Lindbergh - Softcover

Berg, A Scott

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0425170411 ISBN 13: 9780425170410

Publisher: Berkley Books, 1999

Synopsis

Even after twenty years, A. Scott Berg's Pulitzer Prize-winning biography of Charles Lindberg remains "the definitive account" of one of the 20th century's most extraordinary figures.

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 "a thorough, level-headed evaluation of the glories, tragedies, and often infuriating complexities of this extraordinary life" (Newsday).

About this title

Review:

Charles Lindbergh's solo flight from New York to Paris captured the imagination of a post-war generation hungry for heroes, and cemented an exalted spot for the 25-year-old pilot from Minnesota in the collective American imagination. A. Scott Berg's thorough new biography of the aviator suggests that, despite the public scrutiny that accompanied his every move until his death in 1974, Lindbergh remained an intensely private man. The son of ill-matched parents who separated when he was 6, he was painfully shy and emotionally guarded. "Aviation created a brotherhood of casual acquaintances...in which he felt comfortable," writes Berg, with characteristic perceptiveness.

Lindbergh's wife, the writer Anne Morrow Lindbergh, gave Berg unrestricted access to her husband's and her own voluminous personal papers--and he made good use of them to assess both the couple's relationship and their activities. Probably the most startling revelation is a brief but candid discussion of Anne's affair in the late 1950s with a New Jersey doctor, which helped assuage her need to vent emotions in a way her buttoned-up husband found insupportable. (During the horrendous days in 1932 when their 20-month-old son was kidnapped and killed, Berg notes, she never once saw Charles cry.) The biography is solid on all aspects of Lindbergh's career, including his notorious urging that America stay out of the second world war; Berg rebuts charges that Lindbergh was a Nazi or a traitor, but rightly criticizes the anti-Semitism latent in some of his speeches. With this book, Berg succeeds in surveying Lindbergh's fascinating life and assessing its historic impact.

Review:

Praise for Lindbergh

"The definitive account of a dramatic and disturbing American story...One of the most important biographies of the decade...an extraordinary achievement."--Los Angeles Times Book Review

"A magisterial work...a superb job...With Berg's free access to previously unavailable documentation, this is sure to be the definitive biography of Lindbergh."--Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

"Berg's biography [is] sure to renew interest in this unique American hero."--People Magazine

"In Lindbergh, A. Scott Berg brings us about as close as I suspect we ever will get to the man himself. The first biographer to be granted unfettered access to Lindbergh's private papers, Berg provides enough fresh detail to trace the roots of Lindbergh's personality, its strengths as well as its maddening flaws, all the way back to his turbulent boyhood."--The New York Times Book Review

"A biography that will be one of the publishing events of the year...one of the most extraordinary lives of the 20th century."--Vanity Fair

"Fanatically researched and very moving...stunning in its fairness to a harsh and unknowable Charles Lindbergh."--Esquire

"A comprehensive and invaluable text."--The Washington Post Book World

"The most outstanding piece of nonfiction that I have read this year...Berg does a spectacular job of establishing why Lindbergh proves such a powerful icon for the 20th century...A substantial piece of history that illuminates an important figure...It's the kind of book that took almost a decade to create. And it's worth it."--USA Today

About this edition

• Publisher: Berkley Books
• Publication date: 1999
• ISBN 10: 0425170411
• ISBN 13: 9780425170410
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 688