Autobiography of Values

New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1978. First Edition [stated]. Hardcover. Good/Good. 24 cm. xxi, [1], 423, [3] pages. Illustrations. Maps. Chronology. Genealogy. Select Bibliography of Charles A. Lindbergh's Writings. Index. DJ edges worn, tear in rear DJ, DJ flap creased, edges soiled. Bookplate of previous owner with ink notation, and date in ink inside front cover. Dust jacket notes: "This is Charles A. Lindbergh's story of his own life. It is the story of the events he caused, and their effects on him. It is the story of the values he learned as a boy in Minnesota and how they were enhanced, or changed, or supplanted as he lived through a century dominated by science and war and technology and nationalism. He was probably the greatest aviator of all time. He was certainly the most celebrated young man in American history. He was also a scientist, soldier, conservationist, and adviser to industry and government on flight. He was a superb writer, as this book so dramatically confirms. Autobiography of Values is a rare work, the spare and beautiful telling of an American life that belongs with the great memoirs in our literature: Franklin, Adams, Steffens. The depth of Lindbergh's feeling for life, at times poetical and mystical, is shown by him in settings around the earth: Africa, the Pacific islands, Europe, Mexico, England, France, Germany, Russia, India. At the end, he was still a questing man, an adventurer in space and time and spirit." Charles Augustus Lindbergh (February 4, 1902 - August 26, 1974) was an American aviator, military officer, author, inventor, and activist. At the age of 25, he achieved instant world fame by making the first nonstop flight from New York City to Paris on May 20-21, 1927. Lindbergh covered the 33+1 2-hour, 3,600-statute-mile flight alone in a purpose-built, single-engine Ryan monoplane, the Spirit of St. Louis. Though the first non-stop transatlantic flight had been completed eight years earlier, this was the first solo transatlantic flight, the first transatlantic flight between two major city hubs, and the longest transatlantic flight by almost 2,000 miles. It was one of the most consequential flights in aviation history and ushered in a new era of transportation between parts of the globe.
Lindbergh became an officer in the U.S. Army Air Corps Reserve in 1924, earning the rank of second lieutenant in 1925. Later that year, he was hired as a U.S. Air Mail pilot in the Greater St. Louis area, where he started to prepare for his historic 1927 transatlantic flight. Lindbergh received the United States' highest military decoration from President Calvin Coolidge, the Medal of Honor, as well as the Distinguished Flying Cross for his transatlantic flight. The flight also earned him the highest French order of merit, civil or military, the Legion of Honor. His achievement spurred significant global interest in both commercial aviation and air mail, which revolutionized the aviation industry worldwide (described then as the "Lindbergh boom"), and he devoted much time and effort to promoting such activity. He was honored as Time's first Man of the Year in 1928, was appointed to the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics in 1929 by President Herbert Hoover, and was awarded a Congressional Gold Medal in 1930. In 1931, he and French surgeon Alexis Carrel began work on inventing the first perfusion pump, which is credited with making future heart surgeries and organ transplantation possible. In the years before the United States entered World War II, Lindbergh espoused a non-interventionist stance. He supported the antiwar America First Committee and resigned his commission in the U.S. Army Air Forces in April 1941 after President Franklin Roosevelt publicly rebuked him for his views. In September 1941, Lindbergh gave a significant address, titled "Speech on Neutrality", outlining his views and arguments against greater American involvement in the war. Lindbergh did express public support for the U.S. war effort after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and the subsequent United States declaration of war upon Germany. He flew 50 missions in the Pacific Theater as a civilian consultant, as Roosevelt refused to reinstate his Air Corps colonel's commission. In 1954, President Dwight Eisenhower restored his commission and promoted him to brigadier general in the U.S. Air Force Reserve. In his later years, Lindbergh became a prolific author, international explorer, inventor, and environmentalist, eventually dying of lymphoma in 1974 at age 72.