The Flower and the Nettle by Anne Morrow Lindbergh

First published: 1976

Type of work: Diary and letters

Time of work: 1936-1939

Locale: England and many countries in the rest of Europe

Principal Personages:

• Anne Morrow Lindbergh, a wife, mother, and author
• Charles Lindbergh, her husband, a famous aviator
• Jon, and
• Land, their sons

Form and Content

Following the kidnapping and death of their twenty-month-old child, Anne Morrow Lindbergh and her husband, Charles, could find no relief from reporters. The couple had always been besieged by the press because of Charles’s great success in aviation, but the tragedy of their young son made any sort of life away from public eyes impossible. For this reason, Anne and Charles decided to move across the Atlantic to a remote home in England. From that home, Long Barn, and from their stone house, Illiec, on a small island off the northern coast of Brittany, she wrote the letters and diary entries that would later be published in The Flower and the Nettle: Diaries and Letters of Anne Morrow Lindbergh, 1936-1939. This chronological collection gives insights into Lindbergh’s personal relationships, love of nature, travels to foreign countries, and perspectives on women’s roles.

These letters and diary entries explore the relationships that Lindbergh had with her family and with the many famous persons whom she encountered socially as a result of her husband’s career. Much is written about her joyous moments with her children, Jon and Land, and about the trips and activities that she shared with her husband. Her letters reveal an open communication with her mother and her sisters. Diary entries describe balls with the king and queen of England, gatherings with political dignitaries, and casual moments with neighbors and visiting relatives. People were important in Lindbergh’s life. She wrote that she would prefer being with ignorant people than with no people at all; she also commented that her husband did not share this sentiment.

This collection of personal writings also reveals the author’s love for nature. She not only describes the gardens and natural landscapes that surround her houses but also emphasizes the beauty and importance of cut flowers inside the home. She describes walks through gardens to collect rosemary and other cuttings with her young son, Jon. In nature, she finds great pleasure away from the clutter of possessions and social responsibilities.

The three years between 1936 and 1939 involved extensive travel for Anne and Charles. Diary entries describe parades, city life, and the natural landscapes of France, Germany, Denmark, India, Italy, and Russia. Anne describes social gatherings with high British society and dinners where political dignitaries discussed the advance of Adolf Hitler’s army and German influence in Europe. The successful position of Charles in aviation brought the Lindberghs into contact with high officials of the United States, Great Britain, and many European countries.

These writings also reveal the thoughts and feelings of Anne Lindbergh as mother, wife, daughter, sister, and friend. She offers several observations on the roles of women in family, social arenas, professions, and home life. She encourages the roles of mother and wife while recognizing the need for time to be alone and follow creative pursuits that nurture inner spirituality. By choosing the format of letters and diary entries, Anne is able to give a collage of viewpoints on many aspects of a woman’s life, including family, friends, social obligations, nature, distant lands, and politics. She believes that women are the hub of a wheel with spokes reaching in many directions. Her writings demonstrate the multiple directions in which those spokes reach.

Context

Although published forty years after their original writing, these letters and diary entries carry great wisdom about the female experience. While the women’s movement has since passed through several stages, Anne Morrow Lindbergh’s philosophy and the issues discussed in The Flower and the Nettle are still relevant. She does not encourage radical shifts from the traditional roles of mother and wife. Rather, she offers means by which women can deal psychologically and emotionally with those roles while still being creative and productive individuals.

Lindbergh believes that women are quite capable of competing in the professional realm, but she does not encourage women to abandon the home and family in order to pursue careers. She acknowledges that many women are able to combine career and home life; however, she believes that by entering the professional world, women restrict themselves to a single line. By concentrating all efforts on professional goals, women sacrifice their “feminine” qualities, those attributes which offer women a variety of directions. Lindbergh believes that women have the capacity to exist in a realm of circles, to be receptive and sensitive in all directions. She sees the man’s world as a single path, while the woman’s world is at the hub of a wheel that reaches in many directions.

Women, says Lindbergh, have the quality to handle the “twisted-thread” life. Women should not limit themselves by specializing in a particular field, in a solitary strand. This specialization requires concentration and ruthlessness that often results in narrowness. The “twisted-thread” life, however, allows women to be multidimensional, flexible, and whole. With a strong sense of inner peace, women can hold together all the diverse strands that intertwine to form wholeness. They then become cores that radiate strength to others. To find that inner peace, she suggests simplifying life, rejecting too many time schedules, acquaintances, and possessions. Women must make time to be alone to pursue creative expression, to find a balance mentally, emotionally, and physically. Through writing, Lindbergh found her balance, and her writing radiates outward to influence others.

Bibliography

Herrmann, Dorothy. Anne Morrow Lindbergh: A Gift for Life. New York: Ticknor & Fields, 1992. A candid biography which seeks to answer some of the questions left open in Lindbergh’s letters and diaries. The book focuses more on Anne as an individual, rather than on her roles as Charles Lindbergh’s wife or Ambassador Dwight Morrow’s daughter.

Lindbergh, Anne Morrow. Bring Me a Unicorn: Diaries and Letters of Anne Morrow Lindbergh, 1922-1928. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1972. In this first of five volumes, Anne’s formative years are depicted. She writes as a schoolgirl and college student and as a member of a close-knit family. The journal ends with her meeting Charles Lindbergh in Mexico while vacationing with her family.

Lindbergh, Anne Morrow. Hour of Gold, Hour of Lead: Diaries and Letters of Anne Morrow Lindbergh, 1929-1932. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1973. This second volume covers the early years of marriage, in which the couple was thrown into the public’s eye because of Charles’s great success as an aviator. Their only time alone could be found in the air, so Anne learned to fly and to navigate planes. This book ends with the tragedy of the couple’s young son being kidnapped and killed.

Lindbergh, Anne Morrow. Locked Rooms and Open Doors: Diaries and Letters of Anne Morrow Lindbergh, 1933-1935. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1974. This volume reveals the partnership that Anne shared with Charles as he explored possible air routes across the Atlantic. The trip in a single-engine seaplane lasted five and a half months with Anne as copilot, navigator, radio operator, photographer, and log keeper. The book ends with the sea voyage from the United States to England as the couple moves to Europe in search of peace from the public’s eye.

Lindbergh, Anne Morrow. War Within and Without: Diaries and Letters of Anne Morrow Lindbergh, 1939-1944. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1980. In this final volume, Lindbergh describes the turmoil going on in the world during the war years. As a pacifist, she found the world situation extremely difficult. She and her husband did not share similar views about war, but they supported each other’s right to different perspectives. This volume also captures the torment caused by the negative and false publicity that was given to Charles: The same press that made him a hero seemed to take pleasure in downing him.

Vaughan, David Kirk. Anne Morrow Lindbergh. Boston: Twayne, 1988. A critical study of Lindbergh’s works, including a list of her numerous poems, articles, essays, prefaces, and reviews. Vaughan claims that critical evaluation of her written work is extremely scarce because each of her books differs greatly in genre from her previous pieces.