[1] Within a few years, George and Dorothy moved to the East Coast, where Putnam entered the family publishing business in New York City.

The following year he headed another expedition for the American Geographical Society to collect wildlife specimens on Baffin Island.

In July 1927 Putnam was responsible for the blockbuster publication of "We", Charles Lindbergh's autobiographical account of his early life and his Orteig Prize winning non-stop transatlantic solo flight from New York to Paris in May of that year.

[5] In 1930, the various Putnam heirs voted to merge the family's publishing firm with Minton, Balch & Co., which became the majority stockholders.

Because of his reputation for working with Lindbergh, he was contacted by Amy Phipps Guest, a wealthy American living in London, who wanted to sponsor the first-ever flight by a woman across the Atlantic Ocean.

Guest asked Putnam to find a suitable candidate, and he eventually came up with the then-unknown aviatrix, Amelia Earhart.

Putnam had undertaken to promote Earhart in a campaign that included lecture tours and mass-market endorsements for luggage, Lucky Strike cigarettes (this caused image problems for her, and McCall's magazine retracted an offer) and other products.

Earhart's ideas on marriage were liberal for the time, as she believed in equal responsibilities for both "breadwinners" and pointedly kept her own surname.

[11] Following Earhart's successful 1932 solo transatlantic flight, Putnam again organized her public engagements and speaking tour across the United States.

[17] Amelia Earhart, Putnam's second wife, was the first president of The Ninety-Nines, an organization of (originally) 99 female pilots formed in 1929 for the support and advancement of aviation.

Putnam had proposed an award as a means of honoring anyone who supports an individual member of the group (known as a "49½"), a Chapter or Section, or the organization as a whole.

This distinction was given to "American citizens whose achievements in outdoor activity, exploration and worthwhile adventure are of such an exceptional character as to capture the imagination of boys...".

[22] In Flying Blind, a "Nathan Heller" novel by Max Allan Collins, George Putnam is a major character, but is portrayed as a villain using Earhart for his own purposes.