regulation there was of the schools, that when you graduate quote - unquote from one of the schools and get your diploma, you should probably get a coupon for a coffin as well. but 1926, department of commerce becomes essentially

the regulating agency. and they start collecting licenses. in an official manner. but you know, don't think suddenly that made everything regulated in a way we expect today. you know, when these planes were crashed, even after the department of commerce became the investigative agency and regulatory agency, they would send an investigator out to figure out what happened. they never could. very rarely could they figure out what happened. and you know, at times of early airplane travel begins, had problems as well. in 1929 a horrific story of an airliner flying over the southwest over new mexico and arizona, it just disappeared. it just disappeared and they could not find this airliner for days! by the time they found in the

wastelands of the desert, everybody was dead. yes, you had a question here. >> there is an acrobatic association that issues licenses for a while in the 20s. orval wright would sign the license. >> orville wright would sign even for these women here. in fact, the very first page of the pictures in the book here, there is an image of the license of nichols, the daughter of wall street wealth in new york city that would ultimately challenge amelia earhart for the most accomplished fema pilot. i checked on this beautiful image of her license of her descendents down in georgia. in the signature on is orval--

orville wright. >> and where does -- >> a little background. i was looking to tell one specific story about women in aviation. the story of women fighting for the right to fly in these races and ultimately triumphing and beating the men. as a journalist i learned long ago that you need to be able to know your stories about and into lines or less. if you consider your stories about, they you know what you need to get it or you know who your characters are. because in the late 1920s and certainly through the time where my story ends in 1936, there are hundreds of women flying by the end. and there are dozens of really accomplished and prominent

female pilots. the reason why i chose the characters who are featured in this book is because they were friends. they were the heart and soul of the battle. they interacted with one another. battled each other in the sky when one of them would crash and be injured and laid up in a hospital, another would come to visit. and be there for her. so that is how i came to these five. but markham burst onto the scene at the very end of the story. in 1936, markham flies atlantic ocean in the opposite direction. she flies from europe to north america. and essentially, crash lands on the coast of canada. on the labrador coast. so she makes this daring flight at the very end of this narrative. and so, while she is mentioned effectively in the last chapter, buttoning up a different narrative strand. she is not part of the story.

but people may remember the story of markham because she was the character in which another story was based. yes, way in the back in the green shirt. and then i will come to hear next. >> when i read the globe sunday your article about amelia earhart, i was done because i don't think anybody knew that she was a social worker in boston. where did she live? where did she go? what books did she read? she was in boston! >> isn't it amazing? >> but nobody ever talks about! >> all you ever hear about amelia earhart is that she got lost in the ocean with a copilot. this brings everything -- >> i'm going to take it and say something here too. this also blew my mind! i was a reporter from the boston globe. i lived in the city for four years. i like to think i'm curious and

observant. i did not know either. and you know, i think a couple of things have happened here. in the question to remember one great woman, amelia earhart, we have simplified her story to the point of almost myth and legend. and i think we have done so at a detriment to her. because the real story is actually much more interesting. and we have also forgotten all of the other woman she was with. when she was here in boston, it wasn't really necessarily her choice. she was a bit of a nomad and floated around from state to state. she ultimately landed here because her sister was a schoolteacher in medford and her mother, was divorcing her husband in california and going to move east and live here. and amelia earhart sort of got

dragged along for that ride. and she did not have money to go to college even though she was extremely bright. and she essentially goes and applies for different jobs. you know, stating that she wants to do something in aeronautics. it was something she could have done because she learned to fly in 1921. by the time she is here in boston, she is no plane, she is no street cred in the town, they don't know who she is. they placed her instead at the settlement house on tyler street. in our modern chinatown. there is a plaque outside of the home where she briefly lived in medford. it is 76 brook street. and so, relatively decent sized modest home on a hill there not far from the mystic river. just nestled into a little medford neighborhood.

yes? linda. i am curious, what was your biggest research challenge in this? i can imagine funny stuff and amelia earhart might not be as hard-to-find as on the others. >> the question is what were the challenges to go through especially when writing about people who are sadly, long gone. dale presented a challenge, even amelia earhart. with her had to resist the challenge to write a biography about her because it is mostly what's been done with her life. write a biography of amelia earhart. there are some incredible ones. i know i was looking to tell a different story. mr. with an ensemble cast. so with her papers i had to really know what was important in my story and where to pare it down. but the bigger challenges with

some of the other women. you know, people who did not live as long. people who were not as famous. early on, i did wonder, am i going to make ruth nichols come alive in three dimensions on the pages of the book? am i going to be able to make florence klingensmith come alive on the pages of the book? and you know, i got a lot of lucky breaks along the way. you know, where i found records, not necessarily on some of the big archives that we think of at harvard and the space museum in d.c. but little historical societies. tiny little places. in the town of morehead, minnesota, there is a little historical society that quietly over the years, no attention, no bright lights. they have been collecting

anything they could on florence klingensmith. i called them almost last! a desperation call, do you have any idea where i can find this stuff? and the man on the phone, his name was mark peel and he said to me, something along the lines of, while i have a lot on florence klingensmith. [laughter] and he proceeded to list all of these things that he had been collecting over the years. he had done oral histories with high school students and classmates before they died 30 years ago. and by the end of that three to five minute phone call i said to mark, i would like to come tomorrow. can you accommodate me? and there were other things like that along the way. you know, ruth nichols lived quite a long time. she came from money and was a new yorker. she knew her whole life that she was someone. and so i knew her papers were somewhere. they were not at harvard and they were not anywhere else obvious. and i finally found these

records in the back room, a windowless cinderblock room at the international women's air and space museum at a little regional airport in cleveland. and when they told me they think that they found what i was looking for, i almost did not believe them because i had been looking for months. i said can you take a picture of these file cabinets you are speaking of? because my idea of what a lot of records might not be theirs. and so, the archivist at this little museum takes a picture for me and emails it to me. and here is a rack of three file cabinets, three drawers hi, each one alphabetized, completely organized by year. and suddenly, ruth nichols was alive again! you know? and those were the best moments.

one of the knowing that i found her. [laughter] >> sorry. >> my question is basically answered but i just want to say i have been fortunate to have an advance copy of this book. it is incredibly, beautifully written. incomprehensibly well reported and i encourage everyone to get a copy! i will ask -- >> i paid $20. don't leave until i give it to you. >> one question, you talked about, you left this off around i think 1973 where we see that there has been much progress but if you take a modern jet today, it seems like the vast majority of the pilots remain men. do you have figures about that? and it seems like you know, this disparity and this

stereotype persists. >> it does. so the question is, what are the percentages today of airline pilots? it is essentially come of all licensed pilots in the country, roughly 7 percent of them are women. then when you go to airline pilots that drops to five or six percent. the number has grown over the years and it is growing in all branches of the military where there are pilots as well. the navy, air force, army, have all seen market increases at times exponential increases. in the number of female pilots in the last 20 years. and there is some really interesting research out there. that i will end with. there is decades of research now. they strictly have it based on data, crash data. it shows there is no difference. a female pilot is just as good

as a man objectively statistically speaking. and at times if anything research shows that she is even safer than a man. so, i want to thank you for coming and i want to close with one quick thought. you know, i am thrilled to share this with you and i appreciate your questions from all of you. it was also a real honor table to tell the story. as a reporter, i'm always felt that it's important to tell the untold stories of the underrepresented. and i think we live in a time that is more important now than maybe ever before. you know, to sort of pay my respects a little bit yesterday

morning, i had an opportunity to do something i was a new york city essay. for the book launch and book event. and in the morning i had some free time. a user to take a train to the bronx. ruth nichols is buried in woodlawn cemetery there.it's a beautiful and strong cemetery. it was important and famous in new york, chances are you were buried at woodlawn. i went there and i got my map in the office and they tried to direct me where i was going. on the map, they have little icons where all of the famous people are. and ruth was not one of them. and so, using their app and the

math, the directions i got, i found my way through the cemetery in blazing hot heat, sweating through my shirt to find her grave. when i found it, it wasn't one of these giant ones that were there. it wasn't the kind of grave that she herself might have expected before the depression and before things changed. it was just a simple tombstone. just like many of us might have. it stated her name, her date of birth, date of death and at the bottom, sort of obscured by the ivy, were words and said beloved by all. and she was, once. you know, all of them were. and i do hope that with this book, they will be again. thank you very much. [applause]

you can poke up books here and get them signed up front. do not forget the raffle tickets! >> don't forget your swag! you will want some "fly girls" swag! put your ticket in. [inaudible conversations] >> 20 years ago, c-span launched booktv on c-span2. since then, we featured over 15,000 authors, book festivals and more. in 2008 the late author and civil rights activist maya angelou discussed her collection of essays, letters to my daughter. >> i keep a hotel room in my town and -- >> is this in new york or north carolina? >> both. but i keep a hotel room.

at about 5:00 in the morning, i get up and do my -- i have coffee, and then i got to the hotel room. and i try to keep one in a bed and breakfast. it is all still. i go to my room and there i have a dictionary, roget's thesaurus, a bible, a bottle of sherry. [laughter] i get in there and i tried to enchant myself. into a place where there is -- i don't know, i don't know. i can suspend all and i go to

work. and i work, i like to be in it by 6:30 am. a work from 6:30 am until about midday. if it's happening i will go on but usually it isn't. [laughter] may be at the end of six hours, i might be able to get three pages that are worthwhile. i will get maybe eight pages but later on in the day when i go home, and shower again and pretend i am saying -- i operate in the familiar. [laughter] and then when i edit, i may have if i'm lucky, i may have three pages handwritten.

>> you can watch this and many other booktv programs from the past 20 years online at booktv.org. type the authors name and the word book in the search bar at the top of the page. ... 76 years later it's still rolling along. 77 years later on june 30.