Anne Morrow Lindbergh

Anne Morrow Lindbergh, Jun 22, 1906 – Feb 7, 2001 (m. 1929)

When as a young woman, Anne Morrow expressed she “wanted to marry a hero,” she never dreamed it would actually come true. In December 1927, Charles Lindbergh visited the Morrow family in Mexico City, where Anne’s father served as US Ambassador, as part of a Latin American tour with the Spirit of St. Louis. Anne’s initial shyness was matched by Charles’s own. To Anne’s surprise Charles invited her for an airplane ride the next fall. They married at the Morrow home in New Jersey on May 27, 1929.

Aviation was central to the Lindberghs’ early relationship. Charles taught Anne to fly. On Aug 23, 1929, she made her first solo flight. She went on to be the first woman and the tenth American to earn a first-class glider pilot’s license in addition to her private pilot’s license. The two worked to promote and develop commercial aviation. In 1931, Anne served as radio operator and navigator on a survey flight with her husband, north through Canada and Alaska and on to Asia, to discover potential aviation routes.

Following this survey flight, Anne wrote a book about their trip, bringing the reader along on their emotional journey. North to the Orient was published in 1935 and was an immediate success — the book went into its third printing within the first week. Inspiration to write once again followed their extended survey trip around the Atlantic in 1933.

Listen! The Wind, published in 1938, narrates 10 days of the five-month tour, using the challenges of the tour to explore the deeper meaning of life and the journey home. Anne received the American Booksellers Association Award for “favorite” nonfiction in 1939.

As the Lindbergh family grew, Anne found less time to dedicate to writing specific works for publication. But in 1955, she published Gift from the Sea, a series of meditations on contemporary women's lives, which became one of the best-selling and most beloved books in American history.

Anne began writing as a child. Biographer Susan Hertog notes, “Anne found a way to transform the ‘secret life’ of her diary into literature, honing her thoughts and fantasies into poetry, stories, and essays.” Anne's diaries and letters were collected in six volumes, recording her life from 1922 to 1986. The last volume of diaries was published posthumously in 2012. Anne Morrow Lindbergh died in 2001.

Children:

  • Charles Augustus Lindbergh Jr. (1930–1932)
  • Jon Lindbergh (b. 1932)
  • Land Morrow Lindbergh (b. 1937)
  • Anne Spencer Lindbergh (Perrin) (1940–1993)
  • Scott Lindbergh (b. 1942)
  • Reeve Lindbergh (b. 1945)

Resources

Herrmann, Dorothy. Anne Morrow Lindbergh: A Gift for Life. New York: Ticknor & Fields, 1992.

Hertog, Susan. Anne Morrow Lindbergh: Her Life. New York: Anchor Books, 1999.

Lindbergh, Anne Morrow. North to the Orient. New York: Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1935.

Lindbergh, Anne Morrow. Listen! The Wind. New York: harcourt, Brace and Company, 1938.

Lindbergh, Anne Morrow. The Wave of the Future: A Confession of Faith. New York: Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1940.

Lindbergh, Anne Morrow. Gift From The Sea. New York: Pantheon Books, 1955.

Lindbergh, Anne Morrow. Bring Me A Unicorn: Diaries and Letters of Anne Morrow Lindbergh 1922-1928. New York:Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Inc., 1971.

Lindbergh, Anne Morrow. Hour of Gold, Hour of Lead: Diaries and Letters of Anne Morrow Lindbergh 1929-1932. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1973.

Lindbergh, Anne Morrow. Locked Rooms and Open Doors: Diaries and Letters of Anne Morrow Lindbergh 1933-1935. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1974.

Lindbergh, Anne Morrow. The Flower and the Nettle: Diaries and Letters of Anne Morrow Lindbergh 1936-1939. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1976.

Lindbergh, Anne Morrow. War Within and Without: Diaries and Letters of Anne Morrow Lindbergh 1939-1944. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1980.

Lindbergh, Anne Morrow. Against Wind & Tide: Letters and Journals, 1947-1986. Edited by Reeve Lindbergh New York: Pantheon Books, 2012.

Lindbergh, Reeve. No More Words: A Journal of My Mother Anne Morrow Lindbergh. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2001.

Winters, Kathleen C. Anne Morrow Lindbergh: First Lady of the Air. New York: Palgrave MacMillan, 2006.