Hour of Gold, Hour of Lead by Anne Morrow Lindbergh (1973, Hardcover)

Hour of Gold, Hour of Lead
Diaries and Letters 1929 - 1932
by Anne Morrow Lindberg
Publisher:  Harcourt Brace Jovanovich
Copyright 1973
Book Club Edition

Part radiant, part somber, this second volume of Anne Lindbergh's Diaries and Letters covers the years of her early married life.  The shy, sheltered, introspective girl is thrown into the world of action of her famous husband.  From the very moment he makes her a partner in his activities.  He teaches her to fly; she learns to navigate and operate radio and to take aerial photographs on the survey flights they make together.  Their flying meant long hours in cramped quarters, often sitting on parachutes in open cockpits of single-engine planes.  Fog and storm posed frequent threats unknown to modern highly instrumented aircraft.  Alertness is demanded, regardless of fatigue, and self-control under the pressure of fear.  Most difficult of all, she has to live in the constant glare of publicity, tracked down by journalists, photographers, and a gaping public.  No longer can she speak her mind.

Yet, there was "a kind of bright golden 'bloom' over everything . . . ."  The beauty of flying in the early days of aviation, with its closeness to nature -- and also to death -- never palled.  Then the first house was built, the first child was born.

In a reversal of terrifying swiftness, the hour of gold turned into the hour of lead.  The tragedy of the kidnapping of Charles Lindbergh, Jr., unfolds in an extraordinary series of letters only recently recovered, in which Anne Lindbergh keeps her mother-in-law meticulously informed of each day's events, hopes, deceptions, up to the final blow.

There are few lives in which fame and fortune show their obverse so starkly.  It is a measure of the strength of their characters and their marriage that Anne and Charles Lindbergh were able to sustain each other sufficiently to overcome bitterness and despair and to build a new life -- though not another house until much, much later.  A second son is born to them, and Anne writes:  "The spell was broken by this real, tangible, perfect baby, coming . . . out of the teeth of sorrow -- a miracle."

The spell was broken, but the scars of tragedy would mark their future, indelibly.  Awareness of the fragility of life runs through the later notations, heightening their intensity to occasionally visionary perception.

Mrs. Lindbergh has written an introduction for each section, the second a memorable essay on the nature of grief.

Condition:  Used.  Hardcover.  Dust cover.  Pages are tanned and darkening from age.  Previous owner's "Library Of" stamp is on the front endpaper.  Dust cover and flaps are tanned from age.  Dust cover shows edge wear, tears and creasing.  The edge of the spine of the dust cover is torn and wearing along the edges between spine and covers.  Binding is beginning to split in places throughout the book, but pages are in tact so far.

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