Reeve Lindbergh facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Reeve Lindbergh
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Lindbergh signing Two Lives (April 11, 2018) at the St. Johnsbury Athenaeum
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| Born | October 2, 1945 |
| Occupation | Writer |
| Language | English |
| Nationality | American |
| Alma mater | Radcliffe College |
| Genre | Children's books |
| Years active | 1968–present |
| Notable works | The Midnight Farm |
| Notable awards | The Redbook Magazine award in 1987 for The Midnight Farm and in 1990 for Benjamin's Barn |
| Spouse |
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| Children | 4 |
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Reeve Morrow Lindbergh, born on October 2, 1945, is an American author. She grew up in Darien, Connecticut, and is the daughter of the famous pilot Charles Lindbergh (1902–1974) and author Anne Morrow Lindbergh (1906–2001). Reeve graduated from Radcliffe College in 1968.
She often writes about her childhood and what it was like growing up in a famous family. Her father was known for his amazing flight across the Atlantic Ocean. Her oldest brother was also involved in a very famous kidnapping before she was born. In her book Two Lives (published in 2018), Reeve talks about being part of "the most famous family of the twentieth century." She also shares how she lives a "very quiet existence in rural Vermont."
Contents
Reeve Lindbergh's Life Story
Reeve Lindbergh's parents, Charles and Anne Morrow Lindbergh, were seen as a "golden couple." Her father's famous solo flight from New York to Paris happened in 1927. This was 18 years before Reeve was born. Charles was a hero and later married Anne, whose father was a wealthy businessman and the U.S. Ambassador to Mexico.
In 1932, Reeve's oldest brother, Charles Lindbergh Jr., was kidnapped from their home. He was sadly killed. This happened 13 years before Reeve was born. Reeve's parents never talked about the kidnapping with their children. Reeve shared that it was easier for her as the youngest. Her older brothers and sister grew up under the shadow of the kidnapping and the war years.
In her book The Names of the Mountains, Reeve writes about what life was like for the Lindbergh family after her father passed away. She uses a fictional family to tell this story. Her book Under a Wing: A Memoir shares details about her childhood in Darien, Connecticut. She describes her father as "loving but stern." Charles Lindbergh had strict rules. For example, his children were not allowed to drink soda or eat candy. He preferred family discussions over watching television. Reeve noted in her book, "There were only two ways of doing things—Father's way and the wrong way."
Growing Up Famous
Before World War II, the Lindbergh family faced more public attention. Charles Lindbergh openly believed the U.S. should not get involved in the war against Nazi Germany. Reeve explained her father's views by saying:
Even though my father's views were controversial, he represented a lot of the thinking of the day. Isolationism was characteristic among many Americans at that time, otherwise President Roosevelt wouldn't have had such a tough time swaying public opinion.
Because of their fame, the Lindbergh family lived a private life in Darien, Connecticut. Reeve said, "My parents represented this country in an extraordinary way and people identified with them in a very personal way." She remembers her family leaving restaurants if her father was recognized. She shared:
[...] if we went out for dinner and a waiter or somebody at the restaurant wanted my father's autograph, he would make us all get up and leave. I was furious. I thought why does he care; it's just an autograph. But I had no way of relating to what they had been through.
Later, she understood her parents were trying to protect their children. They wanted to give them a normal life, which had been taken from her parents early on. As she explains in Two Lives:
Having been robbed of normalcy in a terrible way early on, they understood it for the treasure that it is, and tried their best to offer this treasure to their children as we grew up. How little I appreciated their efforts.
Reeve Lindbergh has mostly avoided the public attention her parents faced. She says people sometimes ask, "Any relation?" when they meet her. But since she is "not recognized in person at all," she enjoys "a kind of freedom that (her) parents did not have."
Some parts of her family's fame still surprise her. She mentioned her grandmother's dress being in the National Air and Space Museum. It was placed near the "Spirit of St. Louis" (her father's plane) and the "Tingmissartoq" (her parents' plane). Reeve wondered:
What on earth is it doing in the National Air and Space Museum? Shouldn't it be in a chest in a family attic, with other attic things?
As the youngest child of Charles and Anne Lindbergh, Reeve has written a lot about her upbringing. In her first memoir, Under a Wing: A Memoir (1998), she talks about her father not sharing much about himself. This made her feel uneasy. As a child, she watched James Stewart play her father in a movie. She innocently asked, "Does he make it?" In No More Words: A Journal of My Mother, Anne Morrow Lindbergh (2001), she wrote about her mother's last months. Her mother, who wrote the bestseller Gift from the Sea, lost her ability to speak after several strokes.
In Forward From Here: Leaving Middle Age—and Other Unexpected Adventures (2008), Reeve shared a discovery. She learned later in life that her father had other families in Germany. This meant she had seven half-siblings. When news of this came out, Reeve said, "The Lindbergh family is treating this situation as a private matter, and has taken steps to open personal channels of communication, with sensitivity to all concerned." For her, this meant, "We don't know any more than you do, but we're trying to figure this out while causing as little pain as possible." Even with the challenges of being part of a famous family, Reeve realized, "You have to lead a real life in the midst of however strange the circumstances might be."
Life in Vermont
Reeve Lindbergh and her first husband, Richard Brown, moved from Cambridge, Massachusetts to Vermont. They both taught school there and had three children. In 1983, she published her book Moving to the Country. Publishers Weekly described it as "comforting, hopeful, sensitively written, an honest and believable portrayal of marriage, change, and putting down roots."
Overcoming Sadness
In 1985, their son, Jonathan, passed away from a seizure at 20 months old. Reeve's mother, Anne Morrow Lindbergh, was visiting at the time. She told her daughter that the most important thing was to "go and sit in the room with the baby." Her mother added, "I never saw my child's body. I never sat with my son this way."
After their child's death, Reeve's marriage ended. To help with her grief, Reeve started writing children's books. She later said, "I would be lost without writing."
Farming Life
Reeve Lindbergh and her second husband live in a 19th-century farmhouse in Passumpsic, Vermont. They raise chickens and sheep there.
Reeve Lindbergh's Children's Books
Reeve started writing children's books on the day her infant son, Jon, passed away in 1985. She told the Philadelphia City Paper, "I was waiting for my family to come and meet me and I just sat there and started to write this little lullaby for Johnny."
The Midnight Farm, Reeve's first published children's book, is said to "comfort any child afraid of the dark." This was noted by Eve Bunting in the Los Angeles Times Book Review. Reeve continued writing about animals in Benjamin's Barn. This book is about a young boy who finds jungle animals, prehistoric creatures, pirate ships, and a princess in a big, red barn.
Lindbergh also wrote about an American folk hero in Johnny Appleseed: A Poem. This book retells the story of John Chapman, who traveled across the country planting apple seeds for future generations.
Reeve is also a talented poet. In North Country Spring, she uses rhyming words to describe how spring arrives in New England. Publishers Weekly wrote that "Lindbergh's ebullient verse is a triumph song of spring's melting, sensory flush."
Reeve Lindbergh's Family Life
Reeve Lindbergh married her second husband, writer Nathaniel Wardwell Tripp (born 1944), on February 11, 1987. This was in Barnet, Vermont. On the same day, she divorced her first husband, Richard Brown. Reeve and Nathaniel have a son named Ben. They also have two friendly and playful Labrador Retriever dogs named Buster and Lola.
The Elisabeth Morrow School in Englewood, New Jersey, was started by Reeve's aunt in 1931. Nearby, Dwight Morrow High School, founded in 1932, was named after her grandfather. He was a businessman who served as the U.S. ambassador to Mexico.
Reeve's oldest brother, Charles Augustus Lindbergh Jr., was the first of six children born to Charles and Anne Lindbergh. He passed away in 1932 in a famous kidnapping. Many people at the time called it "the crime of the century." Reeve's other siblings include aquanaut Jon Lindbergh (1932–2021), Land Morrow Lindbergh (born 1937), writer Anne Spencer Lindbergh (1940–1993), and conservationist Scott Lindbergh (born 1942). Scott raised rare monkeys in France. As mentioned, Reeve later found out her father had three other families in Germany and Switzerland.
Reeve's brother, Land Morrow Lindbergh, might have been the inspiration for the main character in French writer-pilot Antoine de Saint-Exupery's book The Little Prince. The author visited the Lindbergh home in 1939. He hoped to convince Charles Lindbergh to encourage Americans to join the war against Nazi Germany. He didn't succeed in that goal. However, de Saint-Exupery was fascinated by "Charles's golden-haired boy," Land Lindbergh.
Awards and Recognition
Reeve Lindbergh won the Redbook magazine award in 1987 for The Midnight Farm. She also won it in 1990 for Benjamin's Barn. She has been a board member of the Charles A. and Anne Morrow Lindbergh Foundation since 1977. She became the honorary chairman in 2004. Before that, she was vice president from 1986 to 1995 and president from 1995 to 2004. Lindbergh also served as Chair of the Vermont Arts Council Board of Trustees Awards Committee from 2015 until she left the board in 2021.
Readings and Videos
In December 2021, Lindbergh gave a live reading of her children's book, Nobody Owns the Sky. This book is about Bessie Coleman, an early aviation pioneer. The reading took place at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C.
Her book Johnny Appleseed was made into a videotape by Weston Woods/Scholastic in 2000.
