TMS signed "Charles (A. Lindbergh)," five onionskin pages, 8.25 x 11, July 12, 1971. Detailed criticism and commentary concerning a biographical manuscript written by Alden Whitman of the New York Times, responding page-by-page and line-by-line with specific corrections. In part: "Page 1 (.7): I don't comb my hair as I do to cover baldness. I have simply always combed it that way, and see no reason to change...P. 3, line 4: I made the first nonstop airplane flight between the continents of North America and Europe, solo or otherwise...P. 3, line 13: My statement was: 'I have had enough publicity for a lifetime and several reincarnations.' Please correct for accuracy...P. 10 (.9): I knew of the danger to the blue whale long before this. If I remember correctly, I mentioned it in the 1964 Reader's Digest article you referred to on page 9...P. 12 (.2): I have been to Indonesia a number of times. P. 12 (.6): I saw one Javan rhinoceros-for about fifteen seconds. P. 12 (.8): Please change 'I think we've got the problem of guarding the rhinos in hand' to 'I hope we've got the problem of guarding the rhinos in hand.' There are real problems remaining...P. 16 (.10): I am not sure what is meant by a 'new' Lindbergh. I am not aware of any major change. I simply decided to take part in conservation activities for several years fairly intensively, and have adjusted my life accordingly. P 16 (.7): Only a fraction of my life for the last forty years has been devoted to aviation. P. 17 (.1): I first learned of the danger of extinction of the Tamaraw from Noel Simon...As I recall, my first trip to the Philippines in this connection came in 1968, when I worked with Tom Harrisson in connection with both the Tamaraw and the Monkey Eating Eagle...President Marcos played such a major role in preserving the Tamaraw that it seems to me he should be mentioned here along with Roxas, Elizalde, and Alvares...P. 19 (.8) I may have walked at a fair pace, but I don't think I did any loping. P. 26 (.2): I never laid out an air route along the Atlantic coast. However, I often flew along the coast to reach Miami, which was the major Pan American Airways base in the early days of the company. The Pan American routes I surveyed lay south of Miami...P. 41 (.2): I don't recall 'wrestling with them (calves), hoisting them up on their hind legs and tumbling them over'...P. 42 (.4): Certainly Susan did not bake a two foot square chocolate cake, and certainly I did not eat anything like half of it...P. 43 (.3): I have never used the nickname 'Anniemouse' for my wife...P. 43A (.6): I am constantly encountering problems with the direct quotes, which I will write about later. In the second line of the last paragraph of this page, I suggest changing 'impossible for a person to restrict himself' to 'impossible for many people to restrict themselves'...I hope you will check with Dean Bolle the statements attributed to him. I think this is highly important. If they are not correct, it can cause him a lot of trouble, and me a lot of embarrassment. A book is a lot different than a newspaper article in this respect. P. 48, second paragraph: Please take out the quotes to me. You must have gotten this information from someone else...P. 51: As I was afraid would happen, the manuscript is getting much farther into my private life than I want to go. I think I will now stop commenting in these instances. I do not want to apparently authenticate them by removing some of the inaccuracies...P. 81 (.4) 'The two (the gibbon and I) gamboled like children on the Pryor's porch.' Shades of Susan's two foot square chocolate cake! Really, Alden, I think you can do better than this. P. 81A (.3): Alden, I don't know where you got these ideas. I thoroughly disagree. I did not fly the Atlantic because I thought I ought to. Such a thought didn't occur to me. (See my account in 'The Spirit of St. Louis.') P. 81A (.4) When I took off from Long Island in the 'Spirit of St. Louis,' I was not eligible for the Orteig prize, and did not expect to receive it. (See account in 'The Spirit of St. Louis.') P. 82 (.2): I did not continue in aviation almost exclusively until 1964-far from it...P. 83 (.7) You are guessing here again, in regard to elements you don't know about and that I prefer not to talk about. I did not ask Pan American for $600 a month. I was offered much more-and took much more when I began working as a consultant for the company, in 1928. The 'forty percent' of my time is again a guess on your part. But Alden, this does not relate to conservation, and bringing it in is quite contrary to our understanding in regard to the articles that were to be written for the Times. I regard this as private information and hope you will see fit to delete it from your book." In fine condition.
Although Whitman's manuscript was seemingly never published, he did author a number of articles about Lindbergh; in fact, he even made a trip to the Philippines with Lindbergh during the pilot's advocacy efforts on behalf of the native peoples. In his later years Lindbergh became heavily involved in environmental causes and alleviating the plight of oppressed indigenous cultures. In 1968 he flew to Indonesia and Borneo, lobbying presidents Sukarno and Ferdinand Marcos-who he mentions here-to help protect the endangered Javan rhinoceros and tamaraw. In 1971, the year of the present manuscript, Lindbergh went to live among the Tasaday in the jungles of the Philippines, comparing the exhilaration brought by this unique experience to that of his historic flight. Lindbergh's private nature is also evident in his comments, as he becomes increasingly irritated with the biographical inaccuracies that he discovers throughout the manuscript. A supremely interesting piece involving one of the lesser-known aspects of Lindbergh's life.
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