Chapter 1 Summary and Analysis

Charles August Lindbergh, or C.A., was born in Sweden with the last name Mansson. He came to America, and changed his last to Lindbergh because Mansson was too common. He settled in Little Falls, Minnesota, and was a successful lawyer. His first wife died and he remarried Evangeline Lodge Land, nearly two decades his junior.

Charles Lindbergh was born to the couple in 1902. He spent many of his childhood days alone on the farm. When he was three and a half, a fire burned the family home to the ground, an experience which lingered with him long afterward. The family had to live in a hotel until a new, smaller home, was built.

In 1906, C.A. was elected to the House of Representatives. His marriage to Evangeline was falling apart, but they decided to keep up appearances and remain married...