Listen! The Wind

by Anne Morrow Lindbergh, Charles A. Lindbergh (Foreword)

Anne Morrow Lindbergh (1906-2001) was an American author, aviator, and the wife of Charles Lindbergh. In the year she married him, 1929, she flew solo for the first time. In the 1930s, she and her husband explored and charted air routes between continents. They were the first to fly from Africa to South America, and explored polar air routes from North America to Asia and Europe. Their first child was kidnapped in 1932, they subsequently had five more children. Listen! The Wind was her second book, published in 1938, a heady time for early aviation. It is an account of the Lindbergh's flight around the North Atlantic in 1933. They were studying the air routes between America and Europe. Maps were drawn by Charles Lindbergh and the foreword was written by him as well.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Memoir, Aviation, Classics, Travel, Biography

275 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1938

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

[Leslie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I stumbled across a 1938 edition of this book propped up on display in a second-hand bookstore, and was immediately drawn in. I had to have this book!

Reading this reminds me of the good ol' days of travel when you didn't always know what was ahead or where you would sleep or what you would find. There is adventure and wonder and unexpected surprise and setback in this book. And it's all from Anne's perspective, whereas Charles plays such a minor role.

Lovely, calming, and reminiscent of simpler, but far more adventurous times.

[Julie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Having flown with my father several times in my grandpa's small plane, I enjoyed Anne's descriptions of the sensation of take-offs, landings, all the maintenance, packing, and "drudge-work" that must be done before and after every flight, and her feeling of being in her own protected, cozy "room" in the rear cockpit. I feel I can relate to it!

Her thoughts and reflections on the sea and sky, time, and communication are so applicable and gave me lots to think about in this time when we can fly for hours and be on the other side of the world. She was so excited to actually see and wave to people on a boat in the sea after 15 hours of just Morse code contact between radio operators. Think about being over the ocean for that may hours, not in a huge jet, but a small plane, where there's nothing but open space everywhere...ahhh, I'd love it!

[Peggy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Listen! The Wind tells the story of Charles and Anne Lindbergh's 1933 survey flight when they charted air-routes over the North Atlantic. The book covers their experiences crossing between Africa and South America in the plane Tingmissartoq and is divided into three sections: Santiago (Cape Verde Islands), Bathurst (now called Banjul, Gambia), and the flight to Natal, Brazil.

The landing in Santiago was difficult. Porto Praia would have allowed them access to a seaplane base, but there were no harbors nearby and the force of the waves made it impossible to land. Instead, they found a sheltered harbor about thirty minutes away (by car) near an abandoned French hangar. Their two hosts, both unnamed, "the Chef" and his sixteen-year-old wife, "the girl," tried to provide Charles and Anne with the highest level of hospitality possible, though that involved dust and bed-bugs, and the two North Americans preferred to sleep in their anchored plane. The coffee was excellent. Anne describes a moment of compatibility between herself and "the girl" while they sit on a porch step, waiting for their husbands on a pitch dark night.

The final section tells about the aviators' trip back to the Americas. Anne gives a lyrical description of a night flight. The entire book is literary, but this section is particularly well-written and rhapsodic.

I found the book interesting for its insights into the Lindberghs' pilot/co-pilot relationship and the history of flight (it exposes a bit about colonialism, too). This was Anne's second published book, after North to the Orient .

[Christina Carson · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have always enjoyed Anne Morrow Lindbergh's writing, subtle, insightful and disarmingly honest. In this work, what startled me was how much aircraft has advanced. Their plane was positively primitive by modern standards, and one condemned to landing and taking off on water, with all the problems inherent to that. The trip she and Charles took in 1933 to survey a route, crossing from Africa to South America, was not a simple run. In fact, the reality was that there was always a greater than 50/50 chance they'd not make it due to the limitations of aircraft at the time. Anne shows an alluring mix of grace and courage as she co-pilots with the complex, closed off Charles who is her husband. I have no interest in aircraft or flying, yet this true account held me in its spell.

[Kaarn · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love her writing.

[Lauren Depina · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a fascinating adventure tale, detailing the final 10 days of the flight that Anne Morrow Lindbergh and her husband, Charles Lindbergh took around the Atlantic Ocean. This story details their time in Cabo Verde (Cape Verde Islands), Banjul, Gambia (Bathurst), and crossing the Atlantic to Natal, Brazil.

Her writing is captivating. I am still thinking about the description of the buildings in Praia, Cabo Verde as they were about to land as "pink and yellow pebbles." She does a wonderful job at painting a picture for all of the reader's senses so that we can feel, see, hear, and even taste ourselves being their with her.

I picked up this book because my husband's family is Cape Verdean and wanted to read about AML's experience in Cabo Verde, where the main language spoken in Cape Verdean Creole (Kriolu), though the official language there is still Portuguese. I understand what it can be like to be on Santiago island, in Praia with people who do not speak the same language as me.

I have to remind myself, too, that the flight that this book is written about took place 90 years ago. That said, I was expecting a certain level of racism to be intwined with the book and there was plenty of that in the terminology used to describe people of different races and ethnicities. However, the people of Cabo Verde were definitely painted in a very bad light in this book.

To begin with, the Lindbergh's were supposed to land their plane in Porto Praia. That is where they had made all of their preparations for landing. Due to the weather and landing circumstances, they were forced to land at a small harbor well up the coastline. We later learned it was 30 minutes away by car (Now, think, how many cars would there have been on a small under-developed island over 300 miles off the mainland of Africa...in 1933?) where they ended up landing their plane. The people at the deserted French hangar where they ended up landing were not expecting the Lindbergh's. Yet, immediately and for multiple days the people there (only described as "the Chef," his 16-year old wife "the girl, the "two negro boys," "the mechanic," and the unnamed man in the radio tower) gave up everything they had to accommodate the Lindbergh's. They had so little and yet they still arranged for a car and drove them back and forth to Praia, shared their home, offered them their own bed, and provided them 3 meals a day, giving the married aviators even more than what they used for themselves. It even seemed as though the "two negro boys" just waited at the row boat 24/7 to row them to and from their anchored plane whenever they desired. I can understand that even knowing this, she still would have felt uncomfortable there and her descriptions of the scenarios were so vivid that I could clearly see myself walking up and down the red dust mountain with her.

However, it became so blatantly clear that she didn't grasp just how much those people gave them when the couple landed in Banjul (Bathurst), which was colonized by the British. Both of the Lindbergh's felt so relieved to be around English people. The part that stuck out the most to me was when they were about to leave Gambia and a "tall house-boy" named Samiker came to assist her to the car. AML wrote, "The small open car was at the door. We climbed in the back quietly. Samiker jumped in after us. It wasn't necessary for him to come, but I was glad because I felt her care. And it was nice to have around you people who cared, even if they said nothing." This is the opposite of what she wrote about the people of Cabo Verde who consistently showed up and showed that they cared, even if they didn't say anything. Interesting...

With all that said, I would still highly recommend this book. No matter the level of wealth and privilege the Lindbergh's had, what they accomplished was still a huge feat. AML was understated in her accomplishments and I definitely think she should be championed for her bravery and her ability to learn these amazing skills. This book left me wanting to learn much more about their flights, and about them as a people and parents.

[Rafeeq O. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Anne Morrow Lindbergh's 1938 Listen! The Wind recounts, as husband Charles Lindbergh tells us in his Foreword, the latter part of "a survey flight around the North Atlantic in 1933" (1956 Dell paperback, page 7). The Colonel reports that although the entire mission "lasted for nearly six months," this account "covers only ten days of that time" (page 9). Even from a remove of only five years, he can term it "a period in aviation which is now long gone, but which was probably more interesting than any the future will bring" (page 9). After all, he predicts correctly, "[t]he 'stratosphere' planes of the future will cross the ocean without any sense of the water below," "aloof from both the problems and the beauty of the earth's surface. .... Wind and heat and moonlight take-offs will be of no concern to the transatlantic passenger. His only contact with these elements will lie in accounts such as this book contains" (page 10).

Anne Morrow Lindbergh, then, in prose purposeful and evocative helps us relive a time when a pair of adventurous aviators might cross the Atlantic in a single-engined floatplane, navigating only by the sun and the stars, with the balance of supplies and fuel calculated down to the pound...and, after repeated attempts at takeoff aborted, with the entire load selectively lightened and recalculated again. And the author is an aviator in her own right, by the way, not merely some li'l wifey tagging along in wide-eyed awe of her famous husband, who only half a dozen years previous to this flight had done the near-impossible of flying across the wide Atlantic nonstop and alone.

Her cockpit is the rear one in the tandem-seater Tingmissartoq, but it is her own "little room" (page 177) that is "extraordinarily pleasing" to her, with its second set of controls and her radio equipment "all [giving] [her], in a strange sense, as much pleasure as [her] familiar books and pictures might at home" (page 178). Here she occasionally will fly the ship herself to spell the pilot as he "takes some 'sun sights' with the sextant, to check [their] position" (page 195), and of course she crews the radio as well, managing the long trailing antenna so that she can receive and send in Morse.

The vigil over the airwaves, especially when flying at night over the dark ocean, can be both lonely and yet also reassuring. "[Y]ou seem to hear distance and space on the radio," she tells us, with sometimes "[n]o answer in the earphones" to her transmission, "only those stars clashing in the distance, those moons cart-wheeling through space" (page 184). And yet sometimes "suddenly, through the welter of sounds, [she] hear[s] no longer letters but [her] name, or so it sound[s] to [her], KHCAL, the call letters of the plane," a thing "[m]ore thrilling than to hear your nickname in a room full of strangers, or your own language in a street of foreigners" (pages 184-85). On very rare occasion, though, when she is in great need of response but receives none, she might resort to the "unprofessional" tactic of "sign[ing] it Lindbergh Plane...instead of KHCAL." In perhaps the book's most direct reference to her husband's worldwide fame, she admits a bit sheepishly, "I thought it a little unfair, somehow, not exactly sporting, like using live bait on your fishing-rod instead of a regulation fly" (page 197)...but boy, oh, boy, does it work!

Interestingly, although this book covers the homeward--though by no means easy or routine--part of a great intercontinental flying journey, it is not solely about being in the air. Such an endeavor requires much planning, after all, not just at the beginning but again before every takeoff toward the next leg. There is fuel to consider, of course, but there also are weather, day versus night flying, and the type and amount of emergency equipment carried. For this last, the appendix contains a ten-page equipment list, grouped by type and with weights listed occasionally down to the half ounce, which is fascinating, really.

Yet there are social aspects of any trip, too, especially one across several countries. The part of the journey recounted here is from Spain to the Cape Verde Islands off the western hump of Africa, back to Africa, this time to Bathurst, a little south of Dakar, which now has been quarantined due to yellow fever (pages 78-79), and then to Natal in Brazil. At the same time the flyers are dealing with conditions of sea and sky, including phase of the moon, which will determine both their route and their dates and times of departure--or even attempted departure--they also are interacting with the different styles of their hosts, whether French or British colonials, and also their own feelings.

For the lead pilot, we see through Anne's eyes mainly a quiet, unhurried sort of confidence, yet one built upon great knowledge and experience, and hence cool calculation. It may have been "with satisfaction, earlier in the summer," that he "stud[ied] the charts of the Atlantic, measuring distances, looking up harbors, [and] decided" upon the Cape Verdes as a jumping-off point (page 15), but as conditions change frustratingly in the "gigantic Chinese puzzle" of variables, "some...fixed" and "some...moveable," which "all" must be "fit...into a smooth whole" (page 108), never does he hurry or push them into a situation of having "reserves...not great enough in time, light, fuel, and general safety" (page 110). That latter is "a type of flying I don't like to do," he tells her (page 110). After an unsuccessful attempt at evening takeoff from Bathurst, when she tells us that now " we were too tired tonight, overwhelmingly weary and depressed (page 155; emphasis added), he confirms that they simply need to "sleep on it" (page 156): "'It's better not to get too tired,' said my husband at last. 'Then you begin taking chances--a great many accidents happen that way'" (page 157).

For her part, Anne cannot help the "warm feeling of confidence" that comes from reviewing the "surprising detail" of her husband's painstaking list of survival items, even as to save weight on this final part of the trip he carefully narrows down the list by discarding now-unneeded ones (page 119). This confidence--this admiration, though she never terms it as such--suffuses her entire narrative, even through her own occasional fears. How could it not? She is flying with the most famed aviator in the world, after all. She must trust him with her life, literally. Yet there are times when she reports to us her fears, as in the takeoff at last from Bathurst:

"Here we go. Hold on. The roar, the spray over the wings. Look at your watch. Won't be more than two minutes. Then you'll know. You can stand two minutes. Look at your watch. That's your job. Listen--listen--the spray has stopped. We are spanking along. We are up on the step--faster, faster--oh, much faster than before. Sparks from the exhaust. We're going to get off! But how long it takes. Spank, spank--we're off? Not yet--spank--almost. Splutter, choke--the engine? My God--it's coming then--death." (pages 173-74)

But of course it is not death, and finally they climb with "the engine smooth[ing] out now, like a long sigh, like a person breathing easily, freely. Like someone singing ecstatically, climbing, soaring--sustained note of power and joy" (page 174).

This book's prose shows that power and joy as well, and Anne Morrow Lindberg's Listen! The Wind, revealing not only the triumphs but also the uncertainties and the intimate emotions of an exciting and yet perilous era of aviation, continues to remain a very worthwhile 5-star read.

[Jerry · Rating 2 out of 5]

It was interesting and well written, but it was more about waiting around and the issues with too much wind or too little wind. Only a few chapters were actually about the flying portion. Even that was more anecdotal/observational than actual flying-related. Though that does fit the role of the author as more radio operator than even co-pilot. Only once in the book did she take the stick and the writing about that was how it was a relief from being bent over the radio with virtually nothing about actually piloting the plain.

Despite being about the trans-Atlantic air route survey flights, the book contained nothing about conducting surveys or even what the purpose of the survey flights was. It was really just a kind of journal of Anne Lindbergh's thoughts during a small portion of the overall survey flight adventure. Even limited to the flight from Africa to South America lacked any real substance of the flight itself.

Perhaps it was a product of its time when women weren't supposed to be adventurers. But clearly Anne Lindburgh was there with her husband in these flights. And she had at least some aviation skills since she did take the stick once. But the book failed to make anything of that, so I think Mrs. Lindbergh missed her opportunity to tell us that women can do all this, too.

I'm not sad I read it. But it's not an adventure story. It's not really about flying. And it's certainly not anything to do with the survey flights except that's the reason they were out there in the first place. It's only value is in giving a snapshot of the way things were in that time. And I don't think that's what the intent was.

[Anne · Rating 4 out of 5]

A memoir of part of an amazing journey undertaken by Charles Lindbergh and his wife (Anne Morrow Lindbergh) in 1933. They were investigating possible trans-oceanic air routes for future commercial flights, flying a single engine Lockheed Sirius which had been converted to a seaplane. It was tiny and slow, with a cruising speed of only 100 knots. They carried many emergency supplies in case of an unexpected forced landing. It took them several days to take off from Santiago in the Cape Verde Islands because of too much wind for their little craft. Again they struggled to become airborne from Bathurst in Gambia, this time because of insufficient wind. They had to abandon many of their supplies, jettison fuel and leave at midnight when the slight breeze was strongest to even be able to take off on their 15 hour journey across the South Atlantic to Brazil.

In other words this is flying that is so different from today's commercial aviation that it is hard to imagine the two are related.

Both Mr and Mrs Lindbergh are heroes - her maybe even more so than him, because she was taken from a sheltered upper class family by her husband and asked to be his co-pilot/navigator on some very dangerous flights. I am amazed how she rose to the task and became a famous 'aviatrix' in her own right (as described in 'The Aviator's Wife' by Melanie Benjamin) . She also was able to describe their exploits in beautiful, lyrical yet pellucid prose.

This is a wonderfully evocative history of a bygone time.

[Beth · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5*

I am doing my every ten year reading of Anne Morrow Lindbergh books. My first intentional read for 2023 was Gift from the Sea which was a re-read from ten years ago. On a whim I decided to give this book a go -- Listen! The Wind. If you have ever been a passenger and landed or taken off in difficult weather involving high winds or even driven a car, sailed or ridden a bicycle in high wind, you know the impact wind can have on your trip. The early focus of this book is primarily wind at the other end of the spectrum and trip -- the NEED for wind on take off and the impact when wind is too calm. Anne's style is so descriptive in a positive, foreward momentum manner. I could see and smell the dust on Porto Praia in the Cape Verde Islands, I could feel the wind and sense the lack thereof, not even enough to "move a handkerchief', and I could smell the gasoline when it was being off-loaded.

This book was written in 1938, the plane was designed and constructed in 1929 in Burbank, CA. Acceptance tests on the plane were run in 1930. In 1931 the wheels were replaced with pontoons, a larger engine was installed and a flight was made of the Arctic route to the Orient. This plane now sits in the American Museum of Natural History. The plane is named Tingmissartoq. I might call the experience of flying in such a structure as akin to flying in a tin can since I feel that way about what I call a small plane commuter plane today which is so much bigger than this small two seater.

Recommend as a fast fully engaging read.

[Karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an account of just ten days during Charles and Anne Lindbergh's 1933 months-long journey to survey air routes between America and Europe. In this part of their trip, they flew over the Atlantic Ocean from Africa to South America, one of the most difficult areas to develop commercial air routes. AML's writing is beautifully poetic as always. She makes the technical descriptions of flying readable and fascinating. This was an age when air travel was still quite new and radio communication was difficult at best. For early aviators like the Lindberghs, it required an understanding and healthy respect for the elements. I could feel Anne's fatigue as they had to take care of their craft, made numerous attempts to take off in all kinds of weather, and took shelter in sometimes less-than-ideal accommodations. And then there was her joy as they flew over the ocean, encountering ships and searching for land. I could never be brave enough to do what she did, and was grateful that she wrote of her experience so that I could go along for the ride.

[Tom · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the fourth Anne Morrow Lindbergh book I have read, and it’s my favorite thus far. It is always a pleasure to read her intellectual, poetic, and emotional style. Regardless of what she is writing about, her flights with her husband, the places they visited, or the people they met, her insight is a delight to the eye and mind. In Chapter 28, “My Little Room”, Ms. Lindbergh’s description of her private cockpit as radio operator, is so detailed, so beautiful, and so poetic, you feel you are in the cockpit with her, as her husband piloted the plane further forward. All her prose is such a treat to savor and appreciate. What a gift for writing she had, and even if she wasn’t married to Lindbergh, she no doubt would have made a name for herself, on her own.

[Sharon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lindbergh is so poetic in her writing, she entrances her reader in diary writings about her flight with her husband across the Atlantic Ocean. I have become a recent fan of Anne Morrow Lindbergh, loving Gift From the Sea- love her style and way with words. Read this book as research for an article I am writing but got so much more out of it.

[Myra Scholze · Rating 3 out of 5]

I skimmed a lot of the last half as there was a lot more waiting for weather than flying (typical, I suppose) but I cannot believe they flew a float plane 14 hours from Africa to South America. Wild.

[Leo W. · Rating 3 out of 5]

A flavor of the glamor and danger associated with early aviation.

[Lydia Gates · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very quick read. I kept wanting them to get off that island!

[Betty Morrissey · Rating 3 out of 5]

Liked it. Thoughts on the processes of doing what needs to be done but dependent on Mother Nature. Always a gamble.

[Keith · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good descriptions of part of a journey Anne took with her husband Charles Lindbergh, mostly in the Canary Islands and Africa. Worthwhile, goes well with her other travel book, North to the Orient.

[Nancy Royer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lovely! As are all of Anne Morrow Lindbergh's books.

[Sara · Rating 5 out of 5]

Having read North to the Orient, I was looking forward to this read about the second round of flights for Anne Morrow Lindbergh and her husband Charles Lindbergh as they flew around the Atlantic Ocean. I was a little surprised at first to read that this book only covered 10 days of a months long journey, but as I began to read, I discovered that the theme of the title (Listen! the Wind) was well-centered on the importance of wind in flight. It seemed there was either too much wind (Cape Verde Islands) or not enough wind (Bathurst, Gambia). Once in flight from Africa to South America, Anne captures the essence of flying at night and sending Morse code out to whoever might respond. It was a book filled with suspense and a page-turner for me!

[Kate · Rating 4 out of 5]

Anne Morrow Lindbergh is a very powerful, lyrical writer. I'm not sure what I expected, but it wasn't this. She writes with an attention to detail and with great self reflection. Interestingly, she rarely refers to Charles by his name, instead calling him her husband. But the relationship between these two is strong. They are very necessary to each other. I enjoyed that insight into their persons - I guess I don't know that much about the Lindberghs.

This book recounts a journey between Africa and South America - the issues they had crossing over the Atlantic Ocean in what would be a 16 hour flight. Anne Morrow Lindbergh is a very vital part of the journey.

I loved this book, and I didn't expect to. I'd like to read more of her stuff.

[Callsign222 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mrs Lindbergh focuses on a few legs of flying with her husband, Charles Lindbergh, as they attempt to cross the Atlantic from Africa to South America. An excellent description of the frustrations of flying and the exhilaration of actually getting off the ground, which means I was bored and frustrated while the waited for either the wind to subside or the wind to pick up.

[Cindy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This won the National Book Award in 1938, so I tried to read it with the eyes of yesterday. Nowadays we would edit out a lot of the repetition, but she beautifully describes life at the mercy of the elements and technology. What an interesting, personally circumspect author.

[Beedo180 · Rating 3 out of 5]

Was not as engaging as I was hoping for. Bogged down in the mundanity of extraordinary places. Some beautiful prose, but it did not grab me. 3 stars opposed to 2 because I recognize the quality of the work, even if
It did not appeal directly.

[Molly · Rating 5 out of 5]

A beautifully written book about a short period of time in the life of a very interesting couple. There is a quote in the beginning of the book:" Mrs. Lindbergh's books are small works of art." Clinton Fadiman/The New Yorker. I absolutely agree.

[Martha]

interesting how she refers to husband. I got a chuckle when she needed an answer and using plane call letters only, no answers . she then used Lindbergh plane and there were many answers. she knew Lindbergh plane would get results, she called it " the hook"

[LuAnn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Engaging story of the pioneers days of intercontinental aviation. Anne Lindbergh provides a thrilling account of their amazing trip that helped chart flight routes.

[Kathryn Hurn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating read about being among the first to explore the world from the air with the man she adored.