Bring Me a Unicorn: Diaries and Letters of Anne Morrow Lindbergh, 1922-1928

Anne Morrow Lindbergh looked to the sky long before she met Charles Augustus Lindbergh. Cloudscapes as pastel vistas; marvelling at the wings of a gull in flight; nights lying in bed, looking straight up through a tree to the celestial panorama overhead. A young girl's vision of her future? In "Bring Me A Unicorn, the Diaries and Letters of Anne Morrow Lindbergh, 1922 - 1928", we get to meet the joyful, sweet adolescent, and watch her grow into the young, mature woman, she quickly becomes.One marvels in seeing her through her own eyes... ...eyes that are discerning: artful, considerate, contemplative, and forever searching. Eyes that are always examining her "new" and hidden self, for some inner truth. She reflects upon her "arrival," lacking confidence at first, before finding herself expressed within the petals of lavender flowers:"I kept looking at the flowers in a vase near me: lavender sweet peas, fragile winged and yet so still, so perfectly poised, apart, and complete. They are self-sufficient, a world in themselves, a whole--perfect. Is that then, perfection? Is what those sweet peas had what I have, occasionally in moments like that? But flowers always have it--poise, completion, fulfillment, perfection; I only occasionally, like that moment. For that moment I and the sweet peas had an understanding." Daughter of Dwight Morrow, U.S. Ambassador to Mexico, Anne was living in an upper-class world of regal elegance, and experiencing that world in style. Anne describes a dinner on board J.P. Morgan's steamer "Corsair", with the great man himself greeting her and the Morrow family at the ship's entrance."The joy of being there almost invisible in this sparkling world, able to watch and listen to the most brilliant, charming men in the world, and a sense of the utmost fairy-tale luxury--everything done in exciting, magnificant style, so much grander than a party of young people." Anne then travels to Mexico City, where her father serves as U.S. Ambassador to Mexico. On the eve of destiny, she ascends a staircase and turns toward the receiving line that awaits her and her family, where she sees "him" for the first time:"I saw standing against the great stone pillar--on more red plush--a tall, slim boy in evening dress--so much slimmer, so much taller, so much more poised than I expected. A very refined face, not at all like those grinning 'Lindy' pictures--a firm mouth, clear, straight blue eyes, fair hair, and nice color. Then I went down the line very confused and overwhelmed by it all. He did not smile--just bowed and shook hands."Awkwardness sets in, as the mature young woman disappears, and the young waif returns anew, seeking one moment, her entrance; the next, her exit; and thereafter, a direction on a parallel course with his life. This lanky boy, over whom most fawn in adulation, is a curiousity:"He is very, very young and was terribly shy--looked straight ahead and talked in shor

I first read this book when I was sixteen and it touched me in ways I could not explain. When I suffered through a tragedy last year Anne Lindbergh's writings helped me survive I can never thank her. But I can encourage you to read this book and experience life through her young but wise eyes