The Aviator's Wife

The Aviator's Wife is a historical novel by American author Melanie Benjamin, first published in 2013 by Delacorte Press. It is a fictionalized account of the life of Anne Morrow Lindbergh, an accomplished writer and aviator in her own right, though she often lived in the shadow of her husband, aviation pioneer Charles Lindbergh. The Aviator's Wife was a New York Times bestseller and received a Goodreads Choice Award nomination for Best Historical Fiction.

The novel opens in 1974, with Anne on a plane beside her dying husband, Charles. She understands on an instinctual level that his death is imminent, but she is not ready to say goodbye to her longtime partner and the complicated though enduring relationship they share. She tugs down the window shade and looks back on her life, moving back in time to that fateful day when she met Charles Lindbergh.

It is 1927, and Anne is twenty-one years old, the daughter of a United States ambassador and currently a senior at Smith College. She ponders her future and where she fits in—both in her family and in the world. Her sister, Elisabeth, is the pretty one. Her brother, Dwight, the only boy, is the apple of his father's eye. Little sister, Con charms everyone she meets. Anne has only ever been the awkward, odd, and painfully shy one.



On Christmas break from school, Anne joins her family at the embassy in Mexico City. Also in attendance is the already-legendary aviator Charles Lindbergh. Anne suspects her parents are trying to set Elisabeth up with Charles, so Anne lays low and tries not to draw attention to herself.

Still, she intrigues Charles, and he takes her with him for a private flight in his plane. To her pleasant surprise, she finds him enchanting and a bit shy, despite his fame. The two keep in touch and grow closer. They marry in May of 1929 at the home of Anne's parents in New Jersey.

Nothing can prepare Anne for the life of a celebrity wife. The media trail the newlyweds wherever they go, and even the most mundane aspects of their life together seem to make the newspapers. As Anne juggles this new reality, she must also adjust to Charles's expectations of her. He has very specific ways he wants her to run their household, and he fully expects her to get a pilot license so she can go with him on trips and serve as his copilot. She rises to the challenge, and not only attains her license but sets a few aviation records of her own.



Though Anne enjoys the thrill of flying, she also wants to be a mother. After she gives birth to little Charlie, she yearns for a more private life, away from the glare of the spotlight. Those hopes vanish in the blink of an eye with twenty-month-old Charlie's kidnapping. The Lindbergh kidnapping is front-page news across the world, and when Charlie's body turns up in a shallow grave a few months later, the loss pierces Anne to the bone.

A few months go by, and Anne learns she is pregnant again. She has a son, Jon, who is quickly followed by three more sons and two daughters. Anne devotes herself to motherhood, in spite of Charles's wish that she continue to fly with him.

Charles resumes his record-breaking feats without her. Then, he launches a second career as a consultant for the aviation industry—work that keeps him away from home for long stretches at a time. He is away so long, in fact, that he and his wife must go through a tricky process of readjustment every time they are back together in the same home. Anne thinks their relationship works best when they're in the skies together, as copilots. On the ground, the relationship is much more difficult to manage.



As the Second World War approaches, Charles lands back in the news for his unequivocal support for Germany and for Adolf Hitler. Anne writes a booklet in which she expresses her agreement with Charles and his attempts to broker a pact between the U.S. and Nazi Germany, though this is something she would later regret. When the American government starts to back away from the Lindberghs and their dangerous views, Anne and Charles pack up the children and move first to England, then to France.

As the 1930s unfold, Anne turns to writing. She writes several books about her aviation adventures and travels with her husband. Readers and critics alike hail her 1955 book Gift from the Sea as a masterpiece, and it becomes the year's top nonfiction bestseller.

In 1939, the family returns to the U.S. Though they would remain married until Charles's death, the Lindbergh's marriage continues to be a turbulent one, with affairs on both sides. By the time of Charles's 1974 death on the island of Maui, Anne recognizes her important role: as a wife, as a mother, as a partner to an aviation legend, as an aviatrix with accomplishments of her own, as a writer—and as a true renaissance woman.