Charles Lindbergh’s solo flight from New York to Paris captured the imagination of a postwar generation hungry for heroes, and cemented an exalted spot for the 25-year-old pilot from Minnesota in the collective American imagination. From the moment he landed in Paris on May 21, 1927, Lindbergh found himself thrust upon an odyssey for which he was ill prepared – the first modern media superstar, defied and demonized many times over in a single lifetime. A. Scott Berg’s thorough biography of the aviator suggests that despite the public scrutiny that accompanied his every move until his death in 1974, Lindbergh remained an intensely private man. Berg casts dramatic new light on his childhood; his astonishing flight; the kidnapping of his son, which has been called “The Crime of the Century;” his fascination with Hitler’s Germany; and his unsung work in his later years. Berg is the first and only writer to have been given unrestricted access to the massive Lindbergh archives and to be allowed to freely interview his friends, colleagues, and family members, including his children and his widow, Anne Morrow Lindbergh. The result is a brilliant biography that clarifies a life long blurred by myth and half-truth. The definitive life of one of the most legendary, controversial, and enigmatic figures in American history. Lindbergh was the winner of the 1999 Pulitzer Prize for biography.