Anne Morrow Lindbergh

Anne Morrow Lindbergh
Anne Morrow Lindbergh, 1918
Born	Anne Spencer Morrow (1906-06-22)June 22, 1906 Englewood, New Jersey, U.S.
Died	February 7, 2001(2001-02-07) (aged 94) Passumpsic, Vermont, U.S.
Nationality	American
Alma mater	Smith College
Occupation	Author, aviator
Spouse(s)	Charles Lindbergh
Children	Charles Augustus, Jr. (d. 1932) Jon Lindbergh Land Lindbergh Anne Lindbergh (d. 1993) Scott Lindbergh Reeve Lindbergh[1]
Parent(s)	Dwight Whitney Morrow Elizabeth Cutter Morrow
Awards	Hubbard Medal (1934)

Anne Spencer Lindbergh (née Morrow; June 22, 1906 – February 7, 2001) was an American author, aviator, and the wife of fellow aviator Charles Lindbergh.^[2] She was an acclaimed author whose books and articles spanned the genres of poetry to non-fiction, touching upon topics as diverse as youth and age; love and marriage; peace, solitude and contentment, as well as the role of women in the 20th century.^[3] Lindbergh's Gift from the Sea is a popular inspirational book, reflecting on the lives of American women.

Early life

Anne Spencer Morrow was born on June 22, 1906 in United States Ambassador to Mexico and United States Senator from New Jersey. Her mother Elizabeth, was a poet and teacher, active in women's education,^[1] who served as acting president of her alma mater Smith College.^[2]

Anne was the second of four children; her siblings were Elisabeth Reeve,^[5] Dwight, Jr., and Constance. The children were raised in a Calvinist household that fostered achievement.^[6] Every night, Morrow's mother would read to her children for an hour. The children quickly learned to read and write, began reading to themselves, and writing poetry and diaries. Anne would later benefit from this routine, eventually publishing her later diaries to critical acclaim.^[7]

After graduating from The Chapin School in New York City in 1924 (where she was president of the student body), Morrow attended Smith College, from which she graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1928.^[2][8] She received the Elizabeth Montagu Prize for her essay on women of the eighteenth century and Madame d'Houdetot, and the Mary Augusta Jordan Literary Prize for her fictional piece entitled "Lida Was Beautiful".^[9]

Marriage and family

Morrow and Mexico in order to advance good relations between that country and the United States.^[11] At the time, Morrow was a shy 21-year-old senior at Smith College. Charles Lindbergh was a courageous aviator whose solo flight across the Atlantic made him a hero of mythic proportions and the most famous man in the world.^[8] But the sight of the boyish aviator, who was staying with the Morrows, tugged at Morrow's heartstrings. She would later write in her diary:

Charles and Anne Morrow Lindbergh

Anne Morrow and Charles Lindbergh were married in a private ceremony on May 27, 1929, at the home of her parents in Englewood, New Jersey.^[12]

That year, Lindbergh flew solo for the first time, and in 1930 became the first American woman to earn a first-class glider pilot's license. In the 1930s, Lindbergh and Charles together explored and charted air routes between continents.^[13] The Lindberghs were the first to fly from Africa to South America, and explored polar air routes from North America to Asia and Europe.^[14]

Their first child, Charles Jr, was born on Anne's 24th birthday, June 22, 1930.^[15]

Kidnapping

In an incident widely known as the "Lindbergh kidnapping", the Lindberghs' first child, Charles Augustus Lindbergh Jr., was kidnapped at 20 months of age from their home, Highfields, in East Amwell, New Jersey outside Hopewell on March 1, 1932.^[1]

After a massive investigation, a baby's body, presumed to be that of Charles Lindbergh Jr., was discovered the following May 12, some four miles (6 km) from the Lindberghs' home, at the summit of a hill on the Hopewell–Mt. Rose Highway.^[17]

Exile

The frenzied press attention paid to the Lindberghs, particularly after the kidnapping of their son and later the trial, conviction and execution of Bruno Richard Hauptmann, prompted Charles and Anne Lindbergh to retreat to England, to a house called Long Barn owned by Harold Nicolson and Vita Sackville-West, and later to the small island of Illiec, off the coast of Brittany in France.^[18]

While in Europe, the Lindberghs came to advocate isolationist views that led to their fall from grace in the eyes of many. In 1938, the U.S. Air Attaché in Berlin invited Charles to inspect the rising power of Nazi Germany's Air Force. Impressed by German technology and their apparent number of aircraft, as well as influenced by the staggering number of deaths from World War I, Lindbergh opposed U.S. entry into the impending European conflict.

Lindbergh then wrote a 41-page booklet, The Wave of the Future, published in 1940, in support of her husband who was lobbying for a U.S.–German peace treaty similar to Hitler's Non-Aggression Treaty with Stalin,^[19] and argued that something resembling fascism was the unfortunate "wave of the future", echoing authors such as Lawrence Dennis and later James Burnham.^[20] The Roosevelt administration subsequently attacked The Wave of the Future as "the bible of every American Nazi, Fascist, Bundist and Appeaser", and the booklet became one of the most despised writings of the period.^[21][22] She had also written in a letter, of Hitler, that he was "a very great man, like an inspired religious leader—and as such rather fanatical—but not scheming, not selfish, not greedy for power."^[22]

Return to the U.S.

In April 1939, the Lindberghs returned to the United States. Because of his outspoken beliefs about a future war that would envelop their homeland, the antiwar America First Committee quickly adopted Charles Lindbergh as their leader in 1940.^[11] After the attack on Pearl Harbor and Germany's declaration of war, the committee disbanded, and Charles pressed to become involved in the military, eventually finding a way to enter combat, albeit as a civilian.^[23][24]

Charles and Anne Lindbergh had five more children: sons Jon, Land and Scott, and daughters Anne and Reeve.^[25][26]

Later life

After the war, Anne and Charles wrote books that rebuilt the reputations they had gained and lost before World War II. The publication of Gift from the Sea in 1955 earned Anne's place as "one of the leading advocates of the nascent environmental movement" and became a national best seller.^[27]

Over the course of their 45-year marriage, Charles and Anne lived in New Jersey, New York, England, France, Maine, Michigan, Connecticut, Switzerland, and Hawaii. Charles died on Maui in 1974. Anne had a three-year affair in the early 1950s with her personal doctor.^[28]

In her later life, Anne never suspected that according to Rudolf Schröck, author of Das Doppelleben des Charles A. Lindbergh (Heyne Verlag, 2005), from 1957 until his death in 1974, Charles led a double life. An affair from 1957 with Brigitte Hesshaimer, produced three children, whom he supported financially. In 2003, after her passing, DNA tests conducted by the University of Munich proved conclusive.^[29] Schröck claims Brigitte's sister Marietta also bore him two sons, and his former private secretary, two more children. A family reconciliation with the German family members later took place with Reeve Lindbergh being actively involved.^[30]

After suffering a series of strokes in the early 1990s, which left her confused and disabled, Anne continued to live in her home in Connecticut with the assistance of round-the-clock caregivers. During a visit to her daughter Reeve's family in 1999, she came down with pneumonia, after which she went to live near Reeve in a small home built on Reeve's Passumpsic, Vermont farm, where Anne died in 2001 at the age of 94, following another stroke. Reeve Lindbergh's book, No More Words, tells the story of her mother's last years.^[31]

Honors and awards

Anne Morrow Lindbergh's Hubbard Medal

Anne received numerous honors and awards throughout her life in recognition of her contributions to both literature and aviation. In 1933, she received the U.S. Flag Association Cross of Honor for having taken part in surveying transatlantic air routes. The following year, she was awarded the Hubbard Medal by the National Geographic Society for having completed 40,000 miles (64,000 km) of exploratory flying with her husband Charles Lindbergh—a feat that took them to five continents. In 1993, Women in Aerospace presented her with an Aerospace Explorer Award in recognition of her achievements in, and contributions to, the aerospace field.^[1][12]

She was inducted into the National Aviation Hall of Fame (1979), the National Women's Hall of Fame (1996), the Aviation Hall of Fame of New Jersey, and the International Women in Aviation Pioneer Hall of Fame (1999).^[1]

Her first book, North to the Orient (1935) won one of the inaugural National Book Awards: the Most Distinguished General Nonfiction of 1935, voted by the American Booksellers Association.^[32][33]

Her second book, Listen! The Wind (1938), won the same award in its fourth year^[34] after the Nonfiction category had subsumed Biography. She received the Christopher Award for War Within and Without, the last installment of her published diaries.^[35]

In addition to being the recipient of honorary Masters and Doctor of Letters degrees from her alma mater Smith College (1935 and 1970), Anne also received honorary degrees from Amherst College (1939), the University of Rochester (1939), Middlebury College (1976), and Gustavus Adolphus College (1985).^[36]

Books by Anne Morrow Lindbergh

• North to the Orient. Orlando, Florida: Mariner Books, 1996, First edition 1935. ISBN 978-0-15-667140-8.
• Listen! The Wind. New York: Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1990, First edition 1938.
• The Wave of the Future: A Confession of Faith. New York: Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1940.
• The Steep Ascent. New York: Dell, 1956, First edition, 1944.
• Gift from the Sea. New York: Pantheon, 1991, First edition 1955. ISBN 978-0-679-73241-9.
• The Unicorn and other Poems 1935–1955. New York: Pantheon, 1993, First edition 1956. ISBN 978-0-679-42540-3.
• Dearly Beloved Chicago: Chicago Review Press, 2003, First edition 1962. ISBN 978-1-55652-490-5.
• Earth Shine. New York: Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1969.
• Bring Me a Unicorn: Diaries and Letters of Anne Morrow Lindbergh, 1922–1928. Orlando, Florida: Mariner Books, 1973, First edition 1971. ISBN 978-0-15-614164-2.
• Hour of Gold, Hour of Lead: Diaries And Letters Of Anne Morrow Lindbergh, 1929–1932. Orlando, Florida: Mariner Books, 1993, First edition 1973. ISBN 978-0-15-642183-6.
• Locked Rooms and Open Doors: Diaries And Letters Of Anne Morrow Lindbergh, 1933–1935. Orlando, Florida: Mariner Books, 1993, First edition 1974. ISBN 978-0-15-652956-3.
• The Flower and the Nettle: Diaries And Letters Of Anne Morrow Lindbergh, 1936–1939. Orlando, Florida: Mariner Books, 1994, First edition 1976. ISBN 978-0-15-631942-3.
• War Without and Within: Diaries And Letters Of Anne Morrow Lindbergh, 1939–1944. Orlando, Florida: Mariner Books, 1995, First edition 1980. ISBN 978-0-15-694703-9.

References

Notes

Citations

Bibliography

External links

• Anne Morrow Lindbergh at PBS
• Anne Morrow Lindbergh Papers at the Sophia Smith Collection
• The Lindbergh Foundation - Anne Morrow Lindbergh
• Anne Morrow Lindbergh at Find a Grave
• Death of Dwight Morrow
• Dwight Morrow's Will
• Morrow's Estate Value
• Descendants of Thomas Hastings website
• Descendants of Thomas Hastings on Facebook