War Within & Without: Diaries and Letters of Anne Morrow Lindbergh, 1939-1944

Diaries and Letters of Anne Morrow Lindbergh

by Anne Morrow Lindbergh

An account of the Lindberghs' wartime years, but most significantly the story of a bond between two extraordinary people. Introduction by the Author; Index; photographs. A Helen and Kurt Wolff Book

Genres: Memoir, Biography, Nonfiction, History, Diary, World War II, Biography Memoir

512 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1980

About the author

Anne Morrow Lindbergh was born in 1906. She married Charles Lindbergh in 1929 and became a noted aviator in her own right, eventually publishing several books on the subject and receiving several aviation awards. Gift from the Sea, published in 1955, earned her international acclaim. She was inducted into the National Aviation Hall of Fame, the National Women’s Hall of Fame, and the Aviation Hall of Fame of New Jersey. War Within and Without, the penultimate installment of her published diaries, received the Christopher Award in 1980. Mrs. Lindbergh died in 2001 at the age of ninety-four.

Not to be confused with her daughter Anne Lindbergh.

Reviews

[Andie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I got this book from the library after reading The Aviator's Wife hoping to get some insights into Anne Morrow Lindbergh. I surely did, but I'm not sure they were ones that make the character more sympathetic.

Her diary & letters from 1939 - 1944 cover the period of Charles Lindbergh's unfortunate adventure into politics via his involvement with the America First organization where he made many inflammatory speeches trying to keep the US from entering World War II. Based on what I read here, I don't think the Nazi label that is often pinned on him applies, but he certainly was anti-Semitic.

Anne Morrow Lindbergh also participated in these efforts including writing a book of essays trying to justify her & her husband's isolationist views which seem to have had the main result of ostracizing both of them from polite society.

Other than that, while being able to write quite eloquently, she doesn't seem to have a persona outside that of her husband's. She only seems to come to life when he is around, which isn't most of the time.

[Martha · Rating 3 out of 5]

interesting look inside the Lindbergh marriage and life as lived with wealth. Mrs Lindbergh is happiest among her peers and looks down on the "common " people. even having grown up with servants she can't seem to manage her own servants.

[Megan · Rating 5 out of 5]

February 7, 2005

[Gail · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was sobering to read the author's regular diary entries about the impending war. It wasn't a dry history book. This was someone's direct reaction and response to what Hitler said, what he did, and what the German army did at his direction. I felt the dread she was living. That didn't make it an easy read.
I couldn't un-know what the world has learned about her husband, Charles while I was reading the book, and that's made my rating lower perhaps that it would have been. While Anne painted a certain picture of their marriage, it wasn't as she thought. I doubt she knew. After his death in 1974, she continued trying to shape his reputation, and get his writings published. That's the saddest thing to me.

From her book, Gift from the Sea:
“Don't wish me happiness
I don't expect to be happy all the time...
It's gotton beyond that somehow.
Wish me courage and strength and a sense of humor.
I will need them all.”

[Cws]

92L

[Maura · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very dry read. It was interesting to immerse myself in her life but she seemed a bit shallow. Now knowing what a dog her husband was I get it. I would still read again.

[LuAnn · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's been a fascinating journey reading AML's diaries and letters, this being the last volume she published while still living. The Lindbergh's certainly used their advantages and talents to benefit others through writing, aviation, conservation, native peoples and medicine (Charles helped develop a perfusion pump that is used in heart surgery and organ transplantation).

Yes, he and Anne were pro-isolation before WWII, worked hard to promote that, and were willing to allow Germany territory rather than see Europe descend into a very destructive war or see the Soviet Union grow stronger, but Anne insisted and they tried to clarify that they were not pro-Nazi nor anti-Semitic. Anne worried in her journal that his speeches and her writings would be misconstrued and urged him to modify his. In the intro written many years later, she discusses seeing things differently in hindsight and with full knowledge of German atrocities, though she never discusses his eugenics comments. Later in life, Charles promoted causes for native peoples.

After Pearl Harbor, Anne and Charles fully supported the war effort. Charles sought ways to use his aviation knowledge and experience contribute to the war effort and once her overcame the Roosevelt administration's efforts to prevent that, he did contribute to safety, fuel efficiency and even flew missions in the Pacific. It's all in here.

Anne reveled in her children while also grumbling occasionally about the work involved when their nanny was away. She reveled in her writing while also finding it challenging and wishing she had more time to devote to it--yet she was very prolific! She reveled in deep discussions with the various intelligent and cultured people they met, looking down on those she judged shallow and materialistic.

She agonized over suffering in the world during the war and her own privilege and insulation from it; losing a child through a infamous kidnapping and a close sister at a young age fueled her empathetic. She reveled in nature, her evening walks alone or with Charles, her brief time learning drawing and sculpture.

Anne greatly admired Charles and depended on him. He pushed her to do more than she ever would have done without him, but she grew more independent and realistic in her view of him over time. He seems to have appreciated her and relied on her. They wrote really lovely letters to one another in the Spring of 1942 when he was away on war business.

She presents a close partnership and marriage that is also complex because the people involved are complex, as are most of us and our relationships. While Charles believed in her writing talent more than she did (she is a good writer) and supported and encouraged Anne's writing career, he didn't seem to understand the competition writing faced in the running a household, birthing and raising children, overseeing servants, and moving many times, so he also pressured and criticized her for not doing more.

Like women these days, Anne struggled with the tension among those responsibilities and the effort it took to balance all her roles. Yet they seemed to communicate on a deep level, talking out world and family issues and remained devoted to one another (his secret affairs come later), worked closely together to edit each other's writing and manage the fame.

Now on to read the volume from 1947-1986 edited by their youngest daughter and published posthumously (Charles died in '74, Anne in '01).

[Nicola Pierce · Rating 5 out of 5]

I finished this in bed last night and drowsily began googling places like Long Lots Road, Westport, in Connecticut, where the Lindberghs are living by the end of this diary. They moved around a lot and I longed for more photos of their various houses. Actually, I would have paid to see the interior of her writing cabins/trailers too. Anyway, I ended up on the pages of various rental agencies, drooling over beautiful houses on Long Lots Road that are for rent/sale today. After that I was checking if the Lindbergh children were still alive and -completely unexpectedly - found myself reading about the new information that has come to light about Charles Lindbergh. Reader, I screamed and frightened the cat. And will be ordering the Scot Berg biography today! In any case, I love Anne's diaries and am almost sure that I have read them all now. I find her voice soothing whilst simultaneously bemoaning the fact that I have nowhere near the intelligence she had. She is just the most beautiful writer and a highly sensitive observer of the people she meets and of the wider world that she gleans through her radio and newspapers. So, here is the build up to World War II and then America's taking part and the stance that the Lindbergh's took regarding both. We get an inside into the life of the damned celebrity - damned being the relevant word. Here is a writer who is constantly striving to manage the balance between her role as supportive wife and motherhood. She describes giving birth - that is, the mental experience, without mentioning the actual gore etc. I have never read anything like it and felt privileged for the insight. (I never had the courage to do it myself!) I just find her life fascinating - yes, it was full of luxury and servants but she'd had her share of shadows, the kidnapping and murder of her first baby etc. Anyway, I loved every page of this, from the mundane tasks she performed on nurse's day off to her struggles to write, as she is never less than exacting and honest with herself and the reader.

[Julio The Fox · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a diary of false anguish. In 1939 Anne Morrow Lindbergh was the most famous female writer in America, just below Eleanor Roosevelt, as her husband Charles Lindbergh was the second most famous man in the United States after President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Then came the deluge. At the start of the Second World War Charles, who had hailed Nazi Germany, where he was decorated by Herman Goering himself (no, Charlie never gave the medal back) founded the America First Committee to keep the U.S. out of the war. Anne correctly insists in her diary that this was not "a right-wing outfit...indeed prominent members included future Columbia University president and U.S. Ambassador Kingman Brewster". Quite. But Charles and Anne both contributed to shaming what otherwise might have been a pacifist cause. Charles with his pro-Nazi past and Anne with her notorious prewar book THE WAVE OF THE FUTURE, predicting a convergence of ideals, political, economic and even racial, between Nazi Germany, Stalinist Russia and Roosevelt's New Deal. (James Burnam made the same point in his wartime book THE MANAGERIAL REVOLUTION.) That is key to understanding these wartime diary entries and letters to her husband. Anne's empathy for the Europeans killed, wounded and exiled rings true, but every entry bemoaning their fate is qualified with "yet their suffering may be necessary in founding a new world". She rightly blasts her husband for blaming war fever in the U.S. on "the British, Roosevelt, and Jewish interests" without mentioning the pogroms going on in Nazi-dominated Europe or denouncing homegrown anti-semitism. Charles enlisted in the armed forces after Pearl Harbor (Roosevelt refused to give him a combat commission, however) and Anne cheered him for it, but by then it was too late; their reputations for humanitarianism and just plain thinking decently lay in ruins.

[Michele Casper · Rating 4 out of 5]

I always enjoy reading Anne Lindbergh’s writing. She crafts her words beautifully, even in her diaries and letters (which this book is a collection of). The time frame is the years just prior and into WWII. She and her husband’s stance on staying out of the war make them highly unpopular. She is fiercely loyal and protective of her husband. She comments on marriage—“real” marriages are not “happy” or “unhappy”, but they are both. She is adamant about not wasting time by being “unaware”, yet realizes that trying to be always aware can be exhausting.

Anne is a woman who did her best to have it all—husband, children, writing career, pilot, friends and so forth. Lucky for her she had housekeepers, cooks, and nurses to make this easier!

[Chele Denney · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another lovely peek into Anne Marrow Lindbergh’s life. As she shares her thoughts on family, war, truth, love, and living life fully. The uniqueness of her own life as a “celebrity wife” of the time, along with its highs and lows as only she could share. In this you read her longing for a “normalcy” to be introduced into the Lindbergh life and family home and the seeking and carving out of creative outlets of her own.

[Bruce · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent depictions of the homefront before and during the Second World War. Charles Lindbergh was active in the anti-war movement before Pearl Harbor, and her mother (Dorothy Morrow) was active in rallying support for Europe, which adds a layer of personal drama.

[Leigh · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read these books years ago. I was in my early 20's living on my own for the first time and was basically idealistic and still had romantic notions about life. So during my first read through I loved this and all five volumes of diaries and letters. I truly believed the golden sheen that was painted over the lives of the Lindbergh family. Sure they had face horrific tragedy and invasions of privacy but they loved each other. Now years later reading the books again knowing what I know I see the books in a different light. The first three books still held up pretty good, the fourth was also pretty good. This is where things fall apart. The war years when Charles dabbles in politics and basically tarnished his golden image forever. He did build it up again but he was never quite the same. The first part of the book is mostly Anne constantly defending her husband and his position. She does this to the point where she pushes away family and close friends and is afraid to go outside of her house for fear of who she will see. While she sees her husband as a good guy who knows it all history tells us he was dead wrong and while not blatantly racist he did say some things that did merit the criticism. He might not have been a full fledged Nazi but given his interest in eugenics and his post war dalliances he certainly would've been welcome and fit right in, as we saw in Flower and the Nettle. This was often frustrating to read. Especially when she claims her mother is being used and manipulated by others when to my eyes she was the one being lead by her husband. The war years themselves dragged on. As another reviewer pointed out she only came alive when her husband was home. She adds two more children to her family, sees the death of two family pets, one a small puppy killed in an accident, the other Thor who'd been with the family since after the kidnapping. This was probably one of the easier parts to read because it was so real. The heartbreak of watching a beloved family pet pass away, but of course she kept saying how she wished Charles was there. I have no doubt that they loved each other, and I have no idea what exactly led him to stray as he did, but Anne just comes across as hopelessly codependent throughout the book. Perhaps it was just the way things were then. I can't wait to read the last of this series, where Anne finally grows into her own person, becoming at last the strong independent person who wrote Gift From The Sea.