Katherine Stinson

Katherine Flies Again

winegarten Katherine Stinson, Women in Texas History , , ,

I took the leap last night, packaged up the cover to my Katherine Stinson book, wrote the letter and will be sending the book off today for its third printing!

What precipitated this move, you may ask? I’ll tell you. I’ve been wrestling with the idea of reprinting the book for some time now as I’ve sold out the first two printings, and I’m still getting requests for the book. Heck, I’ve been buying them used off Amazon.com and Ebay and then reselling them. But, a really, really wonderful email yesterday convinced me it’s time to dust them off and get them back into print.

2010 is the centennial anniversary of aviation in Texas. The Bob Bullock Texas State History Museum here in Austin is hosting an exhibit on Texas aviation in the summer of 2010. And, the curator of the exhibit sent me an email asking me if I’d lend her documents, photos, etc. on Katherine as she wants to feature KS in the exhibit. Which means, in part, the museum gift shop will want to have copies of my books to sell. Which means they need to be able to buy copies of the book. Which means there needs to *be* copies of the book for them to buy.

See where I’m going with this? So, today Debster will be making a stop by her local post office to mail this missive, the precursor to getting Katherine back in print again. I don’t know who’s more excited, me or her! Let me know if you’d like to order a signed copy of the third edition, I’m starting my list of pre-orders now!

Katherine Stinson Didn’t Plan on Being a Pilot

winegarten Katherine Stinson, Women in Texas History

We know this because when Katherine was born, aviation as we know it hadn’t yet been invented. Katherine came to flying musically. A fantastic musician, Katherine won a piano in her city’s competition. One day, her music teacher told her it was time for Katherine to go study music in Europe, as Katherine’s teacher reached the limit of what she was able to teach Katherine. Excited, Katherine ran home to tell her mother the news. Emma Stinson, divorced with four children, was not as excited as her eldest daughter.

Although Emma ran the City Directory in Fort Payne, Alabama, Katherine’s birthplace, she didn’t have the extra money to spend on flying lessons. Telling her daughter this, Katherine’s eyes fell, fell right to the newspaper laying on the living room coffee table where the headlines screamed, “Barnstormers earn $1000 a day!” Snatching up the paper, Katherine told her mother, “That’s how I’ll get to Europe, I’ll learn to fly!” Thus, the career of the fourth woman in the United States to earn her pilot’s license, in 1912, was born.