Girl Around the World

What really happened to legendary aviator Amelia Earhart when she was lost at sea in 1937? Theories abound regarding one of the great mysteries in history, but none seen through the eyes of her kindred spirit, young, courageous journalist Dorothy Kilgallen.

THAT IS, UNTIL NOW!

Girl Around the World is the first book to connect these two inspiring women; Kilgallen, who displayed her courage during the famous 1936 “Race Around the World,” and Earhart, whose aviation exploits in 1928, 1932 and 1937 made her the most famous woman in the world.

In dramatic fashion, bestselling author and noted historian Mark Shaw reveals for the first time the untold details of the unlikely friendship in the mid-1930s between Kilgallen, the intrepid young journalist, and Earhart, the pioneering aviatrix. Their mutual support ran deep, with Kilgallen covering up close Earhart’s historic 1932 solo transatlantic flight, and Earhart taking a strong, personal interest in Kilgallen’s famous 24-day “Race Around the World,” celebrated this year on its 90th anniversary, against two older male reporters.

In fact, Earhart sent this caring message, “I know you can make it, Dorothy, but you must follow your normal schedule of eating, drinking and sleeping …” to Kilgallen during the “Race,” and when Earhart’s plane was lost at sea in 1937, readers will be shocked to learn that Kilgallen wrote a compelling, never-before-published newspaper account stating, “My heart is with Amelia Earhart today, wherever she is—and I pray that wherever she is, she is safe.” What Kilgallen proclaimed as to what happened to her friend, it turns out, strongly echoes the same theories being pursued by the October 2026 Purdue University expedition to search for Amelia Earhart’s airplane.

In a book that will stand the test of time, Girl Around the World unleashes new historical perspectives like never before by using the bond between two kindred spirits so as to chronical the adventures of these two pioneering women.