Anne Morrow Lindbergh: Her Life by Susan Hertog Read Free Book Online

live for oneself alone was the stuff of “sin.”
    While some saw Anne’s book as “psychobabble,” most found it a thoughtful analysis of contemporary life and the human condition, as pertinent to men as to women. And nearly everyone, no matter the point of view, saw
Gift from the Sea
as the work of a disciplined and accomplished poet.

31
Midsummer
     

     

     
Anne Morrow Lindbergh on Treasure Island, Bahamas, 1950
.
     
(Lindbergh Picture Collection, Manuscripts and Archives, Yale University Library)
     

M IDSUMMER 1
     
    … suddenly I seem

Bogged down, stock still, knee deep
in tangled grass…
     
— ANNE MORROW LINDBERGH
     
     

M AY 1955, E NGLEWOOD , N EW J ERSEY
     
    A nne sat in the bare, darkened rooms of Next Day Hill amid the half-packed boxes of her mother’s possessions. While her spare, curtainless room in Captiva had resounded with life and regeneration, her parents’ home, stripped of its objects, seemed a woeful shell of death. Gone was the shine of tabletops and chandeliers, the deep softness of sofas and chairs, and the scent of fresh-cut flowers. Lost was the grandeur, and with it the ethic that had lifted the Morrows above the banality of pretense—puritan piety and public service.
    Four months earlier, Anne’s mother had died. During the week of Thanksgiving 1954, Betty, eighty-two, suffered a stroke, and as the paralysis progressed, she sank into a coma. Anne, constantly at her side, was relieved that she seemed free of pain. On January 24, 1955, her death was noted in the press: the passing of Mrs. Dwight Morrow, the wife of the ambassador and mother of Mrs. Charles Lindbergh, poet and wife of the famous airman. 2 Although Betty’s poetry had received little attention, Anne’s literary success heightened its value and its public acclaim. And so Betty was remembered not only as an educator and a public servant, but also as a writer and poet. 3 It was the eulogy Elizabeth Cutter might have wanted.
    During the twenty-four years since her husband’s death, Betty became the philanthropist she had set out to be. In Englewood, she served as a board member of the hospital, the library, and several schools, as well as directorof the Community Chest. Above all, she was a champion of women’s education. After her service as the first female acting president of Smith, in 1940, Betty remained a tireless fund-raiser and spokesperson for the college. In her will, she bequeathed nearly a million dollars to charities, including the institutions she had served in Englewood, as well as Union Theological Seminary and the churches she attended. But no institution, public or private, received more than Smith and Amherst. In profound gratitude for the opportunities given to her and Dwight, she bequeathed each college a hundred thousand dollars. The remainder of her $9.4 million estate was divided equally among her three children. Anne, Dwight, and Con each received life interests in trusts and $50,000 in cash. 4
    Shuttling between Darien and Englewood, Anne began the tortuous process of sorting through her mother’s books, furniture and clothing. It was a tedious job which must have evoked memories of the loss of Charlie, Elisabeth, and her father. And yet, the house must have also resonated with the joy of Christmas, weddings, and good times. Within its walls her mother had never been happier, more productive or strong. But surrounded by the mere objects of her mother’s life, Anne felt strangely disconnected from its meaning. Just as she had searched Charlie’s closet to find “her boy,” Anne soaked herself in the stark realities of settling the estate and preparing the house for occupation by The Elisabeth Morrow School. The cycle of life, nonetheless, seemed confirmed. After her work in Englewood was done, she planned to fly west to visit with her children. Her first grandchild, Christina, Jon’s daughter, had been born that spring and Anne delighted in its promise of regeneration. Her only