First published 1998
Charles Lindbergh touches down in Paris on May 21, 1927, completing his historic transatlantic flight. In that moment, he becomes America's first modern media celebrity, a role for which he is completely unprepared. A. Scott Berg gained unprecedented access to over two thousand boxes of Lindbergh's personal papers, unpublished letters, and diaries, plus interviews with family members including widow Anne Morrow Lindbergh. Berg traces Lindbergh's journey from his early years through the solo flight that made him famous, the kidnapping and murder of his infant son in what became known as the Crime of the Century, his controversial admiration for Nazi Germany, and his later contributions to aviation and conservation. The biography separates fact from fiction in a life that has been distorted by decades of mythology. Berg presents both the celebrated aviator and the complex private individual, showing how fame transformed and often tormented the man who simply wanted to fly.
Genres: biography, history, 20th-century, american, non-fiction, biography-memoir, aviation, american-history
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: celebrity, fame, media-celebrity
Setting: France, Paris
Period: 1927, Crime of the Century
6 pages · Audio Cassette · Random House Audio
Content warnings: child-death, kidnapping