The latest book from
Don Dahler
The critically acclaimed journalist and author of A TIGHT LIE, WATER HAZARD, and DO A LITTLE WRONG combined his love of history, mystery, and adventure to discover the untold story of America’s first female aviator, Harriet Quimby. Born into humble beginnings on a Michigan dirt farm, Harriet managed to become a popular, globetrotting journalist before turning her sights to the nascent field of aviation, just a few short years after the Wright Brothers’ first flight on a sandy North Carolina beach.
Harriet Quimby.
This is her story.
photo credit: Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum
Amelia Earhart herself once said of Harriet’s feat, “Without any of the modern instruments, in a plane which was hardly more than a winged skeleton with a motor…to cross the Channel in 1912 required more bravery and skill than to cross the Atlantic today. Always we must remember that, in thinking of America’s first great woman flier’s accomplishments.”
The first woman to fly across the English Channel
photo credit: Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum
Throughout her unlikely life, Harriet constantly shrugged off societal constraints, refusing to be shackled by her impoverished past, gender, and fear. Among her many achievements, she became the first American woman to earn a pilot’s license and was the first woman to fly solo across the English Channel in a time when flights were measured in minutes, not miles. Were it not for a tragic twist of fate at the moment of her finest accomplishment, Harriet would be mentioned in the same breath as the greatest pioneers of aviation: Glenn Curtiss, Bessie Coleman, Wiley Post, and Charles Lindberg.
The first American woman to earn a pilot’s license
photo credit: Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum
With black-and-white vintage photographs throughout, FEARLESS is the definitive biography of one of the most inspiring hidden figures of history.
Explore this hidden figure in history
About The Author.
Don Dahler has been a fixture on network newscasts for the past thirty years. The recipient of almost every major award in broadcast journalism, including two national Emmy Awards, two Edward R. Murrow Awards, a Peabody Award, and an Alfred I. DuPont-Columbia Award, Don is perhaps best known for being the first national correspondent to report live from the scene of the World Trade Center attacks, from which he calmly relayed his observations, mere blocks away from the unfolding devastation, to a shocked world.
He has covered every major recent news story, from the Columbine school shooting to the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre; from the 2000 presidential election recount to the fall of Africa’s last colony; from Michael Jackson’s trial to the Oklahoma City bombing. He reported from countless hurricanes and blizzards and was one of the first journalists to slip into northern Iraq under cover of darkness to find out if the Kurds would fight on the side of America against Saddam Hussein.
With undergraduate degrees in film and history, the Colorado native started his broadcasting career in local news in Texas and North Carolina before branching into documentary production. He lived in southern Africa while working on wildlife films with famed Anglia/National Geographic filmmakers Jen and Des Bartlett, and traveled to over 120 countries. He was among the first team of Westerners in decades to reach nomadic peoples in the Tian Shan mountain range in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan. He lived in Cairo and Calcutta for months while working on documentaries about the people of those great cities. He has reported for CNBC, ABC-News, and CBS-News, and was the evening news anchor for CBS’s flagship station for many years.
The son of an Air Force colonel, Don grew up on military bases across the country, from San Antonio, to Colorado Springs, to Klamath Falls, Oregon, to Fairborn, Ohio, to Virginia Beach. While developing his journalism career the wanderings continued: Dallas, Charlotte, Richmond, Los Angeles, and New York.
Don has been an eyewitness to wars in Southwest Africa, Kosovo, Israel/Palestinian territories, Iraq, and Afghanistan. He was among the first war correspondents to venture into Afghanistan after 9/11 and traveled to numerous frontlines with the Afghans fighting against the Taliban. Don was then embedded multiple times with American troops and Marines during key engagements in Iraq. He stays in contact with some of those soldiers to this day.
The latest book from
Don Dahler
The critically acclaimed journalist and author of A TIGHT LIE, WATER HAZARD, and DO A LITTLE WRONG combined his love of history, mystery, and adventure to discover the untold story of America’s first female aviator, Harriet Quimby. Born into humble beginnings on a Michigan dirt farm, Harriet managed to become a popular, globetrotting journalist before turning her sights to the nascent field of aviation, just a few short years after the Wright Brothers’ first flight on a sandy North Carolina beach.
photo credit: Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum
Amelia Earhart herself once said of Harriet’s feat, “Without any of the modern instruments, in a plane which was hardly more than a winged skeleton with a motor…to cross the Channel in 1912 required more bravery and skill than to cross the Atlantic today. Always we must remember that, in thinking of America’s first great woman flier’s accomplishments.”
The first woman to fly across the English Channel
photo credit: Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum
Harriet Quimby.
This is her story.
Throughout her unlikely life, Harriet constantly shrugged off societal constraints, refusing to be shackled by her impoverished past, gender, and fear. Among her many achievements, she became the first American woman to earn a pilot’s license and was the first woman to fly solo across the English Channel in a time when flights were measured in minutes, not miles. Were it not for a tragic twist of fate at the moment of her finest accomplishment, Harriet would be mentioned in the same breath as the greatest pioneers of aviation: Glenn Curtiss, Bessie Coleman, Wiley Post, and Charles Lindberg.
The first American woman to earn a pilot’s license
photo credit: Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum
With black-and-white vintage photographs throughout, FEARLESS is the definitive biography of one of the most inspiring hidden figures of history.
Explore this hidden figure in history
About The Author.
Don Dahler has been a fixture on network newscasts for the past thirty years. The recipient of almost every major award in broadcast journalism, including two national Emmy Awards, two Edward R. Murrow Awards, a Peabody Award, and an Alfred I. DuPont-Columbia Award, Don is perhaps best known for being the first national correspondent to report live from the scene of the World Trade Center attacks, from which he calmly relayed his observations, mere blocks away from the unfolding devastation, to a shocked world.
He has covered every major recent news story, from the Columbine school shooting to the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre; from the 2000 presidential election recount to the fall of Africa’s last colony; from Michael Jackson’s trial to the Oklahoma City bombing. He reported from countless hurricanes and blizzards and was one of the first journalists to slip into northern Iraq under cover of darkness to find out if the Kurds would fight on the side of America against Saddam Hussein.
Author Don Dahler
Books.
In 2009, St. Martin’s Press published Don’s first novel to critical acclaim, the sports-themed mystery A TIGHT LIE, which was followed by WATER HAZARD and DO A LITTLE WRONG.
Don Dahler lives in New Jersey with his wife, Katie, two children, Callie and Jack, and a menagerie of dogs and cats. When not writing, he can be found on a golf course, tennis court, or restoring old houses.
For literary and film/television queries contact Claudia Cross, Folio Literary Management.
For public relations, interview and appearance requests, contact Ro Romanello: ro@roromanellopr.com