The Spirit Of Lindbergh
In a new book on Charles Lindbergh,
J ewish biographer A. Scott Berg
examines allegations of anti-Semitism.
CURT SCHLEIER
Special to The Jewish News
B
iographer A. Scott Berg's
family wasn't pleased when
he described his next pro-
ject.
But Berg, the award-winning
author of biographies of book editor
Maxwell Perkins and film mogul
Samuel Goldwyn, was himself thrilled
when Anne Morrow Lindbergh,
widow of aviator Charles A.
Lindbergh, granted him exclusive
access to the family's private papers
and diaries. These resources helped
him to write a new, already best-sell-
ing definitive biography of one of this
century's most celebrated figures.
Curt Schleier is a New Jersey-based
freelance writer.
11/ 1 3
1998
98 Detroit Jewish News
Berg, who lives in Los Angeles, says
his culturally Jewish family had major
reservations about Lindbergh.
"My grandmother said he was terri-
ble about the Jews. I said, 'Grandma,
what did he really say?' She said she
didn't know, except that 'it was well
known he was an anti-Semite.'"
Berg decided to proceed, taking an
objective point of view. From his
research, Berg now says, "I don't think
this was a man who hated Jews. I
never came across a single remark he
wrote or said that expressed hatred
toward Jews. He had Jewish friends,
he helped Jews get out of Germany.
"On the other hand, I think he
bought into another kind of anti-
Semitism; that distinction that he
made in his mind that there were Jews
and then there were Americans. He
thought he was tolerant. He talked
had edited such writers as F. Scott
about how much he admired Jews."
Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, Thomas
Lindbergh made an infamous
Wolfe and Ring Lardner.
speech on Sept. 11, 1941, in which he
After graduation, Berg spent seven
said that the Jews (along with the
years turning his thesis into a publish-
British and the Roosevelt administra-
able biography. Since he had no book
tion) were responsible for pushing
contract in hand, it was a potentially
America into an unnecessary war.
foolish decision.
own
sake,
Jews'
"He felt for the
"I moved back home with my
shouldn't
want
us
to
get
into
the
they
parents. I remember my
war," says Berg.
mother saying, 'If you
"He thought it
wanted to be a doctor,
would hurt the
we'd pay your way
Jews more. He
through medical school. If
thought he was
you
wanted to be a
expressing toler-
lawyer,
we'd pay for law
ance."
school. You want to be a
Berg consid-
writer; we'll pay."'
ers the most sig-
Berg found her gen-
nificant finding
erosity made his life more,
of his research to
rather than less, difficult.
be that
"Because I was not earn-
Lindbergh delet-
ing a living, I felt at least I
ed certain anti-
had to be working all the
Semitic com-
time. I was putting in 80-
ments from his
hour work weeks,
published
working 12 hours a
diaries. "That
A. Scott Berg: -
day seven days a
was the closest he came to rec-
I remember my
week."
ognizing that what he said
mother saying, 7: fyou
The results were
[about Jews] was distasteful."
wanted to be a doc-
worth
it when his
Berg, 48, was born in
tor, we'd pay your
Max
Perkins:
book,
Connecticut and raised in Los
way through medical
for
Editor
of
Genius,
Angeles. Never called Andrew,
school. Ifyou wanted
which he won a
his first name, even as a child,
to be a lawyer, we'd
National Book Award,
he became Scott because "my
pay for law school.
became a best seller.
mother spent her ninth month
You want to be a
Now Berg could afford
writer; we'll pay."
of pregnancy reading F. Scott
to get his own place.
Fitzgerald, and she wasn't about
Soon
after
publication,
Sam
to name a nice Jewish boy Francis."
Goldwyn Jr. asked Berg to tackle a
In 1957, MGM brought Berg's
biography of his late father, based on
father, Dick, out to L.A., where he
two rooms of papers he had left
wrote and produced television dramas
behind. At first Berg demurred, not
and films. Berg's three brothers work
interested in writing a Hollywood-
in the entertainment industry today.
type
biography. But the son convinced
Attending Princeton University, Berg
Berg
that he had an opportunity to
was student body president and an
write the first serious Hollywood bio.
actor — not a writer. His life changed
Berg said, "I believed then and I
after doing his thesis on book editor
believe now that Samuel Goldwyn was
Maxwell Perkins. Berg availed himself
the quintessential mogul. You could
of materials donated to Princeton by
see the whole history of Hollywood
Scribner's Publishing Co., where Perkins