Anne Morrow Lindbergh: Her Life

by Susan Hertog

Book Overview

"A superb debut. With uncommon grace and poetic sensitivity, Susan Hertog has captured both the transcendent beauty and profound sorrow of a remarkable woman's struggle to find her place in the world.... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 038546973X
• ISBN13: 9780385469739
• Release Date: December 1999
• Publisher: Nan A. Talese
• Length: 576 Pages
• Weight: 1.73 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.5" x 6.7" x 9.7"

Customer Reviews

Excellent analysis of Anne Morrow Lindbergh

I have read all of AML's books, as well as the recent biographies by F. Scott Berg, Joyce Milton, Dorothy Hermann, and Reeve Lindbergh. Susan Hertog was able to uncover subtleties in AML's character that the other authors missed. She rightly praises AML's gifted, lyrical method of writing, but also very gently exposes her life-long "victim complex" that would have been healthy for a certain amount of time after the kidnapping, but unfortunately lasted for the rest of her life. The best example is a quote by her friend Ernestine Stodelle on page 426.Susan Hertog's book is the best and most comprehensive analysis of AML that I have read so far. She was also able to print a few photos that were not in any of the previous books, showing AML to be a great beauty throughout her life, particularly directly after her marriage. While Scott Berg's captured the essence of Charles Lindbergh, I think he felt so loyal to AML because she was the one who granted him access to all of the Lindbergh papers, so his portrait of her was through rose colored glasses. Susan Hertog has done neither a hatchet job nor puff piece. She truly understands this complex woman and after being an admirer of AML for many years I finally had a sense of satisfaction that I really understood her after reading this book.

A Fan of Anne

With three pilots in my family, it was hard not to know the story of Charles and Anne Lindbergh. I read Anne's incredible Gift from the Sea when I was fifteen years old, and since then-becoming a flyer, wife, mother and writer myself-I've gobbled up every book and article available. None has captured the essence of this daring, captivating woman the way Susan Hertog's biography has. The author's empathy for her subject put me in the cockpit with Lindy during their first flight together and held me in Anne's seat through the romance, tragedy, struggle and catharsis that followed. When Anne finally accomplishes Gift from the Sea, every experience up to that moment makes sense. It is utterly inspirational. But Hertog somehow holds on to scholarship, and goes on to examine a life fraught with controversy. Enough authors have skirted the issue or apologized for the Lindberghs' unconscionable endorsement of WWII appeasement and pro-Nazi sentiments. Susan Hertog seems to be the first biographer to speak freely and cogently on the most delicate issues. For that reason, this thorough, level-headed study demonstrates the highest end of what an independent, "unauthorized" biography can accomplish. Her voluminous research (including a family tree that must have dazzled even the family) is a sturdy foundation for her wonderful, lively prose. It is overwhelming to digest such a remarkable life in just a few days. Susan Hertog does not make it easy, or simple, but she does make it immensely satisfying.

a wife and mother's view

I write this review a day after the New York Times reviewed Anne Morrow Lindbergh and I have to wonder if the Times reviewer is married or has children. It's possible that a reader needs that kind of insight to adequately review a story that is not simply about a celebrity wife and famous author in her own right, but about a woman who struggled for such a long time with her duties as a wife and mother and her desires as a woman and writer. This book is more than biography - i think it becomes clear that the author is sympathetic, as I was, to Anne Morrow Lindbergh's plight. Once you have children, everything changes. Responsibility, guilt about leaving your children, fear that you will lose yourself if you devote all your time to them and none to yourself - where is the balance? And no matter how much men try to change, they seem, over the generations, to stay much the same. There is the dilemma, so interestingly and exhaustively explored in this wonderfully researched work.

Who is Anne Morrow Lindberg and is she historically relevant

This is a fascinating book,lyrically written and superbly researched. It develops a picture of a woman, a survivor, coming to grips with the complexities of the 20th century. It made me question how I would view myself as wife, mother and career woman and when tempted at times to view Anne less then sympathetically,I was jolted back to the realites of her world and ended up amazed at her accomplishments.This is a thoughtful, provocative read which I will avidly reccommend to my book club.