As per usual, I got slowed down by some research problems. I wrote in my book that Betty Skelton flew solo at the age of 12. But yesterday I read in two different articles from the 1940s that she flew at the age of 11. So I panicked! Were the other sources wrong? Did Betty sometimes forget how old she was and tell different newspapers different things? I wasn't sure so I needed to do a quick investigation. After a lot of reading I concluded that the two papers that wrote that she was 11 had it wrong because the overwhelming majority said she was 12. One must go with the majority. IF all of the early papers said she was 11 and then the later ones said she was 12 I would have gone with the earlier reports. People can forget things!
Oh, the joys of nonfiction. It's never what it seems...
No comments:
Post a Comment