Beryl Markham was a colonial child, born in Britain and raised in Africa, where she met Ernest Hemingway on safari and was rumored to have had an affair with an English prince. She took up flying at a time when most people hadn’t even seen planes, became the only professional pilot in Africa and, in 1936, accepted a challenge to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean.
In early September, Markham set off from England in a tiny turquoise-and-silver plane filled with good luck gifts. She flew for more than 21 hours, survived a crash-landing on an island near Nova Scotia and went on to write her autobiography, West with the Night — the title a reference to the fact that she mostly flew in the dark.
Few lives have been lived as well or as fully as Beryl Markham’s adventurous existence. A pioneering aviatrix and a gifted writer, Markham’s inspiring example is the subject of an NPR essay here: [read and/or listen].
