Author | A. Scott Berg |
---|---|
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Subject | Biography |
Genre | Non-fiction |
Publisher | Putnam Publishing Group |
Publication date | September 21, 1998 |
Media type | Hardcover |
Pages | 640 |
ISBN | 978-0399144493 |
Preceded by | Goldwyn: A Biography |
Followed by | Kate Remembered |
Lindbergh is a 1998 biography of Charles Lindbergh by A. Scott Berg. The book became a New York Times Best Seller [1] and received the Pulitzer Prize and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for biography.
"I felt it was one of the great untold stories of the 20th century..." - A. Scott Berg [2]
Once he had completed his second book, Goldwyn: A Biography (about film producer Samuel Goldwyn, Jr.) in 1989, Berg began the search for his next subject. He wanted it to be "another great American cultural figure but—because I had written about Perkins [lower-alpha 1] and Goldwyn—not somebody from the worlds of publishing or film". [3] After briefly considering Tennessee Williams, Berg chose the aviator Charles Lindbergh, attracted by what he described as "the dramatic possibilities of the story of the great hero who became a great victim and a great villain". [3] "Charles Lindbergh is a window onto the whole world -- a great lens for observing the American century," Berg elaborated. [4]
When asked about previous biographies of Lindbergh, Berg noted "The problem is most of what has been written about him is wrong or misleading." [5]
Berg had been interested earlier by the idea of writing a book on the life of Lindbergh but "had scratched Lindbergh off my list" when he heard that Lindbergh's papers were locked up and inaccessible. [5] A few years later he was approached by Phyllis E. Grann, who ran Putnam at the time, about a biography of Lindbergh. Berg told her "I'd love to write it, but it can't be done. The papers are locked up. Mrs. Lindbergh is locked up. The children are locked up." [5] Grann suggested he pursue the subject anyway, although she told him "You will never get to Mrs. Lindbergh." [6] Berg took this as a challenge and spent the next nine months trying to get in touch with her. [6] Berg's friend Katharine Hepburn offered to write Mrs. Lindbergh a letter, even though the two women did not know each other. [5] Not long after, Berg heard from Mrs. Lindbergh. [5]
Berg convinced Lindbergh's widow, Anne Morrow Lindbergh, who considered him "trustworthy," [7] to grant him unprecedented access to the man's archives, which he was surprised to find totaled "1,300 boxes, or several million papers". [8] In addition to his research in the archives, Berg also spoke with Mrs. Lindbergh, their five children and Lindbergh family friends. [2] "You can't write about Charles without writing about me," the widow told Berg, [4] allowing him access to her memoirs and diaries. [9]
"The good news is that Lindbergh saved everything; the bad news is that Lindbergh saved everything." - A. Scott Berg [10]
Berg found Lindbergh's papers "in a miraculous order." [4] Lindbergh retained copies of all his correspondence, including carbon copies of all letters and notes he wrote. Amongst the archives Berg found the tie Lindbergh wore on his famous flight. [6] Lindbergh annotated books that had been written about him, leaving abundant notes for future biographers. [4] Berg found detailed lists of "errors and corrections" to these books, some running up to 75 pages in length. [4] These qualifications were sometimes "less than flattering to him, but they were always the truth. It was done with a cold, objective sense of himself," Berg told Vanity Fair . [4] It took the author two years to go through the voluminous archives. [6]
Berg officially started the process Spring of 1990, with Mrs. Lindbergh's authorization in place, although he had done basic research over the previous six months. [4] Putnam, Berg's publisher, was rumored to have paid the author a seven-figure advance in 1990 to allow him to write the book. [11] With the advance in hand, the author spent four years researching his subject and another four years writing. [12]
When the author told his grandmother that he was writing a biography of Lindbergh, she said "What do you want to write about him for? He was quite awful about the Jews." [13]
During an interview not long after the release of the book, Charlie Rose recalled asking Berg nine years earlier "What's next?" Berg asked him to "think about who is the one person that hasn't been written about in a way that there's a giant great biography." When Rose could not think of a subject, Berg said "Lindbergh," and Rose replied "Absolutely right; he is one person I want to know a lot more about." [14]
The previously unpublished photo of Lindbergh, taken a matter of days before his transatlantic flight, was found at the publishing deadline amongst hundreds of photos from the Lindbergh archives. [5] Of the approximately 90 photos in the book, Berg estimates at least 40 were never before published. [5]
The biography was highly anticipated; prior to its publication the book's film rights were bought, sight unseen, by Steven Spielberg, who planned to direct a movie of it. [15] Published in 1998, Lindbergh sold about 250,000 copies in hardcover [16] and won the Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography.
Berg was noted for his exhaustive research, [15] as well as his sympathetic, but by no means uncritical, approach to Lindbergh, whose alleged anti-Semitism he addressed "in a straightforward, unblinking manner," [17] although some [18] [19] [20] [21] criticized Berg's reluctance to deal more strongly with it. The author did bring to light the alteration of Lindbergh's "supposedly candid World War II era diaries," reporting that the diaries published in 1970 had anti-Semitic entries omitted. [22] Berg writes: "The bulk of the omissions centered on one subject: the Jews." [23] An example of the quotes omitted from the diaries but included in Lindbergh: "A few Jews add strength and character to a country, but too many create chaos and we are getting too many." [5]
Charles Augustus Lindbergh was an American aviator, military officer, author, inventor, and activist. At the age of 25, he achieved instant world fame by making the first nonstop flight from New York City to Paris on May 20–21, 1927. Lindbergh covered the 33+1⁄2-hour, 3,600-statute-mile (5,800 km) flight alone in a purpose-built, single-engine Ryan monoplane, the Spirit of St. Louis. Though the first non-stop transatlantic flight had been completed eight years earlier, this was the first solo transatlantic flight, the first transatlantic flight between two major city hubs, and the longest transatlantic flight by almost 2,000 miles. It was one of the most consequential flights in aviation history and ushered in a new era of transportation between parts of the globe.
The Pulitzer Prize for Biography is one of the seven American Pulitzer Prizes that are annually awarded for Letters, Drama, and Music. It has been presented since 1917 for a distinguished biography, autobiography or memoir by an American author or co-authors, published during the preceding calendar year. Thus it is one of the original Pulitzers, for the program was inaugurated in 1917 with seven prizes, four of which were awarded that year.
Philip Milton Roth was an American novelist and short story writer.
Anne Spencer Morrow Lindbergh was an American writer and aviator. She was the wife of decorated pioneer aviator Charles Lindbergh, with whom she made many exploratory flights.
On March 1, 1932, Charles Augustus Lindbergh Jr., 20-month-old son of aviators Charles Lindbergh and Anne Morrow Lindbergh, was abducted from the crib in the upper floor of the Lindberghs' home, Highfields, in East Amwell, New Jersey, United States. On May 12, the child's corpse was discovered by a truck driver by the side of a nearby road.
Samuel Goldwyn, also known as Samuel Goldfish, was a Polish-American film producer. He was best known for being the founding contributor and executive of several motion picture studios in Hollywood. His awards include the 1973 Golden Globe Cecil B. DeMille Award, the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award in 1947, and the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award in 1958.
The Bellamy salute is a palm-out salute created by James B. Upham as the gesture that was to accompany the American Pledge of Allegiance, which had been written by Francis Bellamy. It was also known as the "flag salute" during the period when it was used with the Pledge of Allegiance. Bellamy promoted the salute and it came to be associated with his name. Both the Pledge and its salute originated in 1892. Later, during the 1920s and 1930s, Italian fascists and Nazi Germans adopted a salute which was very similar, erroneously attributed to the Roman salute, a gesture that was popularly believed to have been used in ancient Rome. This resulted in controversy over the use of the Bellamy salute in the United States. It was officially replaced by the hand-over-heart salute when Congress amended the Flag Code on December 22, 1942.
Gertrude Berg was an American actress, screenwriter and producer. A pioneer of classic radio, she was one of the first women to create, write, produce and star in a long-running hit when she premiered her serial comedy-drama The Rise of the Goldbergs (1929), later known as The Goldbergs. Her career achievements included winning a Tony Award and an Emmy Award, both for Best Lead Actress.
Sidney Coe Howard was an American playwright, dramatist and screenwriter. He received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1925 and a posthumous Academy Award in 1940 for the screenplay for Gone with the Wind.
George Palmer Putnam was an American publisher, writer and explorer. Known for his marriage to Amelia Earhart, he had also achieved fame as one of the most successful promoters in the United States during the 1930s.
Annelies Marie "Anne" Frank was a German-Dutch diarist of Jewish heritage. One of the most-discussed Jewish victims of the Holocaust, she gained fame posthumously with the 1947 publication of The Diary of a Young Girl, in which she documents her life in hiding from 1942 to 1944, during the German occupation of the Netherlands in World War II. It is one of the world's best-known books and has been the basis for several plays and films.
The Spirit of St. Louis is an autobiographical account by Charles Lindbergh about the events leading up to and including his 1927 solo trans-Atlantic flight in the Spirit of St. Louis, a custom-built, single engine, single-seat monoplane. The book was published on September 14, 1953, and won the Pulitzer Prize in 1954.
Andrew Scott Berg is an American biographer.
The Wedding Night is a 1935 American romantic drama film directed by King Vidor and starring Gary Cooper and Anna Sten. Written by Edith Fitzgerald and based on a story by Edwin H. Knopf, the film is about a financially strapped novelist who returns to his country home in Connecticut looking for inspiration for his next novel and becomes involved with a beautiful young Polish woman and her family. The film was produced by Samuel Goldwyn and filmed at Samuel Goldwyn Studios from early November to early December 1934. It was released in the United States on March 8, 1935.
Kate Remembered is a book released on July 11, 2003 by A. Scott Berg, which tells the story, life, and his experiences with actress Katharine Hepburn. The book was released 12 days after Hepburn's death at 96 on June 29. The book received mixed reviews.
Jon Morrow Lindbergh was an American underwater diver. He worked as a United States Navy demolition expert and as a commercial diver, and was one of the world's earliest aquanauts in the 1960s. He was also a pioneer in cave diving, and one of the children of aviators Charles Lindbergh and Anne Morrow Lindbergh.
The Black Count: Glory, Revolution, Betrayal, and the Real Count of Monte Cristo is a 2012 biography of General Thomas-Alexandre Dumas written by Tom Reiss. The book presents the life and career of Dumas as a soldier and officer during the French Revolution, as well as his military service in Italy during the French Revolutionary Wars and later in Egypt under Napoleon. Reiss offers insight into slavery and the life of a man of mixed race during the French Colonial Empire. He also reveals how Dumas's son – author Alexandre Dumas – viewed his father, who served as the inspiration for some of his novels, including The Count of Monte Cristo (1844) and The Three Musketeers (1844).
Wilson is a 2013 biography of the 28th President of the United States Woodrow Wilson by the Pulitzer Prize-winning author A. Scott Berg. The book is a New York Times Best Seller.
"WE" is an autobiographical account by Charles A. Lindbergh (1902-1974) about his life and the events leading up to and including his May 1927 New York to Paris solo trans-Atlantic flight in the Spirit of St. Louis, a custom-built, single engine, single-seat Ryan monoplane. It was first published on July 27, 1927 by G.P. Putnam's Sons in New York.
The Wright Brothers is a 2015 non-fiction book written by the popular historian David McCullough and published by Simon & Schuster. It is a history of the American inventors and aviation pioneers Orville and Wilbur Wright. The book was on The New York Times Non-Fiction Best Sellers list for seven weeks in 2015.
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