Amelia's note to George on the morning of their wedding day: "Dear G.P., there are some things which should be writ before
we are married, things we have talked over before most of them. You
must know again my reluctance to marry, my feeling that I shatter
thereby chances in work which means to -- so much to me. I feel the
move just now is foolish as anything I could do. I know there may be
compensations, but I have no heart to look ahead. In our life
together, I shall not hold you to any medieval code -- of
faithfulness to me, nor shall I consider myself bound to you
similarly ... Please let us not interfere with the
other's work or play, nor let the world see our private joys or
disagreements. In this connection, I may have to keep some place
where I can go to be myself now and then, for I cannot guarantee to
endure all the confinements of even an attractive cage. I must extract a cruel promise, and that is you will let me go in a year if we find no happiness together."
Source: George Palmer Putnam. Soaring Wings: A Biography of Amelia Earhart. 1939. pg. 76.
Amelia in 1930 in a letter to a friend: "I am still unsold on marriage. I don't want anything, all the time ... I think I may not ever be able to see marriage except as a cage until I am unfit to work or fly or be active ..."
Source: George Palmer Putnam. Soaring Wings: A Biography of Amelia Earhart. 1939. pg. 74.
Amelia about women and marriage: "As a sex women seem to regard matrimony as a highly honorable retreat from business failure ... They think they are after freedom, but what I'm afraid they want is lack of responsibility ... Mr. Putnam thinks idleness is the greatest curse of married women."
Source: George Palmer Putnam. Soaring Wings: A Biography of Amelia Earhart. 1939. pg. 81.
Amelia about her relationship with George: "Ours is a reasonable and contented partnership; my husband with his solo jobs, and I with mine; but the system of dual control works satisfactorily and our work and our play is a great deal together."
Source: George Palmer Putnam. Soaring Wings: A Biography of Amelia Earhart. 1939. pg. 82.
Amelia about shared responsibility in marriage: "Marriage is a mutual responsibility and I cannot see why husbands shouldn't share in the responsibility of the home. By that I mean something more detailed -- and for as long as it takes them to get used to the idea, perhaps more arduous, ever uncomfortable to the men -- than merely keeping a roof over the collective head, and coal in the furnace."
Source: George Palmer Putnam. Soaring Wings: A Biography of Amelia Earhart. 1939. pg. 83.
Amelia about having other interests: "It seems to me that the effect of having other interests beyond those exclusively domestic works well. The more one does and sees and feels, the more one is able to do, and more genuine may be one's appreciation of fundamental things like home, and love and understanding companionship."
Source: George Palmer Putnam. Soaring Wings: A Biography of Amelia Earhart. 1939. pg. 83.
Amelia about women working: "For the woman to pay her own way may add immeasurably to the happiness of those concerned. The individual independence of dollars and cents tends to keep a healthy balance of power in the kingdom of the home ... It is fortunately no longer a disgrace to be undomestic, and married women should be able to seek, as unrestrictedly as men, any gainful occupation their talents and interests make available."
Source: George Palmer Putnam. Soaring Wings: A Biography of Amelia Earhart. 1939. pg. 84.
Emily Mobley about George: "... George Palmer Putnam was hiding 492 more items. He could not bear to part with these last reminders of his wife. These items have now been added to the others given by her husband in the Purdue collection."
Source: Purdue.edu
