WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.960 Picture this, right? It's the summer of 1927. 00:00:03.160 --> 00:00:05.919 A very wild summer. Oh, absolutely. Because you've 00:00:05.919 --> 00:00:09.919 got this 25 -year -old former US airmail pilot 00:00:09.919 --> 00:00:13.220 named Charles Lindbergh, and he has just pulled 00:00:13.220 --> 00:00:18.000 off the literal impossible. The first solo, nonstop 00:00:18.000 --> 00:00:22.339 transatlantic flight, New York to Paris. Exactly. 00:00:22.579 --> 00:00:24.940 And, you know, because of that, the entire world 00:00:24.940 --> 00:00:27.239 is just completely obsessed with him. Every newspaper 00:00:27.239 --> 00:00:30.179 is screaming his name. Right. And here's where 00:00:30.179 --> 00:00:32.539 it gets interesting behind closed doors. He is 00:00:32.539 --> 00:00:35.399 locked in this bitter, fiercely contested battle 00:00:35.399 --> 00:00:37.759 with his own publisher. Right, which is just 00:00:37.759 --> 00:00:40.240 this stunning contrast. You know, you have a 00:00:40.240 --> 00:00:43.259 public ravenous for a hero and a media machine 00:00:43.259 --> 00:00:45.719 desperate to package him. But the hero himself 00:00:45.719 --> 00:00:48.460 is like actively fighting the very machine that's 00:00:48.460 --> 00:00:50.500 trying to build him up. OK, let's unpack this. 00:00:50.859 --> 00:00:52.960 because this is the core of our deep dive today. 00:00:53.100 --> 00:00:55.039 Yeah, it's a fascinating story. It really is. 00:00:55.259 --> 00:00:56.939 We are thrilled to have you, the listener, with 00:00:56.939 --> 00:00:59.020 us today as we dive into the provided source 00:00:59.020 --> 00:01:01.619 text. Our mission here is to explore the frantic, 00:01:01.939 --> 00:01:03.979 highly dramatic production of one of history's 00:01:03.979 --> 00:01:06.700 fastest and most successful autobiographies. 00:01:06.799 --> 00:01:10.500 The book We. Yes, We. It is a total masterclass 00:01:10.500 --> 00:01:14.239 in how sudden overnight success is managed, pappaged, 00:01:14.420 --> 00:01:16.819 and sometimes, well, fiercely protected by the 00:01:16.819 --> 00:01:18.890 creator. To really get the sheer velocity of 00:01:18.890 --> 00:01:20.950 this story, we kind of need to ground ourselves 00:01:20.950 --> 00:01:23.670 in the basic timeline first. Right, set the stage 00:01:23.670 --> 00:01:27.510 for us. Just imagine a 1920s aviation hangar, 00:01:27.510 --> 00:01:30.180 you know. blueprints of a single -engine monoplane 00:01:30.180 --> 00:01:33.120 scattered around, old telegrams, maybe a vintage 00:01:33.120 --> 00:01:35.500 typewriter in the corner. That's the vibe. I 00:01:35.500 --> 00:01:38.200 love that visual. So the historic flight itself 00:01:38.200 --> 00:01:41.840 took place on May 20th and 21st, 1927. And the 00:01:41.840 --> 00:01:44.180 custom -built Ryan monoplane, right? The spirit 00:01:44.180 --> 00:01:46.799 of St. Louis. That's the precipitating event. 00:01:47.120 --> 00:01:49.579 But here is the timeline that is just staggering. 00:01:49.840 --> 00:01:52.859 Just 57 days after he landed in Paris. Wait, 00:01:53.000 --> 00:01:57.500 57 days? 57 days. On July 27, 1927, his auto— 00:01:57.390 --> 00:02:00.250 biography, We, was officially published by G 00:02:00.250 --> 00:02:02.790 .P. Putnam's sons. That turnaround time is almost 00:02:02.790 --> 00:02:05.299 impossible to comprehend. I mean, from stepping 00:02:05.299 --> 00:02:07.519 out of a cockpit in Paris running on zero sleep 00:02:07.519 --> 00:02:10.159 to having a fully published hardcover autobiography 00:02:10.159 --> 00:02:12.879 on bookstore shelves. Yeah, and Putnam's was 00:02:12.879 --> 00:02:15.460 a major New York publishing house. It was run 00:02:15.460 --> 00:02:18.780 by George P. Putnam, who, side note, actually 00:02:18.780 --> 00:02:21.560 later promoted and married Amelia Earhart. Oh, 00:02:21.560 --> 00:02:24.039 right. So the guy clearly knew exactly how to 00:02:24.039 --> 00:02:26.719 capitalize on an aviation frenzy. He absolutely 00:02:26.719 --> 00:02:29.580 did. But to really understand this book, we first 00:02:29.580 --> 00:02:32.300 have to look at the massive gap between what 00:02:32.300 --> 00:02:34.650 the public thought they were buying and what 00:02:34.650 --> 00:02:37.069 Lindbergh actually wrote. Right, the expectations 00:02:37.069 --> 00:02:40.129 versus reality. Exactly. And that disconnects, 00:02:40.129 --> 00:02:42.030 it starts before you even open the cover. It 00:02:42.030 --> 00:02:44.330 starts with the title itself. Just that one word, 00:02:44.389 --> 00:02:47.710 we -e, capital W, capital E. Yeah, and the publisher 00:02:47.710 --> 00:02:50.250 was totally steering the narrative there. Without 00:02:50.250 --> 00:02:52.129 Lindbergh's knowledge, they chose that title. 00:02:52.289 --> 00:02:55.030 Which is wild to me. Right. And on the dust jacket, 00:02:55.210 --> 00:02:57.949 the publisher claimed that this flying pronoun 00:02:57.949 --> 00:03:01.250 referred to a, and I quote, spiritual partnership 00:03:01.250 --> 00:03:04.340 between Lindbergh and his airplane. Wow. They 00:03:04.340 --> 00:03:06.659 were really painting this poetic, romantic picture 00:03:06.659 --> 00:03:10.360 of man and machine, you know, braving the icy 00:03:10.360 --> 00:03:12.919 transatlantic night together as a single soul. 00:03:13.139 --> 00:03:15.699 It sounds profound, sure, great marketing, but 00:03:15.699 --> 00:03:18.960 Lindbergh absolutely hated it. I bet. He wasn't 00:03:18.960 --> 00:03:21.159 that guy at all. Not even a little. When he used 00:03:21.159 --> 00:03:23.539 the word we, he wasn't talking about the airplane 00:03:23.539 --> 00:03:27.020 having a soul. He meant himself and his financial 00:03:27.020 --> 00:03:29.539 backers in St. Louis who literally funded the 00:03:29.539 --> 00:03:33.000 trip. Which is just so literal. And this is the 00:03:33.000 --> 00:03:35.560 most glaring irony of the entire source material, 00:03:35.759 --> 00:03:38.639 honestly. The public is buying this book. They 00:03:38.639 --> 00:03:42.180 are ravenous for the gripping, inside story of 00:03:42.180 --> 00:03:44.780 the most famous flight in human history. And 00:03:44.780 --> 00:03:48.840 the book is 318 pages long. Right. But take a 00:03:48.840 --> 00:03:51.020 guess, how many pages actually cover the legendary 00:03:51.020 --> 00:03:55.180 flight? Well, it's shockingly low. 18. Just 18 00:03:55.180 --> 00:03:58.900 pages out of 318. Pages 213 to 230, that's it. 00:03:59.000 --> 00:04:01.300 It's crazy. I was thinking about this. And it's 00:04:01.300 --> 00:04:04.060 like buying a highly anticipated cookbook from 00:04:04.060 --> 00:04:06.539 a world famous baker, right? Okay, yeah. You 00:04:06.539 --> 00:04:09.080 rush it home, you crack it open, and 90 % of 00:04:09.080 --> 00:04:11.819 the book is just about the baker's childhood, 00:04:12.020 --> 00:04:13.939 their time in school, some random jobs they had. 00:04:13.960 --> 00:04:16.180 Right, right. And there is only a single page 00:04:16.180 --> 00:04:18.879 tucked at the very back containing the actual 00:04:18.879 --> 00:04:21.120 recipe you bought the book for. That is a perfect 00:04:21.120 --> 00:04:23.800 analogy, because the rest of A .E. is entirely 00:04:23.800 --> 00:04:28.120 about his early life, his stunt flying, and four 00:04:28.120 --> 00:04:30.060 emergency parachute jumps he had to make. And 00:04:30.060 --> 00:04:32.459 he didn't even write a full book about the actual 00:04:32.459 --> 00:04:34.980 flight until 1953, right? The Spirit of St. Luke. 00:04:35.100 --> 00:04:38.899 Exactly. 26 years later. But back in 1927, to 00:04:38.899 --> 00:04:41.180 fill out this volume, the publisher had to heavily 00:04:41.180 --> 00:04:44.459 pad it out. How did they manage that? They included 00:04:44.459 --> 00:04:46.839 an impassioned foreword by the U .S. Ambassador 00:04:46.839 --> 00:04:49.920 to France, Myron T. Herrick. And then they tacked 00:04:49.920 --> 00:04:53.800 on this massive 85 -page appendix by an editor 00:04:53.800 --> 00:04:57.860 named Fitzhugh Green. 85 pages. Yeah, just describing 00:04:57.860 --> 00:05:01.019 the world's reaction to the flight parades and 00:05:01.019 --> 00:05:03.100 stuff. What's fascinating here is how the critics 00:05:03.100 --> 00:05:05.889 picked up on this disconnect immediately. The 00:05:05.889 --> 00:05:08.149 source text highlights a review by Horace Green 00:05:08.149 --> 00:05:10.550 that perfectly captures it. Oh, yes. He noted 00:05:10.550 --> 00:05:12.910 that Lindbergh had, quote, no imagination in 00:05:12.910 --> 00:05:15.350 the personal sense, but great imagination in 00:05:15.350 --> 00:05:17.850 the mechanical sense. I love that phrasing. Yeah, 00:05:17.990 --> 00:05:20.449 he said Lindbergh's mind works without embroidery. 00:05:20.810 --> 00:05:23.149 Without embroidery. That right there is the pivotal 00:05:23.149 --> 00:05:25.750 phrase for this entire deep dive. It really is. 00:05:25.930 --> 00:05:27.949 Because a mind that works without embroidery 00:05:27.949 --> 00:05:31.589 is going to violently clash with a publishing 00:05:31.589 --> 00:05:33.910 industry that is built entirely on embroidery. 00:05:34.290 --> 00:05:36.310 Precisely. Because if you read those 18 pages, 00:05:36.610 --> 00:05:39.509 they aren't sweeping prose about the human spirit. 00:05:39.649 --> 00:05:42.250 They read like a technical flight log. Altitude 00:05:42.250 --> 00:05:44.870 readings? Fuel consumption. Yeah. Ice forming 00:05:44.870 --> 00:05:48.269 on the struts. Raw data. Which leads us to the 00:05:48.269 --> 00:05:51.230 whole ghostwriter rebellion. Right. Because if 00:05:51.230 --> 00:05:53.779 you've got 57 days to publish a book, And your 00:05:53.779 --> 00:05:55.899 author writes like a flight manual. You don't 00:05:55.899 --> 00:05:58.699 wait for him to draft his memoirs. You manufacture 00:05:58.699 --> 00:06:02.360 it. Exactly. While Lindbergh is busy being feeded 00:06:02.360 --> 00:06:05.000 in Washington, New York and St. Louis, Putnam 00:06:05.000 --> 00:06:07.220 hires a New York Times reporter, J. Carlisle 00:06:07.220 --> 00:06:09.660 MacDonald, to ghostwrite the book. And MacDonald 00:06:09.660 --> 00:06:11.540 actually had incredible access to him, didn't 00:06:11.540 --> 00:06:14.339 he? He did. He interviewed Lindbergh in Paris 00:06:14.339 --> 00:06:16.240 and he even traveled with him on the six -day 00:06:16.240 --> 00:06:18.980 trip back to the U .S. on the Navy cruiser USS 00:06:18.980 --> 00:06:21.579 Memphis. So Putnam sets MacDonald up in a house 00:06:21.579 --> 00:06:24.250 in Rye, New York. with a whole staff of secretaries. 00:06:24.389 --> 00:06:26.829 Just to churn out this manuscript. And they did. 00:06:27.110 --> 00:06:29.870 A full galley proof was ready in just two weeks. 00:06:30.350 --> 00:06:34.230 Two weeks. A publisher's dream. But when they 00:06:34.230 --> 00:06:37.029 slide this manuscript across the desk, Lindbergh 00:06:37.029 --> 00:06:39.120 reads it. and he just completely rejects it. 00:06:39.240 --> 00:06:42.060 He felt it was cheaply done and riddled with 00:06:42.060 --> 00:06:44.540 factual errors. And he hated the tone, too. He 00:06:44.540 --> 00:06:46.540 said it was written in a false, fawning tone. 00:06:46.800 --> 00:06:49.600 Yeah. Decades later, he called it a smarmy, awestruck 00:06:49.600 --> 00:06:52.220 style. Poor imitation of Will Rogers. OK, wait. 00:06:52.279 --> 00:06:54.079 Let me play devil's advocate here for a second. 00:06:54.279 --> 00:06:57.000 Sure, go for it. We have to consider his reality 00:06:57.000 --> 00:07:01.319 in that exact moment. He's 25. He has a guaranteed 00:07:01.319 --> 00:07:03.399 instant bestseller handed to him on a silver 00:07:03.399 --> 00:07:06.410 platter. Right. The work is done. Exactly. All 00:07:06.410 --> 00:07:08.649 he has to do is shrug, sign his name, and collect 00:07:08.649 --> 00:07:12.720 a fortune. By rejecting it... and delaying publication, 00:07:13.319 --> 00:07:15.959 wasn't he taking a massive risk? A huge risk. 00:07:16.360 --> 00:07:18.540 I mean, the public is notoriously fickle. Wasn't 00:07:18.540 --> 00:07:20.939 it incredibly dangerous to assume the world would 00:07:20.939 --> 00:07:22.699 just patiently wait for him while he moved on 00:07:22.699 --> 00:07:24.639 to the next shiny thing? That is the logical 00:07:24.639 --> 00:07:27.180 assumption for anyone seeking fame, definitely. 00:07:27.379 --> 00:07:29.560 Right. But if we connect this to the bigger picture, 00:07:30.040 --> 00:07:33.040 fame wasn't his primary motivator. Absolute accuracy 00:07:33.040 --> 00:07:35.180 was. Because of his military training, right? 00:07:35.199 --> 00:07:38.379 Exactly. The text points directly to this. In 00:07:38.379 --> 00:07:42.639 the book, Lindberg credits his 1924 to 1925 U 00:07:42.639 --> 00:07:44.779 .S. Army flight training at Brooks and Kelly 00:07:44.779 --> 00:07:48.259 fields as the key to his focused, goal -oriented 00:07:48.259 --> 00:07:50.899 nature. So that military discipline really shaped 00:07:50.899 --> 00:07:53.720 him. It did. The Army -trained aviator just couldn't 00:07:53.720 --> 00:07:56.180 put his name on something inaccurate, even for 00:07:56.180 --> 00:07:59.360 easy money. To him, a factual error in a book 00:07:59.360 --> 00:08:02.180 was like a loose bolt on an airplane. It's fundamentally 00:08:02.180 --> 00:08:05.589 unsafe. I love that. So he rejects the easy path. 00:08:05.870 --> 00:08:07.990 But he is still contractually obligated to deliver 00:08:07.990 --> 00:08:10.470 a book by July. Right. Putnam had already started 00:08:10.470 --> 00:08:12.850 hyping up a July release. Which leads to this 00:08:12.850 --> 00:08:14.790 great moment with the editor, Fitzhugh Green. 00:08:15.170 --> 00:08:17.250 Green basically tells him, look, it is your book. 00:08:17.410 --> 00:08:19.050 We wouldn't want to publish it if it weren't. 00:08:19.069 --> 00:08:20.750 Basically saying, if you don't like it, you write 00:08:20.750 --> 00:08:23.490 it. Exactly. And this triggers an astonishing 00:08:23.490 --> 00:08:26.389 feat of solo endurance from Lindberg. It really 00:08:26.389 --> 00:08:28.750 mirrors his solo flight. He drops completely 00:08:28.750 --> 00:08:31.110 out of the public eye, right? Yeah, he retreats 00:08:31.110 --> 00:08:33.590 to Falaise, which was the Long Island mansion 00:08:33.590 --> 00:08:36.190 of this aviation promoter, Harry Frank Guggenheim. 00:08:36.450 --> 00:08:38.850 And he just locks himself away. Working in complete 00:08:38.850 --> 00:08:42.159 solitude. He painstakingly re -rates the entire 00:08:42.159 --> 00:08:45.340 book in longhand in less than three weeks. Less 00:08:45.340 --> 00:08:48.720 than three weeks, by hand. The mechanics of this 00:08:48.720 --> 00:08:51.460 are just fascinating to me. He used blue ink, 00:08:52.000 --> 00:08:55.679 a fountain pen, and plain 8x10 white bond paper. 00:08:55.820 --> 00:08:58.519 Very specific tools. Yeah, and because he's under 00:08:58.519 --> 00:09:02.080 contract to hit 40 ,000 words, he was actually 00:09:02.080 --> 00:09:04.759 counting his words. at the top of every single 00:09:04.759 --> 00:09:07.080 handwritten page to make sure he hit the limit. 00:09:07.279 --> 00:09:09.879 Doing the math on the margins. Exactly. Outside, 00:09:10.139 --> 00:09:12.720 he's a global phenomenon and inside, he's just 00:09:12.720 --> 00:09:14.990 doing long division to hit a word count. It is 00:09:14.990 --> 00:09:17.309 the ultimate testament to his work ethic and 00:09:17.309 --> 00:09:19.610 the release ended up being a commercial juggernaut 00:09:19.610 --> 00:09:22.190 anyway. Oh totally. The stats are wild. It sold 00:09:22.190 --> 00:09:25.250 over 190 ,000 copies in just the first six weeks. 00:09:25.450 --> 00:09:28.809 At $2 .50 each. Right. Plus they did a limited 00:09:28.809 --> 00:09:31.509 edition of a thousand autographed copies for 00:09:31.509 --> 00:09:34.250 $25 each. Which is a ton of money back then. 00:09:34.570 --> 00:09:38.490 Oh absolutely. And it sold over 650 ,000 copies 00:09:38.490 --> 00:09:41.269 in the first year alone. Earned him like a quarter 00:09:41.269 --> 00:09:43.500 of a million dollars in royalties. But the book 00:09:43.500 --> 00:09:45.960 was really just phase one. Phase two was the 00:09:45.960 --> 00:09:49.419 mega tour. Yes. Sponsored by the Daniel Guggenheim 00:09:49.419 --> 00:09:52.779 Fund. Lindbergh takes the spirit of St. Louis 00:09:52.779 --> 00:09:55.679 on this unprecedented three month tour of the 00:09:55.679 --> 00:10:00.320 U .S. From July 20th to October 23rd, 1927. And 00:10:00.320 --> 00:10:02.679 the scale of this is just unmatched. Do you have 00:10:02.679 --> 00:10:05.220 the numbers on this right? I do. It is staggering. 00:10:05.620 --> 00:10:10.559 He visited 82 cities. Wow. landed in all 48 states, 00:10:11.220 --> 00:10:15.940 delivered 147 speeches, and rode 1 ,290 miles 00:10:15.940 --> 00:10:18.320 in parades. That sounds exhausting. And here's 00:10:18.320 --> 00:10:20.700 the kicker. He was seen by an estimated 30 million 00:10:20.700 --> 00:10:22.600 Americans. Okay, here's where it gets really 00:10:22.600 --> 00:10:25.120 interesting for me. 30 million Americans. That 00:10:25.120 --> 00:10:27.620 was a quarter of the entire U .S. population 00:10:27.620 --> 00:10:30.039 at the time. One in four people saw him. It's 00:10:30.039 --> 00:10:32.519 the 1920s equivalent of going viral globally 00:10:32.519 --> 00:10:35.399 and then immediately launching a massive, perfectly 00:10:35.399 --> 00:10:38.879 executed 48 -state stadium tour to sell your 00:10:38.879 --> 00:10:41.679 merch. It really is. I mean, no author before 00:10:41.679 --> 00:10:44.139 or since has ever had a promotional tour quite 00:10:44.139 --> 00:10:46.299 like this. And we have to look at the synergy 00:10:46.299 --> 00:10:48.440 between the book and the tour here. The book 00:10:48.440 --> 00:10:50.600 wasn't just an autobiography to him. What was 00:10:50.600 --> 00:10:54.519 it then? A manifesto. Basically. It was a highly 00:10:54.519 --> 00:10:57.399 calculated tool to achieve his stated life goal, 00:10:57.679 --> 00:11:00.340 which was the advancement and promotion of commercial 00:11:00.340 --> 00:11:02.960 aeronautics. Because before Lindbergh, the public 00:11:02.960 --> 00:11:05.379 thought flying was just for daredevils. Exactly. 00:11:05.879 --> 00:11:09.500 Barnstormers, stunt pilots. It was seen as incredibly 00:11:09.500 --> 00:11:12.980 dangerous. Lindbergh used this book and this 00:11:12.980 --> 00:11:16.200 massive tour as a massive product demonstration. 00:11:16.320 --> 00:11:18.240 Showing that commercial aviation could be safe 00:11:18.240 --> 00:11:21.220 and reliable. Right. He arrived on schedule day 00:11:21.220 --> 00:11:24.340 after day in all 48 states without crashing. 00:11:24.620 --> 00:11:27.299 Proving that an airplane is a viable way to travel 00:11:27.299 --> 00:11:29.779 from point A to point B. And it worked. The tour 00:11:29.779 --> 00:11:32.200 forced cities to build airports just so he could 00:11:32.200 --> 00:11:35.009 land. It basically jump started the modern airline 00:11:35.009 --> 00:11:37.490 industry. So what does this all mean when we 00:11:37.490 --> 00:11:40.529 bring it back to the text? The story of we is 00:11:40.529 --> 00:11:43.350 really a profound testament to an individual's 00:11:43.350 --> 00:11:46.470 obsession with control and accuracy from his 00:11:46.470 --> 00:11:49.429 flat out rejection of a smarmy ghostwritten manuscript 00:11:49.429 --> 00:11:53.029 to his meticulous handwritten pages counted one 00:11:53.029 --> 00:11:56.029 by one in blue ink right down to the grueling 00:11:56.029 --> 00:11:59.110 logistics of an 82 city tour. He was as precise 00:11:59.110 --> 00:12:01.809 with his brand as he was with his airplane. Exactly. 00:12:02.080 --> 00:12:04.500 And I think for you, our listener, there is a 00:12:04.500 --> 00:12:07.299 really relevant takeaway here. We live in an 00:12:07.299 --> 00:12:10.539 era heavily saturated with AI -generated content, 00:12:11.019 --> 00:12:13.399 ghostwritten celebrity memoirs, and manicured 00:12:13.399 --> 00:12:16.409 PR statements. It's everywhere. It is. But the 00:12:16.409 --> 00:12:20.789 story of Wee proves that true authenticity, a 00:12:20.789 --> 00:12:23.250 mind that works without embroidery, even if it 00:12:23.250 --> 00:12:25.809 delays the product and lacks poetic flair, it 00:12:25.809 --> 00:12:27.909 ultimately resonates much longer and louder with 00:12:27.909 --> 00:12:30.289 the public. I couldn't agree more. You think 00:12:30.289 --> 00:12:32.450 about this before we wrap up. What if Lindbergh 00:12:32.450 --> 00:12:35.509 had just sighed? and accepted that first ghostwritten 00:12:35.509 --> 00:12:37.970 manuscript. Oh, man. The public would have absorbed 00:12:37.970 --> 00:12:40.769 a totally manufactured awshucks version of this 00:12:40.769 --> 00:12:43.049 man as historical fact. They wouldn't have known 00:12:43.049 --> 00:12:45.090 any better. Exactly. It really makes you wonder 00:12:45.090 --> 00:12:47.690 how many other historical icons we only know 00:12:47.690 --> 00:12:50.629 through the false, fawning tone of a ghostwriter 00:12:50.629 --> 00:12:52.789 whose draft was never thrown in the trash. That 00:12:52.789 --> 00:12:54.909 is a very unsettling thought. Just something 00:12:54.909 --> 00:12:57.679 to chew on. But that is all the time we have 00:12:57.679 --> 00:12:59.759 for today. Thank you so much for joining us on 00:12:59.759 --> 00:13:03.159 this deep dive into 1927. It's been a blast. 00:13:03.360 --> 00:13:05.279 It really has. Keep questioning the narratives 00:13:05.279 --> 00:13:07.379 out there and we will see you next time.