January 4, 1993
This extraordinary dual biography reveals almost as much about American society as it does about the celebrated, often controversial careers of Charles Lindbergh (1902-1974) and his wife, Anne Morrow Lindbergh (b. 1906). Milton ( The Yellow Kids ) examines the events and circumstances that brought the couple fame: Charles's unprecedented nonstop solo airplane flight across the Atlantic in 1927; Anne's social prominence; the kidnapping and murder of their son in 1932; their notorious role in the isolationist movement during WW II; their literary achievements; Charles's naive respect for Hitler. At the same time, Milton's superb research yields exceptionally evocative period details (for example, she suggests the delirium surrounding Lindbergh's Atlantic crossing by reporting that after the crowds departed, more than a ton of personal belongings was collected on the Paris airfield where he had landed). Among her most penetrating discussions are a convincing argument about the likely accomplices of kidnapper Bruno Hauptmann and an analysis of the relation between the Lindberghs' psychological makeup and their problematic politics. Better reasoned and more thorough than Dorothy Herrmann's recent Anne Morrow Lindbergh , Milton's authoritative and engrossing volume reshapes popular notions about its legendary subjects. Illustrations not seen by PW. BOMC, History Book Club and Reader's Digest Condensed Book selections.