American Flygirl
  • Published: 28 May 2024
  • ISBN: 9780806542829
  • Imprint: Kensington
  • Format: Hardback
  • Pages: 272
  • RRP: $65.00
Categories:

American Flygirl

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One of WWII’s most uniquely hidden figures, Hazel Ying Lee was the first Asian American woman to earn a pilot’s license, join the WASPs, and fly for the United States military amid widespread anti-Asian sentiment and policies.

Her singular story of patriotism, barrier breaking, and fearless sacrifice is told for the first time in full for readers of The Women with Silver Wings by Katherine Sharp Landdeck, A Woman of No Importance by Sonia Purnell, The Last Boat Out of Shanghai by Helen Zia, Facing the Mountain by Daniel James Brown and all Asian American, women’s and WWII history books.

One of WWII’s most uniquely hidden figures, Hazel Ying Lee was the first Asian American woman to earn a pilot’s license, join the WASPs, and fly for the United States military amid widespread anti-Asian sentiment and policies.

Her singular story of patriotism, barrier breaking, and fearless sacrifice is told for the first time in full for readers of The Women with Silver Wings by Katherine Sharp Landdeck, A Woman of No Importance by Sonia Purnell, The Last Boat Out of Shanghai by Helen Zia, Facing the Mountain by Daniel James Brown and all Asian American, women’s and WWII history books.

In 1932, Hazel Ying Lee, a nineteen-year-old American daughter of Chinese immigrants, sat in on a friend’s flight lesson. It changed her life. In less than a year, a girl with a wicked sense of humor, a newfound love of flying, and a tough can-do attitude earned her pilot’s license and headed for China to help against invading Japanese forces. In time, Hazel would become the first Asian American to fly with the Women Airforce Service Pilots. As thrilling as it may have been, it wasn’t easy.

In America, Hazel felt the oppression and discrimination of the Chinese Exclusion Act. In China’s field of male-dominated aviation she was dismissed for being a woman, and for being an American. But in service to her country, Hazel refused to be limited by gender, race, and impossible dreams. Frustrated but undeterred she forged ahead, married Clifford Louie, a devoted and unconventional husband who cheered his wife on, and gave her all for the cause achieving more in her short remarkable life than even she imagined possible.

American Flygirl is the untold account of a spirited fighter and an indomitable hidden figure in American history. She broke every common belief about women. She challenged every social restriction to endure and to succeed. And against seemingly insurmountable obstacles, Hazel Ying Lee reached for the skies and made her mark as a universal and unsung hero whose time has come.
  • Published: 28 May 2024
  • ISBN: 9780806542829
  • Imprint: Kensington
  • Format: Hardback
  • Pages: 272
  • RRP: $65.00
Categories:

Praise for American Flygirl

Praise for American Flygirl

“Ankeny’s cinematic storytelling is buoyed by her zestful portrait of Hazel, who comes across as remarkably unfazed by her era’s rampant discrimination. It’s a compulsively readable tale of odds-defying derring-do.” —Publishers Weekly STARRED REVIEW



“[An] excellent biography of a young American-born woman who smashed gender and racial barriers in the 1930s and 1940s, an era of federally mandated discrimination against Asians. Ankeny combines the challenges in Lee’s life in the male-dominated world of aviation, the stresses of pilot training, and the history of the WASP.” —Military Officer magazine

“American Flygirl is author Susan Tate Ankeny’s narrative of Hazel Ying Lee, a figure of groundbreaking wide-ranging resonance in the history of World War II, aviation, women, and the American experience. Lee was notably the first Asian-American woman to earn a pilot’s license, which led to her joining the WASPs during World War II fighting for her country while battling the forces of anti-Asian bias post Pearl Harbor, which led to the shameful policies of Japanese internment camps (among others).” —In Flight USA

“In this engaging biography, Ankeny brings to life a woman who had to continually fight sexism and racism to serve her country.” —Arlington Magazine

“In Ankeny’s skilled hands, Lee’s story soars through an unforgettable flight of wartime courage, triumph, and tragedy.” —Gregg Jones, Pulitzer Prize Finalist and author of Most Honorable Son: A Forgotten Hero’s Fight Against Fascism and Hate During World War II

“Helluva story! Parachuting out of a plane, crash-landing in a field, or writing lipstick messages on a fuselage, Hazel Ying Lee… is fearless, witty—and patriotic…. In Ankeny’s fast-paced and engaging biography, Lee is at the controls, flying over the clouds of bias and sexism to serve her country. This is a story as dynamic as the banking biplanes and pursuit fighters flown by this long-overlooked war hero.” —Christopher C. Gorham, author of The Confidante: The Untold Story of the Woman Who Helped Win WWII and Shape Modern America

“Fearless and confident, Hazel Ying Lee was part of a pioneering generation of women who fell in love with flying. . . . Ankeny’s book brings to life Hazel and her WASP sisters for new generations.” —Nancy Ng Tam, PhD., Museum of Chinese in America (MOCA)

“An important story told in a simple straight-forward and concise way.” —New York Journal of Books