Lindbergh

August 31, 1998
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the cooperation, although not necessarily the approval, of the Lindbergh family, having been granted full access to the unpublished diaries and papers of both Lindbergh and Anne Morrow Lindbergh.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.

If any twentieth-century biography merits exclamation points, it would be Charles Lindbergh's. His was a life that incited incredible passions. James shrewdly follows Berg's lead, however. Neither author nor narrator oversells the drama that was Lindbergh's life. Simply relating who this man was and what he did is gripping enough. James is a comfortable, engaging companion through this long, breathtaking journey. When he allows astonishment or awe into his voice, he's justified by the text. But James never tries to snare attention for himself, thereby detracting from this engrossing Pulitzer Prize winner. If, at the end, Lindbergh doesn't emerge as an untainted hero, there's no doubt he's one of the American century's towering figures. M.O. Winner of AUDIOFILE Earphones Award (c) AudioFile, Portland, Maine