Other Lindbergh relatives also contributed lavishly to this book. Anne Lindbergh’s sister Constance, the late Mrs. Aubrey Morgan, was a great fount of inspiration and information. I also had the pleasure of spending time with Dwight Morrow, Jr.’s former wife, Margot—Mrs. John Wilkie—who mixed her sharp insights with invigorating humor. Charles Lindbergh’s niece, Lillian Johnson, provided a most memorable day of memories. While not related to the Lindberghs by either blood or marriage, James and Eleanor Forde Newton have been part of their family for sixty years. I learned as much about friendship from Jim and Ellie as I did about the Lindberghs.
Because the majority of this book is based on the Lindbergh archives, I am grateful to the institutions that preserve them. More important, I would like to thank the individuals at those libraries that helped make my years of research so pleasurable. The team in Manuscripts and Archives at Yale University’s Sterling Memorial Library became friends as well as colleagues, always two steps ahead of me. I am most grateful to Judith A. Schiff, who helped chart my two-year course through the massive collection there; she also offered her own memories of Lindbergh. William R. Massa, Jr., performed countless deeds above and beyond the call of duty; Christine Connolly and Sandra Staton combined extraordinary efficiency with uncommon cheerfulness.
Many thanks as well to Jean Streeter, Martha Clevenger, John Furlong, and Sharon Smith at the Missouri Historical Society, who were exceptionally helpful. I am equally obliged to: Margery Sly, the former archivist at Smith College, and curator Amy Hague; Emily Silverman in Archives at the Robert Frost Library at Amherst College; John Decker at the Stearns County Historical Society; Rebecca DuBey at the Southern Museum of Flight in Birmingham, Alabama; Adele Wall at Falaise at the Sands Point Preserve, Long Island; Lieutenant C. Thomas DeFeo, archivist Mark Falzini, and Dolores Raisch at the New Jersey State Police Museum in West Trenton; Michael Hoarn at High Fields; Dr. William Joyce, Jane Snedeker, and my longtime friend Mary Ann Jensen at the Princeton University Library. The Minnesota Historical Society is fortunate to have so knowledgeable and accommodating a site manager as Donald Westfall at the Charles A. Lindbergh House in Little Falls, where I spent several days. Gene Bratsch, Executive Director of the Charles A. and Anne Morrow Lindbergh Foundation in Minneapolis, came to my rescue so many times during the writing of this book that I have lost count; thanks also to Dacia Durham and Marlene K. White at the Foundation.
Researching this work demanded considerable travel beyond the continental United States; and many people helped to make those voyages especially fulfilling. In Sweden, I am most grateful to Richard Lucas for a full day of history and hospitality. Thanks also to Kerstin Lappea, Professor Karl-Gustaf Hildebrand (who interrupted his moose-hunting to talk to me), and the Svensson family—Helga, Sven, and Sune—who gave up an afternoon so that we might tour Ola Månsson’s former farm. In Great Britain, my thanks go to Ludovic Kennedy, Betty Gow, Anthea Secker, and Evelyn C. Molesworth; Nigel Nicolson provided a wonderful lunch, a tour of the gardens at Sissinghurst, and a study in which I could read his father’s personal papers and make notes. In France, I received especially gracious assistance from Ambassador Pamela Harriman, Denise Cardinet, and Louis Le Jouan, who took me to the top of Coz Costel at Buguélès and pointed the way to Illiec. In Hawaii, Jeannie Pechin showed me all the Lindbergh sites and the local points of interest in between.
For interviews, informative correspondence, legal permissions, supplying letters and other information pertaining to the life of Charles Lindbergh, I am indebted to: Governor Elmer L. Andersen, Dr. Richard Bing, Richard W. Brown, Robert R. Bryan, Esq., Ev Cassagneres, Colonel Raymond H. Fredette, Russell Fridley, Paul E. Garber, Susanna Beck Hatt, Anna Hauptmann, Charles G. Houghton III, Peter Kahn, Esq., John Konchellah, Lyle Leverich, Mary Jo Lewis, James W. Lloyd, Esq., James Lord, Benjamin Lupica, Dr. Theodore I. Malinin, Glenn Messer, Susan Miller, Richard Moore, Karen Pryor, Dr. David Read, Oren Root, General H. Norman Schwarzkopf, Jr., General Robert Lee Scott, Robert J. Serling, Mrs. Truman Smith, James Stewart, R. Douglas Stuart, Jr., the Reverend John Tincher, Russell Train, Billy Wilder, the Honorable David Wilentz, and Helen Wolff. Years ago, T. Willard Hunter interviewed several of the supporting players in Charles Lindbergh’s life. The transcripts of those conversations have proved invaluable to me, as has Willard’s friendship.
When I began work on this book, I received a call from actor-director-pilot-producer-restaurateur-writer Tony Bill. He said it was urgent that I meet him at his house. There he revealed one of the most remarkable private collection of books I have ever seen, with its emphasis on aviation, Lindbergh a specialty. “Consider this your library,” he said with characteristic magnanimity. And I did. He has been this biography’s greatest booster, infusing my past eight years with the spirit of Lindbergh.
The friendship and innumerable kindness of many others sustained me through the last decade. When my fifteen-year-old Altos 8500 broke down, threatening to take much of this book with it, my brilliant friend John Riley saved the day. Were it not for him, I believe my protagonist would be forever lost in the fog of cyberspace. Heartfelt thanks as well to Helen Bartlett, Leonora Hornblow, Fiona Lewis, Alan and Nancy Olson Livingston, Lucille LoRicco, Professor Theodore and Jan Marmor, Irene Mayer Selznick, Professor Kim and Marty Gwinn Townsend, and Nathaniel Tripp. Katharine Hepburn has been my Lady Bountiful for two decades, but never more so than during my years of research in New Haven, during which time she provided a weekend-home away from home. Margaret “Peg” Perry provided a very hot lunch and even hotter conversation every Saturday that I was in Connecticut. My parents, Barbara and Richard Berg, have ceaselessly provided encouragement and loving support, as have my brothers—Jeffrey, Tony, and Rick.
At a time when publishing has been engulfed by conglomerates, this volume has been fortunate enough to be nurtured and protected by many individuals who simply love books. Lynn Nesbit has proved to be a caring friend as well as a dazzling agent, sorting out every matter with exceptional intelligence and grace. Her associate Bennett Ashley solved many of our legal riddles. I am grateful as well for the business wizardry and friendship of Robert Bookman. At Putnam, this book has received nothing but total support from many people in every department—notably the book’s designers, Claire Vaccaro and Jennifer Daddio, the copy editor, Claire Winecoff, and the eagle-eyed attorney, Alex Gigante. I am especially grateful to the late George Coleman, whose passion for this project fueled me in the early days, and to Neil S. Nyren, whose editorial advice greatly enhanced this manuscript as he guided it toward completion.
Nobody has done more to help bring this work to fruition than those named on the dedication page. After seeing that it got started, Phyllis Grann provided eight years of unflagging support, which culminated in a superb display of line editing. She has made every detail of the book a top priority in her life. As has Kevin McCormick, who has shared in every aspect of its development. He remains my lodestar; and his wise counsel, astute criticism, and constant sacrifice of his own time for the sake of my work benefited this book beyond measure. My love and gratitude to them both. The last decade certainly would not have been as much fun without them.
—A.S.B.
Los Angeles
May 1998
NOTES AND
SOURCES
Most of the documents cited below are part of the Charles A. Lindbergh Collection (#325) or the Anne Morrow Lindbergh Collection (#829), which are housed in Manuscripts and Archives in Sterling Memorial Library at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. A number of papers, particularly those pertaining to the building of the Spirit of St. Louis and the preparation of its flight to Paris (including the letters from Lindbergh’s mother) are part of the Charles A. Lindbergh Collection at the Missouri Historical Society in St. Louis, Missouri. The letters and diaries of Anne Lindbergh’s mother and sister, Elizabeth C. Morrow and Elisabeth R. M. Morgan, respectively, are part of the Sophia Smith Collection at Smith College, Northampton, Massachuset
ts; those of Anne Lindbergh’s father come from the Dwight W. Morrow Papers in the Amherst College Library, Amherst, Massachusetts. Much of the material pertaining to Charles Lindbergh’s ancestors is part of the Lindbergh Collection at the Minnesota Historical Society in St. Paul, Minnesota; miscellaneous documents pertaining to his early years and the transcripts of interviews T. Willard Hunter conducted with people who were part of Lindbergh’s final days can be found at the Charles A. Lindbergh House, within Charles A. Lindbergh State Park, in Little Falls, Minnesota. Documents relating to the reaction of the Franklin D. Roosevelt administration to Lindbergh’s involvement with the America First movement are located at the FDR Library in Hyde Park, New York. Most of the aforementioned archives include numerous newspaper and magazine clippings—many without sources, headlines, dates, or page numbers; this explains the occasional omission of such data. Information obtained through interviews is designated with an (I).
Other abbreviations are:
AC Dr. Alexis Carrel
ACL Amherst College Library
AML Anne Morrow Lindbergh (wife of CAL)
ASB A. Scott Berg
ASL Anne Spencer Lindbergh (daughter of CAL)
AOV CAL, Autobiography of Values (New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1978)
AW Autobiographical writings (includes unpublished drafts of books, articles, sketches)
BMAU AML, Bring Me a Unicorn (New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1972)
BUM CAL, Boyhood on the Upper Mississippi (St. Paul: Minnesota Historical Society, 1972)
CA Charles August Lindbergh (father of CAL)
CAL Charles Augustus Lindbergh
CMM Constance Morrow Morgan (sister of AML)
DWM Dwight Whitney Morrow (father of AML)
(D) Diary
DAVIS CAL (U-M) on Kenneth Davis’s The Last Hero: Charles A. Lindbergh and the American Dream (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1959)
E Epigraph
ECM Elizabeth Cutter Morrow (mother of AML)
ELCS Eva Lindbergh Christie Spaeth (half-sister of CAL)
ELL Evangeline Lodge Land (grandmother of CAL)
ELLL Evangeline Lodge Land Lindbergh (mother of CAL)
ERMM Elisabeth Reeve Morrow Morgan (sister of AML)
FN AML, The Flower and the Nettle (New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1976)
FRDT CAL, biographical notes to Colonel Raymond Fredette, 1972
GS AML, Gift from the Sea (New York: Pantheon Books, 1955)
HB Henry Breckinridge
HG Harry Guggenheim
HGHL AML, Hour of Gold, Hour of Lead (New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1973)
JML Jon Morrow Lindbergh (son of CAL)
L Lindbergh (CAL)
LML Land Morrow Lindbergh (son of CAL)
LROD AML, Locked Rooms and Open Doors (New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1974)
LTW AML, Listen! The Wind (New York: Harcourt, Brace, 1938
(M) Memorandum
MHS Missouri Historical Society
MNHS Minnesota Historical Society
(N) Notes
NTO AML, North to the Orient (New York: Harcourt, Brace, 1935)
NYT The New York Times
OFAL CAL, Of Flight and Life (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1948)
RHG Robert H. Goddard
RML Reeve Morrow Lindbergh (daughter of CAL)
ROSS CAL (U-M) on Walter S. Ross’s The Last Hero (New York: Harper & Row, 1968)
SML Scott Morrow Lindbergh (son of CAL)
SSL CAL, The Spitit of St. Louis (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1953)
(T) Telegram
(U) Unpublished
WE CAL, “We” (New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1927)
WF AML, The Wave of the Future (New York: Harcourt Brace & Co., 1938)
WJ CAL, Wartime Journals (New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1970)
WWW AML, War Within and Without (New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1980)
Y Lindbergh archives at Yale University
1 KARMA
E: CAL, “Preface” to Milton Lehman, This High Man: The Life of Robert H. Goddard (New York: Farrar, Straus and Company, 1963), p. xv.
ANTICIPATING CAL’S ARRIVAL: T. Bentley Mott, Myron T. Herrick: Friend of France (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, Doran, 1930), pp. 340–1; John Zuckerman (of Stockton, CA) to “Dear Abby” (Abigail Van Buren), “Who Saw Lindy Land in Paris?” Los Angeles Times, c. 1990; “Tilden and Hunter Lose in Fast Match,” NYT, May 22, 1927, p. X:1; Edwin L. James, “L Does It,” NYT, May 22, 1927, p. 2; George H. Muller (Manager, Concepts and Features Department, Car Engineering, Ford Motor Company), text of speech, “I Was There,” July 9, 1977; n.a. “Lindbergh” (U article), Jan. 3, 1938 [MHS, B31/F8]; Harry Crosby (ed. by Edward Germain), Shadows of the Sun: The Diaries of Harry Crosby (Santa Barbara: Black Sparrow Press, 1977), p. 146. [N.B. Crosby spelled “Lindbergh” without an “h”; I have made similar corrections in spelling whenever I felt the error interrupted the flow of the quotation.]
LE BOURGET AND AFTERMATH: SSL, p. 492; AML, (U-D), Jan. 25, 1953; CAL (U-AW), IV-2 (218/626), 1947; Harry Crosby, Shadows of the Sun, p. 146; AOV, pp. 79, 402.
2 NORTHERN LIGHTS
E: CAL quoted in AML to ELLL, Sept. 15, 1933 [LROD, p. 110].
OLA MÅNSSON IN SWEDEN: CAL to ELCS, Jan. 6, 1960; Grace Nute to CAL, Oct. 30, 1936 and Sept. 12, 1938; Grace Nute to ELCS, Dec. 15, 1939; Richard B. Lucas, Charles August Lindbergh, Sr.: A Case Study of Congressional Insurgency, 1906–12 (Uppsala, Sweden: Acta Universitatis Upsaliensis, 1974), pp. 18–20; Marianne Bergstedt, “Ola Månsson in Parliament and His Fast Disappearance to the United States” (graduate paper at University of Uppsala), April, 1972; Gunnar Westin to CAL, Oct. 30, 1936; Gunnar Westin, “Appendices,” Sept. 28, 1935; Grace Lee Nute to CAL, c. late June, 1938, Sept. 12, 1938, Nov. 20, 1940, and Jan. 28, 1941; Gunnar Westin to Grace Lee Nute, Apr. 14, 1937; Sten Carlsson to Debbie Stultz, Jan. 7, 1977; Gunnar Westin to Debbie Stultz, Dec. 8, 1977; Linda Lindbergh Seal to CAL, Mar. 30, 1953; Grace Nute (N) on (I) with P. P. Ornberg, Dec. 10 and 15, 1936; Sven Svensson to ASB (I), Sept. 18, 1993.
The name Lindbergh was fashioned from the Swedish words for linden tree and mountain. Had Ola Månsson (August Lindbergh) adhered to the traditional system of patronyms, his son Karl (Charles) would have used the surname Olsson (the son of Ola).
EMIGRATION TO AMERICA; SETTLING IN MINNESOTA: Grace Lee Nute, ed., “The Lindbergh Colony,” Minnesota History, 20, Sept., 1939, pp. 243–58; Norman Thompson and Major J. H. Edgar, Canadian Railway Development from the Earliest Times (Toronto: The Macmillan Co., 1933), pp. 68, 76–7; Grace Nute (N) of (I) with Frank Lindbergh, June 9, 1936; George W. Prescott, clerk, “Declaration of Intention” of August Lindbergh, Aug. 4, 1859; CAL to Grace Nute, Dec. 30. 1936; C. S. Harrison, Adorning the Beulah Land of the Hither Shore and How to Become an Extinguished Minister (York: Nebraska), pp. 42–3; Mrs. L. E. Tubbs, “Letter Written … From Los Angeles,” Sauk Center Herald, June, 1927; “Melrose First Home of Ls in America,” Melrose Beacon, July 21, 1927, pp. 1, 4; “Pioneer Settler Called Beyond,” Apr. 21, 1921, p. 1; Linda Seal to CAL, Dec. 25, 1939 and Apr. 9, 1960; AML (N) of (I) with Juno Lindbergh, July 29, 1935, accompanying CAL to Grace Nute, Apr. 10, 1936; Perry Lindbergh to ELLL, May 25, 1930, Sept. 6 and 20, 1932; Frank Lindbergh to CAL, Feb. 6, 1940; Linda Lindbergh Seal to ELLL, n.d. [Y: 245/437]; ELLL to Grace Nute, Dec. 16, 1939; CAL (U) draft of family history [MHS], n.d.; August Lindbergh, Homestead application #797, Oct. 31, 1867, and purchase certificate #3919, Mar. 11, 1868; Grace Nute (N) of (I) with Myrom D. Taylor, Oct. 7, 1936; Grace Nute (N) of (I) with Juno Lindbergh Butler, June 4, 1936; Grace Nute (N) of (I) with Perry Lindbergh, June 16–19, 1936; ELCS (N) of family history, c. Nov., 1958; CAL (N) of family history, Jan. 20, 1922 [prob. 1923]; AOV, pp. 44–7.
Most prior accounts of August Lindbergh’s immigration asserts that he entered the United States in New York. This error emanates from Lynn and Dora B. Haines, The Lindberghs (New Yo
rk: The Vanguard Press, 1931), p. 8. August Lindbergh’s sworn “Declaration of Intention to Become a Citizen of the United States” clearly names Detroit as his point of entry.
C.A.: Grace Nute to CAL, Dec. 18, 1936; Bruce L. Larson, Lindbergh of Minnesota: A Political Biography (New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1973), pp. 11–23; CA campaign pamphlet, n.d. [MNHS: P1675, Box 13]; Grace Nute (N) of (I) with Perry Lindbergh, June 16–19, 1936; Frank A. Lindbergh (N) on family, n.d. (MNHS: “Corr. And Misc.” undated 1908–60); CAL to Grace Nute, Sept. 20, 1936; Grace Nute (N) of (I) with Frank Lindbergh, June 9, 1936; Grace Nute (N) of (I) with Perry Lindbergh, June 16–19, 1936; Thomas Pederson, “CAL, Sr. (As I Knew Him),” n.d.
The marriage between August Lindbergh and Louisa Carlin [sic] was recorded in the records of the Stearns County Court House: Marriage Record Book I, p. 363.
MARY LA FOND: Grace Nute (N) of (I) with Mrs. Robert Herron, Sept. 9, 1937 and with Mr. and Mrs. A. M. Opsahl, May 11, 1937; Dr. A. W. Abbott to Dr. Trace, 1898.
THE LODGES OF DETROIT: Silas Farmer, The History of Detroit and Michigan (Detroit: Silas Farmer, 1889), pp. 3, 6, 704; Edwin A. Lodge to Edwin Lodge (son) Oct. 31, 1868 (MHS); Edwin A. Lodge to Harriett (Clubb) Lodge Lindsay, Feb. 21, 1852, Oct. 5, 1852, Nov. 5, 1852, Nov. 14, 1861, Aug. 7, 1864, Aug., 1865, Nov. 11, 1866; C. Burton, M. D., Beginnings of Homeopathy (n.d.), pp. 13, 20, 24, 31 [Y: 274/731]; Edwin A. Lodge, “Private Lecture to Young Men,” 1860; Daniel Gano to Edwin A. Lodge, Nov. 5, 1858; “Funeral of Late Reuben H. Lloyd,” San Francisco Chronicle, Mar. 12, 1909; Edwin A. Lodge to Edwin Lodge (son), Feb. 18, 1875; Don Lochbiler, Detroit’s Coming of Age: 1873 to 1973 (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1973), p. 310; ELLL, “Unvarnished Memories of the Lodge Family,” (U), c. 1940.
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