Under a Wing: A Memoir

The“poignant and superbly written memoir”(Chicago Tribune) of growing up as the daughter of Charles and Anne Morrow Lindbergh. Famous family: Reeve Lindbergh was the youngest child in her family. Her parents were so successful at avoiding publicity that it took years before she realized that they were famous.

Personal anecdotes: Reeve writes about events that weren’t known to the public. This is the story of what it was like to be a part of that extraordinary family. Beautiful, touching writing: Reviewers nationwide praised the quality of writing in Reeve Lindbergh’s memoir when it was first published ten years ago.









ISBN-13 : 9781439148839
Publisher : Simon & Schuster
Publication date : 05/05/2009
Author : Reeve Lindgergh

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

"A wonderful family memoir." — Geoffrey C. Ward, The New York Times Book Review

"A poignant and superbly written memoir...A story of fascinating contradictions." — James Tobin, Chicago Tribune

"Touching...[an] often wry and compelling mosaic of life with father." — T. H. Watkins, The Washington Post Book World

"Marvelous, moving...An insider's look at the Lindberghs' private lives...this is a daughter's-eye view: gentle, candid and illustrated with intimate everyday details." — Susan Cheever, USA Today

James Tobin

Superbly written. —Chicago Tribune Books

Bob Thompson

Resonates with intimate detail. . .restoring the humanity behind the fame. —Washington Post

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Having already written about her family's life after Charles Lindbergh's death in the autobiographical novel The Names of the Mountains, Charles and Anne Morrow Lindbergh's youngest has written an evocative reminiscence of her youth in Darien, Conn., with her two famous parents. This gentle memoir shows a unique and uniquely poignant family life: "In our family it has always been hard to know what is right and what is wrong, in terms of what we can do for one another. It has been hard for us, too, to separate individual identity from family identity." The resulting publicity left their family with a fear of exposure. The author's father was always wary of what others could see--a cautiousness that extended to clothes, architecture and even the color of the family car.

Although her father was constantly trying to shape and mold his children (no Wonder Bread, marshmallow fluff, grape jelly or candy was allowed at home and lectures and discussions were frequent), his widely perceived anti-Semitism ultimately hurt his family deeply. Anne Morrow Lindbergh emerges from this retrospective as a gentle, even ethereal, intellectual whose style was the polar opposite of her husband's. While the reader might like to know more about Reeve and her own family, instead, we are given an intimate look at other family members and at her parents' marriage. From an idyllic--if somewhat isolated--youth in Darien, to her father's death and her mother's mental deterioration, Reeve has watched and learned and shared with readers what she refers to as the living language of her parents' marriage. (Oct.)

Library Journal

This memoir by the youngest child of Charles and Anne Morrow Lindbergh provides a rare look into the lives of a closely guarded famous family. Reeve Lindbergh, an author of young adult fiction, relates how she gradually came to realize that her parents were famous and how the events that made them famous affected all of their lives. Without sugar-coating her parents, especially her father, whose domineering personality was a source of almost constant frustration, she poignantly reminisces about how she could never live up to his expectations, how her parents handled the murder of their first son, and how she herself coped with the loss of a sister to cancer, her own son's death, and her mother's decline. A forthright and moving memoir; recommended for all libraries. [Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 5/15/98.]--Ronald Ray Ratliff, Chapman H.S. Lib., KS

School Library Journal

YA-This beautifully written memoir allows readers to see the author's family as she knows them. She offers vivid descriptions of events, whether they be a flying lesson with her father, Charles Lindbergh, or the pain of watching the deteriorating health of her mother, Anne Morrow Lindbergh. The author speaks about the circumstances of her eldest brother's kidnapping and death as a baby and how that tragedy forever affected her parents and their interactions with their other children. Readers also meet other relatives, including maternal and paternal grandparents and cousins, and see what roles they played in the family's lives. Lindbergh shows that her family's relationships have not always been easy but they have been close and deep. She doesn't shy away from the truth and yet she manages to be honest without being hurtful. A truly wonderful portrait of a famous family.-Peggy Bercher, Fairfax County Public Library, VA

Booknews

The youngest child of the famous aviator and the famous author recalls growing up a celebrity in a family that sought to avoid publicity. She discusses the impact of the notorious kidnapping of her oldest brother, how her mother encouraged and inspired the whole family to literary endeavor, her shock at hearing her father make antisemitic statements, and other experiences. No index. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.

Susan Cheever

Marvelous, moving. . .the private story of a family whose members were as intimately linked with American history as they were with one another -- and the inner workings of one very human heart. -- USA Today

Bob Thompson

Resonates with intimate detail. . .restoring the humanity behind the fame. -- The Washington Post

James Tobin

Superbly written. -- Chicago Tribune Books

Kirkus Reviews

Published at almost the same time as A. Scott Berg's materful biography of Lindbergh, a sweetly moving memoir of growing up as the daughter of Charles and Anne Morrow Lindbergh. The novelist (The Names of the Mountains) is the youngest of five Lindbergh children, all born after the tragic kidnapping of the famous couple's first-born son. Few knew the Lindberghs had such a large family, and that was how the family wanted to keep it. To escape publicity, they moved frequently, finally settling in an old stone house in Connecticut, where Reeve grew up after WWII. Her father traveled habitually, consulting for government and industry, but was a devoted—if domineering—parent when home, exercising 'affection and discipline in equal measure, often at the same time.' Her mother was a quieter, less controlling presence; she wished to 'heal, soothe, and uplift us.'

Although Reeve learned little of her kidnapped brother, eventually she too lost a son when he was not yet two years old. Her mother sat with her by the little boy's body, and together they mourned the lost babies. After Charles Lindbergh died nearly 25 years ago, Reeve sought to commune with him at his boyhood home in Little Falls, Minnesota, now a state park site. She reflected there on how to reconcile public and private images of famous parents, as well as on the man who taught his children that intolerance was 'repellent and unspeakable'—yet who himself wrote and uttered anti-Semitic statements. Anne Lindbergh, now in her 90s, suffering from the aftereffects of stroke, often doesn't recognize her daughter. Reeve writes about her mother's illness with sorrow, anger, humor, and acceptance. She also remembers hergrandmothers, her siblings—especially her sister, who died of cancer five years ago—and pleasant summers in Maine. An eloquent recollection of a happy childhood in a tightly knit family whose parents' celebrity complicated but did not contort their lives.

Meet the Author

Reeve Lindbergh is the author of many children’s books and the novels No More Words: A Journal of My Mother, Anne Morrow Lindbergh, and Forward from Here: Leaving Middle Age—and Other Unexpected Adventures. She lives with her husband, Nat Tripp, on a farm in northern Vermont.