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Lindbergh Alone
"The day after which nothing could be the same for him was Friday, May 20, 1927. That morning, alone in a little plane powered by a single engine, Charles A. Lindbergh took off from a muddy runway on the outskirts of New York. His destination was Paris."
So begins Brendan Gill's book about the most extraordinary feat of one of our century's most extraordinary men. With his clarity of vision and his characteristic elegance, Gill gives us a meditation on one man's unprecedented accomplishment, and the world's overwhelming response.
183 pages, Paperback
First published December 1, 1977
19 people want to read
About the author
Brendan Gill
75 books15 followersBrendan Gill (October 4, 1914 – December 27, 1997) wrote for The New Yorker for more than 60 years. He also contributed film criticism for Film Comment and wrote a popular book about his time at the New Yorker magazine.
Biography[edit]
Born in Hartford, Connecticut, Gill attended the Kingswood-Oxford School before graduating in 1936 from Yale University, where he was a member of Skull and Bones.[1]:127 He was a long-time resident of Bronxville, New York, and Norfolk, Connecticut.
In 1936 The New Yorker editor St. Clair McKelway hired Gill as a writer.[2] One of the publication's few writers to serve under its first four editors, he wrote more than 1,200 pieces for the magazine. These included Profiles, Talk of the Town features, and scores of reviews of Broadway and Off-Broadway theater productions.[3] As The New Yorker's main architecture critic from 1987 to 1996, he wrote the long-running "Skyline" column before Paul Goldberger took his place.
A champion of architectural preservation and other visual arts, Gill joined Jacqueline Kennedy's coalition to preserve and restore New York's Grand Central Terminal. He also chaired the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts and authored 15 books, including Here at The New Yorker and the iconoclastic Frank Lloyd Wright biography Many Masks.
Gill was a good friend of actor Sir Rex Harrison and was among the speakers who memorialized the legendary star of the musical My Fair Lady at his memorial service in New York City in 1990.
Death[edit]
Brendan Gill died of natural causes in 1997, at the age of 83. In a New Yorker "Postscript" following Gill's death, John Updike described him as “avidly alert to the power of art in general.”[3]
Legacy[edit]
Gill's son, Michael Gates Gill, is the author of How Starbucks Saved My Life: A Son of Privilege Learns to Live Like Everyone Else.[4] His youngest son, Charles Gill, is the author of the novel The Boozer Challenge.
Offices held[edit]
Chairman of the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts
Chairman of the Municipal Art Society
Chairman of the New York Landmarks Conservancy
Vice President of the American Academy of Arts and Letters
Works[edit]
This list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it.
Books[edit]
The Day the Money Stopped (1957)
The Trouble of One House (1951)
Fair Land to Build in: The Architecture of the Empire State (1984)
The Dream Come True: Great Houses of Los Angeles (1980)
Lindbergh Alone - May 21, 1927 (1980)
Summer Places (with Dudley Whitney Hill) (1978)
Ways of Loving (short stories) (1974).
Tallulah (Tallulah Bankhead biography) (1972)
Cole Porter (Cole Porter biography) (1972)
New York Life: Of Friends and Others
The introduction to Portable Dorothy Parker (Dorothy Parker collection of her stories & columns) (1972)
Late Bloomers
Here at The New Yorker (1975)
Many Masks: A Life of Frank Lloyd Wright (1987)
Articles[edit]
Gill, Brendan (15 January 1949). "The Talk of the Town: Runaway". The New Yorker. 24 (47): 22–23. I Can Hear it Now - album of speeches and news broadcasts, 1932-45 (with Spencer Klaw).
Gill, Brendan (4 February 1950). "The Talk of the Town: The Wildest People". The New Yorker. 25 (50): 21–22. Transit Radio, Inc.
Gill, Brendan (4 February 1950). "The Talk of the Town: Improvisation". The New Yorker. 25 (50): 25. Hiding telephone lines in the ivy at Princeton (with M. Galt).
Gill, Brendan (14 January 1985). "The Theatre: The Ignominy of Boyhood". The New Yorker. 60 (48): 108–110. Reviews Bill C. Davis' "Dancing in the End Zone", James Duff's "Home Front" and Rodgers and Hammerstein's "The King and I".
Gill, Brendan (28 January 1985). "The Talk of the Town: Notes and Comment". The New Yorker. 60 (50): 19–20. West 44th Street development.
Biography[edit]
Born in Hartford, Connecticut, Gill attended the Kingswood-Oxford School before graduating in 1936 from Yale University, where he was a member of Skull and Bones.[1]:127 He was a long-time resident of Bronxville, New York, and Norfolk, Connecticut.
In 1936 The New Yorker editor St. Clair McKelway hired Gill as a writer.[2] One of the publication's few writers to serve under its first four editors, he wrote more than 1,200 pieces for the magazine. These included Profiles, Talk of the Town features, and scores of reviews of Broadway and Off-Broadway theater productions.[3] As The New Yorker's main architecture critic from 1987 to 1996, he wrote the long-running "Skyline" column before Paul Goldberger took his place.
A champion of architectural preservation and other visual arts, Gill joined Jacqueline Kennedy's coalition to preserve and restore New York's Grand Central Terminal. He also chaired the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts and authored 15 books, including Here at The New Yorker and the iconoclastic Frank Lloyd Wright biography Many Masks.
Gill was a good friend of actor Sir Rex Harrison and was among the speakers who memorialized the legendary star of the musical My Fair Lady at his memorial service in New York City in 1990.
Death[edit]
Brendan Gill died of natural causes in 1997, at the age of 83. In a New Yorker "Postscript" following Gill's death, John Updike described him as “avidly alert to the power of art in general.”[3]
Legacy[edit]
Gill's son, Michael Gates Gill, is the author of How Starbucks Saved My Life: A Son of Privilege Learns to Live Like Everyone Else.[4] His youngest son, Charles Gill, is the author of the novel The Boozer Challenge.
Offices held[edit]
Chairman of the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts
Chairman of the Municipal Art Society
Chairman of the New York Landmarks Conservancy
Vice President of the American Academy of Arts and Letters
Works[edit]
This list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it.
Books[edit]
The Day the Money Stopped (1957)
The Trouble of One House (1951)
Fair Land to Build in: The Architecture of the Empire State (1984)
The Dream Come True: Great Houses of Los Angeles (1980)
Lindbergh Alone - May 21, 1927 (1980)
Summer Places (with Dudley Whitney Hill) (1978)
Ways of Loving (short stories) (1974).
Tallulah (Tallulah Bankhead biography) (1972)
Cole Porter (Cole Porter biography) (1972)
New York Life: Of Friends and Others
The introduction to Portable Dorothy Parker (Dorothy Parker collection of her stories & columns) (1972)
Late Bloomers
Here at The New Yorker (1975)
Many Masks: A Life of Frank Lloyd Wright (1987)
Articles[edit]
Gill, Brendan (15 January 1949). "The Talk of the Town: Runaway". The New Yorker. 24 (47): 22–23. I Can Hear it Now - album of speeches and news broadcasts, 1932-45 (with Spencer Klaw).
Gill, Brendan (4 February 1950). "The Talk of the Town: The Wildest People". The New Yorker. 25 (50): 21–22. Transit Radio, Inc.
Gill, Brendan (4 February 1950). "The Talk of the Town: Improvisation". The New Yorker. 25 (50): 25. Hiding telephone lines in the ivy at Princeton (with M. Galt).
Gill, Brendan (14 January 1985). "The Theatre: The Ignominy of Boyhood". The New Yorker. 60 (48): 108–110. Reviews Bill C. Davis' "Dancing in the End Zone", James Duff's "Home Front" and Rodgers and Hammerstein's "The King and I".
Gill, Brendan (28 January 1985). "The Talk of the Town: Notes and Comment". The New Yorker. 60 (50): 19–20. West 44th Street development.
Ratings & Reviews
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
March 15, 2021
Originally published on the 50th anniversary of Lindbergh's 1927 historic flight across the Atlantic, this is not a story of that memorable flight (for that be sure to read, "We"). Rather, it's a heart-warming story of how a shy, modest individual captured the hearts of mankind, eloquently told by a writer that is admirably up to the task. You'll discover Lindbergh's achievements lie far beyond one famous flight. Also highly recommended: Lindbergh's, "Spirit of St. Louis," a best-seller and Pulitzer Prize winner.
January 4, 2014
Bought this book new in 1978, read it quickly and just recently came across it again buried in my bookcase. Somewhat surprised I still have it.
May 20 to May 21, 1927. Unknown aviator Charles A. Lindbergh flies solo across the Atlantic Ocean from New York’s Long Island to Le Bourget Field in Paris, France. 3,600 miles. Non stop. And in that short time span, he went from being an absolutely unknown pilot to a world famous hero.
Still one of the bravest acts any one person has endeavored to do. It still thrills me to thing about it.
May 20 to May 21, 1927. Unknown aviator Charles A. Lindbergh flies solo across the Atlantic Ocean from New York’s Long Island to Le Bourget Field in Paris, France. 3,600 miles. Non stop. And in that short time span, he went from being an absolutely unknown pilot to a world famous hero.
Still one of the bravest acts any one person has endeavored to do. It still thrills me to thing about it.
January 29, 2013
Remarkable insights to who Charles was. Reeve was right - "Gill had a real and deep instinct about who my father was." Not a typical biography - no beginning to end of life journey. Instead, jumps about linking elements of Lindbergh and his life thematically rather than chronologically. Highly recommend, especially if one already has a knowledge of Lindbergh's deeds and now wants deeper insights to who he was.
April 14, 2009
May 21, 1927 dawned for an extraordinary navigator, pilot and visionlary as the leap into the sky to cross the ocean alone, undaunted. Time well spent to discover the inner story of Charles Lindgergh and his deeds.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews