Bring Me a Unicorn: Diaries and Letters of Anne Morrow Lindbergh, 1922-1928 [Paperback]

Anne Morrow Lindbergh (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 12, 1993

The first volume of Lindbergh’s diaries and letters, in which she meets her future husband. Introduction by the Author; Index; photographs. A Helen and Kurt Wolff Book

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Anne Morrow Lindbergh, born Anne Spencer Morrow (June 22, 1906 – February 7, 2001) was a pioneering American aviator, author, and the spouse of fellow aviator Charles Lindbergh.  She resided in Connecticut.

Books by Anne M. Lindbergh

• North to the Orient (1935)
• The Wave of the Future (1940)
• The Steep Ascent (1944)
• Gift from the Sea (1955)
• The Unicorn and other Poems (1956)
• Dearly Beloved (1962)
• Earth Shine (1969)
• Bring Me a Unicorn
• Hour of Gold, Hour of Lead (1973)
• Locked Rooms and Open Doors (1974)
• The Flower and the Nettle (1976)
• War Within and Without (1980)

Product Details

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: Mariner Books; First Edition edition (March 12, 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0156141647
• ISBN-13: 978-0156141642
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 4.9 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #265,109 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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37 of 38 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The greatest love story of our time finds it's beginning..., October 15, 1998

By 

[e-mail] (Reno, Nevada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Bring Me a Unicorn: Diaries and Letters of Anne Morrow Lindbergh, 1922-1928 (Paperback)

Anne Morrow Lindbergh looked to the sky long before she met Charles Augustus Lindbergh.

Cloudscapes as pastel vistas; marvelling at the wings of a gull in flight; nights lying in bed, looking straight up through a tree to the celestial panorama overhead.

A young girl's vision of her future?

In "Bring Me A Unicorn, the Diaries and Letters of Anne Morrow Lindbergh, 1922 - 1928", we get to meet the joyful, sweet adolescent, and watch her grow into the young, mature woman, she quickly becomes.

One marvels in seeing her through her own eyes...

...eyes that are discerning: artful, considerate, contemplative, and forever searching.

Eyes that are always examining her "new" and hidden self, for some inner truth.

She reflects upon her "arrival," lacking confidence at first, before finding herself expressed within the petals of lavender flowers:

"I kept looking at the flowers in a vase near me: lavender sweet peas, fragile winged and yet so still, so perfectly poised, apart, and complete. They are self-sufficient, a world in themselves, a whole--perfect. Is that then, perfection? Is what those sweet peas had what I have, occasionally in moments like that? But flowers always have it--poise, completion, fulfillment, perfection; I only occasionally, like that moment. For that moment I and the sweet peas had an understanding."

Daughter of Dwight Morrow, U.S. Ambassador to Mexico, Anne was living in an upper-class world of regal elegance, and experiencing that world in style. Anne describes a dinner on board J.P. Morgan's steamer "Corsair", with the great man himself greeting her and the Morrow family at the ship's entrance.

"The joy of being there almost invisible in this sparkling world, able to watch and listen to the most brilliant, charming men in the world, and a sense of the utmost fairy-tale luxury--everything done in exciting, magnificant style, so much grander than a party of young people."

Anne then travels to Mexico City, where her father serves as U.S. Ambassador to Mexico. On the eve of destiny, she ascends a staircase and turns toward the receiving line that awaits her and her family, where she sees "him" for the first time:

"I saw standing against the great stone pillar--on more red plush--a tall, slim boy in evening dress--so much slimmer, so much taller, so much more poised than I expected. A very refined face, not at all like those grinning 'Lindy' pictures--a firm mouth, clear, straight blue eyes, fair hair, and nice color. Then I went down the line very confused and overwhelmed by it all. He did not smile--just bowed and shook hands."

Awkwardness sets in, as the mature young woman disappears, and the young waif returns anew, seeking one moment, her entrance; the next, her exit; and thereafter, a direction on a parallel course with his life.

This lanky boy, over whom most fawn in adulation, is a curiousity:

"He is very, very young and was terribly shy--looked straight ahead and talked in short direct sentences which came out abruptly and clipped. You could not meet his sentences: they were statements of fact, presented with such honest directness: not trying to please, just bare simple answers and statements, not trying to help a conversation along. It was amazing--breathtaking. I could not speak. What kind of boy was this?"

This boy--already known as the "Lone Eagle"--was beyond "alone"; he was isolated and trapped.

Charles Lindbergh had withdrawn into himself.

Charles was surrounded by admirers living in the "make-believe" world of the Press, and still, had no one to talk to in his own, real world...

...no one to share with, until Anne arrives compassionately to his rescue:

"We talked of going to Xochimilco. We all wanted to go--would he go? He wanted to, but then he said he was afraid he might 'spoil our day'--a crowd would gather. It was quite pathetic, for he wanted to go. I said, 'I feel as though the nicest thing we could do for you would be to leave you alone.' He smiled so kindly but said, 'No, I'd like very much to go--very much indeed.' We were off!"

When they return, he takes them flying, and for Anne--like her sisters--the experience is as much a revelation as it is a first!

"Let me be conscious of this! Let me be conscious!"

Joy and exhilaration overtake her:

"We were high above fields, and there far, far below, was a small shadow as of a great bird tearing along the neatly marked off fields. It gave me the most tremendous shock to realize for the first time the terrific speed we were going at and that that shadow meant us--us, like a mirror! That 'bird'--it was us."

She watches him as well, observing his movements and features:

"He was so perfectly at home--all his movements mechanical. He sat easily and quietly, not rigidly, but relaxed, yet alert. One hand on the wheel--one hand! He has the most tremendous hands."

Man and machine have made their impression. She bids Charles farewell, believing she will never see him again, then watches as he departs Mexico City in his Ryan Monoplane, the "Spirit of St. Louis".

...though Anne's love for him has already begun:

"The feeling of exultant joy that there is anyone like that in the world. I shall never see him again, and he did not notice me, or would ever, but there is such a person alive, there is such a life, and I am here on this earth, in this age, to know it!"

In the months that followed Charles' famous trans-Atlantic flight, Anne was probably the only person he had met who spoke to him with any sincerity...

...and she had simply offered to leave him alone.

Weeks go by in pages, and they meet again. Her love of his world solidifys the bond between them. Enamored with her, Charles Lindbergh falls for the girl that refers to him as:

"That boy."

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars rain and swan necked lilies, September 1, 1997

By 

Marcea L. Oetting "elpheaba" (Florida) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Bring Me a Unicorn: Diaries and Letters of Anne Morrow Lindbergh, 1922-1928 (Paperback)

I first read this book when I was sixteen and it touched me in ways I could not explain. When I suffered through a tragedy last year Anne Lindbergh's writings helped me survive I can never thank her. But I can encourage you to read this book and experience life through her young but wise eyes