15 Mar 2005
10:30 GMT
London, New Bond Street
Printed Books, Maps and Manuscripts
Back to auction 11939
Printed Books, Maps and Manuscripts
Back to auction 11939
JOHNSON (AMY)
Autograph letter signed (“Amy Johnson”), to Miss Glass, accepting her invitation to Switzerland (“…I have left my aeroplane in Germany…the weather is hopeless & showed no signs of improving. I may have been held up for weeks...I will collect it when I leave Switzerland & fly it home...”), 2 pages, large 8vo, on brown writing paper, 15 Vernon Court, Finchley Road, 22 January 1931
Estimate:
£200 - 250
US$ 300 - 380
€230 - 290
US$ 300 - 380
€230 - 290
Footnotes
- Amy Johnsons spectacular attempt to break the light aeroplane record in a solo flight to Australia began on 5 May 1930. In July 1931 she flew across Siberia to Tokyo. She was lost over the Thames estuary on 5 January 1941 having taken off, despite warnings, in foul weather: Amy Johnson was a heroine of the romantic age of aviation. Her image was one of a petite, photogenic pilot and mechanic, a pioneer feminist and sportswoman; she had a veneer of success in an age needing stars. With hindsight, however, a more complex figure has been revealed. According to a fellow ATA pilot, Lettice Curtis, Johnson was often insecure and unhappy. More seriously her skills as a mechanic and pilot were hands-on; she was neither a fine pilot nor a sound navigator. Amy Johnson took risks, and in the end this killed her. Nevertheless because of the indomitable record-breaking and the mystery surrounding her death she became and remains, a legendary figure (Robin Higham in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography).
Category: Books / Books, Maps and Manuscripts
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