Fleming Candace - The rise and fall of Charles Lindbergh

You will notice that some of the quotations in this book are in present tense. This is how Charles Lindbergh wrote them himself. Often, when recording past events in his journals or memoirs, he recalled them as if they were happening in real time, allowing his readers to get inside his head during actual moments of inspiration, decision, or debate. In these instances, I have chosen to italicize his thoughts rather than placing them within quotation marks. It should be noted that none of the internal dialogue found in these pages has been invented. All of it comes directly from Lindberghs firsthand accounts. The liberal use of both his and Anne Lindberghs real words to reveal their thoughts and feelings, observations and conversations will, I hope, allow readers to form a deeper connection with them.

Evangeline Land Lindbergh poses with her infant son, Charles Augustus Lindbergh, in 1902.

Minnesota Historical Society

Congressman C. A. Lindbergh and his eight-year-old son, Charles, in 1910.

Minnesota Historical Society

Charles attended this demonstration of aircraft at Fort Myer, Virginia, in 1912. A Wright biplane flies overhead.

Library of Congress

Dogs were always Charless preferred companions. Here the eleven-year-old poses with Dingo in 1913.

Minnesota Historical Society

During Charless first weeks at the University of Wisconsin in Madison, Evangeline snapped this photo of her smiling eighteen-year-old son as he flipped through his scrapbook in the bedroom of the apartment they shared.

Minnesota Historical Society

Charles in front of the plane in which he learned to flya Lincoln-Standard J-1with another pilot at the Nebraska Aircraft Corporation around 1922.

Library of Congress

Charless first plane, a Jenny, after a crack-up in a Minnesota pasture, June 1923.

Minnesota Historical Society

Cadet Lindbergh poses on the Kelly Field bomb range in 1924 with Booster, the dog he adopted during basic training.

Minnesota Historical Society

Charles loads mail into a Robertson mail plane around 1926. It was while flying one of these that he conceived the idea of making a nonstop flight to Paris.

National Archives and Records Administration

Eric Rohmann

Charles tinkers with the Spirit of St. Louiss Wright J-5C Whirlwind radial engine in his hangar at Curtiss Field on Long Island in May 1927. (The propeller and spinner have been temporarily removed.)

Library of Congress

After refusing reporters demands to kiss goodbye, mother and son pose uncomfortably for the press, 1927.

Library of Congress

This map shows Charless route from New York to Paris. He flew a great circle route, one that takes into account the curvature of the earth, thus tracing the shortest possible route between two points on the globe.

Eric Rohmann

Looking solemn and overwhelmed, the hero rides up Broadway on June 13, 1927, through a blizzard of ticker tape and confetti. Beside him is New York City mayor James J. Walker.

Library of Congress