Lindbergh [Paperback]

A. Scott Berg (Author)

Book Description

Release date: September 1, 1999

Few American icons provoke more enduring fascination than Charles Lindbergh—renowned for his one-man transatlantic flight in 1927, remembered for the sorrow surrounding the kidnapping and death of his firstborn son in 1932, and reviled by many for his opposition to America's entry into World War II. Lindbergh's is "a dramatic and disturbing American story," says the Los Angeles Times Book Review, and this biography—the first to be written with unrestricted access to the Lindbergh archives and extensive interviews of his friends, colleagues, and close family members—is "the definitive account."

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

In 1927, Charles Augustus Lindbergh made the world smaller when, at 25, he completed his fabled flight from New York to Paris. He spent the rest of his life watching the world close in around him. Actor Eric Stoltz smoothly captures A. Scott Berg's erudite prose, impressive narrative drive, and fascinating minutiae, and by doing so earns an intense sympathy for and understanding of Lindbergh's relentless need for privacy and his frustration at losing it to his worldwide fame. (Running time: six hours, four cassettes) --Lou Schuler --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly

Lindbergh, writes Berg, was "the most celebrated living person ever to walk the earth." It's a brash statement for a biography that makes its points through a wealth of fact rather than editorial (or psychological) surmise, but after the 1927 solo flight to Paris and the 1932 kidnapping of his infant son, most readers will agree. Berg (Max Perkins) writes with the cooperation, although not necessarily the approval, of the Lindbergh family, having been granted full access to the unpublished diaries and papers of both Lindbergh and Anne Morrow Lindbergh. The result is a solidly written book that while revealing few new secrets (there are discoveries about Lindbergh's father's illegitimacy and Mrs. Lindbergh's 1956 affair with her doctor, Dana Atchley) instructs and fascinates through the richness of detail. There are no new insights into the boy flier, no new theories about the kidnapping, but there is a chilling portrait of a man who did not seem to enjoy many of the most basic human emotions. Perhaps more attention to Lindbergh's near-worship of the Nobel Prize-winning doctor, Alexis Carrel, would have explained more about his enigmatic character. Berg details Lindbergh's prewar trips to Nazi Germany at the request of the U.S. government; his leadership in the America First movement; his role in first promoting commercial aviation; and, during WWII, improving the efficiency of the Army Air Corps. As the book reaches its conclusion, however, it's the sympathetic portrait of Mrs. Lindbergh creating a life of her own while her husband chooses to be elsewhere that gives the biography the emotional scaffolding it lacked. The writing is workmanlike and efficient, and the story, familiar as it may be, encapsulates the history of the century. Photos. (Sept.) FYI: Putnam was said to have paid a seven-figure advance for Lindbergh in 1990.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 640 pages
• Publisher: Berkley Trade (September 1, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0425170411
• ISBN-13: 978-0425170410
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 5.8 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (160 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #293,640 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #10 in Books > Biographies & Memoirs > People, A-Z > ( L ) > Lindbergh, Charles

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

41 of 41 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Surprisingly fascinating -- an absorbing page-turner. January 30, 2000

By A Customer

Format:Paperback

The author presents a thorough, vivid, balanced and very readable history of the events and times of Charles Lindbergh's life (which spanned a considerable era, from the Wright Brothers to the moon landings) as well as a perceptive, in-depth, flesh and blood portrait of the man, his personal and family life, and his career.Thanks to the copious and detailed written record that the Lindberghs kept of their experiences -- made available to Mr. Berg in addition to all his other research -- the book gave this baby boomer a riveting glimpse into the half of the Twentieth Century which I was born too late to witness. There was truly a "you are there" feel to accounts of the famous flight, the kidnapping, the trial, the couple's marriage, the birth of commercial and military aviation, the events leading up to World War II, and even Lindbergh's passing as they were unfolding. There was also a very real and intimate depiction of Charles and Anne as people through the various stages of their lives.It was enlightening that public craziness and media frenzy hardly began with Princess Di and O.J. It was also quite revealing of the times that Anne so unquestioningly suppressed aspects of herself to support her husband and his endeavors even though she was an educated and independent woman with separate needs which were quite often at odds with his.If anyone thinks this book would not interest them, they should think again. A very worthwhile read in many respects. Definitely deserved the Pulitzer Prize.

49 of 52 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating, Cautionary Tale Of The Price Of Fame & Fortune! August 12, 2000

By Barron Laycock HALL OF FAME

Format:Hardcover

From the moment his wheels touched ground at Orly Airport in Paris in May of 1927, Charles Lindbergh's life started on an incredible second journey over which he often seemed to have little guidance or control, a whirlwind life spent in the suffocating death-grasp of public attention. In this wonderful biography by A. Scott Berg, we are invited to take this momentous ride alongside "Lucky Lindy" from his birth and early beginnings to his efforts to gain fame and recognition by becoming the first man to fly solo across the Atlantic. Yet in a way totally unanticipated by the enigmatic and somewhat naďve Lindbergh, this was only the beginning of an incredible life. For in accomplishing this spellbinding feat, to this brilliantly enterprising young man's amazement, the fame and fortune he had so eagerly sought to achieve soon took control over the direction and destiny of his life.

This is a book full of surprising twists and turns, and the reader is led on an entertaining and exotic excursion unto the interior of a marvelously complicated man's life, as well as into the realities of the story-book romance with his beautiful young wife, the former Anne Morrow, an ambassador's daughter. Their courtship and marriage fueled the public's imagination, and they became figures that loomed larger than life in the tabloid journalism of the early 1930s. Lindbergh found himself fashioned into the first modern day media superstar, a person so celebrated and famous it sometimes seems he spent the balance of his life's energy trying to escape such attention. As a result of his own personal qualities and frailties, and his uneasy and sometimes uncomprehending place in American spotlight, he was both deified and demonized in the public press again and again.

Each event in his all-too public personal odyssey is examined here, from the trip into fame and fortune aboard the "Spirit of Saint Louis" to his romance and marriage to Anne Morrow, from their life in the spotlight to the incredible ordeal of the kidnapping and death of their infant son, which resulted in the most celebrated and controversial trials and subsequent executions in modern American history. Berg examines the evidence of the kidnapping, which eventually led to the Lindberghs fleeing for their sanity sake on an odyssey taking them to England, an island off the coast of France, and to Nazi Germany, where Lindbergh's fascination with Hitler's regime and technical prowess led him to eventual political adventurism of his own with the "America First" movement. In unsuccessfully challenging Franklin D. Roosevelt, Lindbergh lost both his public credibility and cache, becoming vilified in the press for his questionable political views and dubious patriotism.

When war came Lindbergh was flatly refused any active role, but eventually found himself a way into the fracas first as a commercial test pilot, and later as an unofficial pilot in the South Pacific, where he performed brilliantly as a combat pilot with over fifty missions to his credit. After the war he became involved in a number of environmental, humanitarian, and medical issues, and devoted himself to anonymous public service, purposefully hidden from popular scrutiny and public view. In his strange and eclectic odyssey, he had caught public imagination, but had kept his own complexities and personal demons hidden from view. Lindbergh is in many ways a tragic figure, a person tripped by fate into being believed as a figure bigger than life, when in fact he was unequal to the task. He was, after all, only human, and tragically so at that. This is a fascinating and entertaining book about one of the most enigmatic and puzzling figures in 20th century history. I highly recommend it.

20 of 21 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Lucky Lindy? - You Be The Judge February 25, 2003

By Kenneth Blum

Format:Paperback

So how did a farm boy from the backwoods of Minnesota become one of the most revered heroes in world history?

Perhaps no book written about the ice-veined, brilliant aviator Charles A. Lindbergh answers this question better than A. Scott Berg's "Lindbergh", a marvelous, smoothly-written biography that uses heretofore unavailable sources to chronicle the unimaginable ups and equally unimaginable downs of Mr. Lindbergh's life.

The book is the first biography of Lindbergh that was written with the input and blessing of Lindbergh's family, including his widow, the noted author Anne Morrow Lindbergh. For the first time, the family granted unrestricted access to masses of material in the Lindbergh archives.

After reading this book, one concludes that two extreme forces shaped this great man's destiny.

The first was flight, taking off with his days as a barnstormer and airmail pilot, soaring with his courageous solo in a monoplane across the Atlantic, and coming to a soft but significant landing with the endeavors of his later life that involved not only aviation, but innovative projects in the fields of medicine and environmentalism. He also distinguished himself as an author (with, I suspect, the assistance of his wife, Anne, herself a talented writer.) In 1954, "The Spirit of St. Louis" the book won the Pulitzer Prize. It remains one of this country's most compelling, true-life adventure stories.

The second force was fame, the scourge of this extremely private man's life. Keep in mind that this was no normal fame, but a fame that bordered on fanaticism. It was fame that directly related to the kidnapping and death of his infant son, the family's exile to Europe, and the scorching criticism directed Lindbergh's way for his anti-war stance in the years preceding World War 11.

And although Mr. Berg's book was written with the cooperation of the Lindbergh family, it doesn't gloss over the consequences of his remote personality and long absences from home. Both had much to do with Anne Morrow Lindbergh's love affair with her doctor.

Some day, I hope that an ambitious television network such as HBO creates a mini-series based on this captivating biography. There is no way that a single movie can do justice to the expanse of dramatic events and stunning accomplishments that made up the life of America's greatest hero.

Here was a man. And here's a biography that does him proud.