Charles Lindbergh may have been the world's first true celebrity. Upon his historic, solo flight across the Atlantic Ocean, he became the most renowned and popular figure in the western world. People in London, Paris, and elsewhere would gather by the tens of thousands to catch a glimpse of him; and in his subsequent tours throughout the US, over 100 million people gathered in various venues to see him. His celebrity had its downside, in that the news media followed him everywhere and allowed him and his wife Anne no privacy, a situation that only increased after the tragic kidnapping of their infant son.

I found the audio version of this biography to be a fine introduction to Lindbergh's life and times. Although abridged (4 cassette tapes), it traces his entire life without noticeable gaps. Naturally, it spends a disproportionate amount of time on his historic airplane flight (including the preparation and aftermath), and on the kidnapping case and Lindbergh's desperate attempt to secure the release of his child. This is no whitewashed account of Lindbergh's life. Author Scott Berg documents Lindbergh's admiration for the pre-war Nazi regime, and his frankly anti-Jewish sentiments. However, in fairness, Lindbergh's (pre-1941) opposition to entry of the US into World War II was an isolationist viewpoint that was widely shared by his fellow citizens, a fact modern revisionists sometimes obscure and overlook. His pre- war views notwithstanding, after 1941 his support for the war effort was unqualified, and he even managed unofficially to fly on bombing raids against the Japanese.

Lindbergh's marriage and the difficulties faced by his wife Anne Morrow Lindbergh are sympathetically portrayed. She found Charles' controlling nature and outsized personality difficult to live with, not to mention the lack of privacy caused by the constant media attention. Nevertheless, in this account, she fights for and secures a measure of independence, and emerges as a significant figure in her own right and an author of several popular books.

A small minority of readers have strongly criticized this biography on two grounds, neither of which will be viewed as justified by dispassionate observers. One line of criticism comes from conspiracy theorists who believe, incredibly enough, that Charles or he and his wife staged the 1932 kidnapping of their own infant son (and who accordingly think that the real perpetrator was framed). The other line of criticism comes from those who complain that the seven children that Lindbergh fathered outside of his marriage are not mentioned -- the argument being that author Scott Berg either was not sufficiently diligent or worse, that he hushed up the situation. The criticism is unjust, since not even Anne (who died in 2001) was remotely aware of the secret liaisons. Lindbergh's extra-marital relationships were entirely unknown to the world until 2002 (four year's after this work's publication), when DNA testing revealed the offspring in question. Berg has revealed that he was as surprised as anyone at the revelation.

Clearly, forty years after Lindbergh's death, he continues to be controversial. Scott Berg's biography offers a fair, sober, and enjoyable account of the life of this significant historical figure, one that acknowledges his merits and his all-too-human flaws. ( )