“Science, freedom, beauty, adventure: what more could you ask of life?”
"We" (1927) is Lindbergh's own firsthand account of his life as a pilot and of the transatlantic flight that made history, published by G. P. Putnam's Sons just weeks after he landed in Paris. Written in a matter of weeks, it became one of the fastest-selling nonfiction books of its era, with hundreds of thousands of copies in print within the first year.
Hearing "We" in Lindbergh's own restored voice closes the distance between reader and aviator. This is the man himself describing the fight against sleep, the fog, and the empty hours over open water — the story told the way only the person who lived it could tell it.
Charles Augustus Lindbergh (1902–1974) was an American aviator who became one of the most famous people on Earth overnight. On May 20–21, 1927, the 25-year-old airmail pilot flew the single-engine monoplane Spirit of St. Louis alone and nonstop from Long Island to Paris — roughly 3,600 miles across the Atlantic in about 33½ hours — winning the Orteig Prize and igniting a worldwide mania for flight.
The flight transformed a quiet Midwesterner into a global symbol of nerve and engineering daring. Lindbergh's later life ran through triumph and tragedy alike — the 1932 kidnapping and murder of his infant son, bitter prewar political controversy, and decades of conservation and aviation advocacy. But it is the lone voice of the young flier, recounting the silence and danger above the ocean, that still grips listeners.
This recording restores Charles Lindbergh's voice from his real archival recordings — the newsreel interviews, radio addresses, and public speeches captured during his lifetime — to narrate the text of "We". It is a reconstruction built from genuine documentation of how Lindbergh actually sounded; it is not a live performance, and it does not claim to be Lindbergh speaking today.
Provenance: Restored from real recordings. We label every voice honestly — restored, narrated, or disputed.
Lindbergh had a measured, plainspoken Midwestern American voice — unhurried and understated, more engineer than orator. He was recorded many times in newsreels, radio addresses, and speeches, which is what makes a faithful restoration of his voice possible.
It is a restoration built from his genuine archival recordings, used to narrate the text of "We." It is designed to be true to how he actually sounded. It is not a new live recording of Lindbergh, and we never claim it is him speaking today.
Yes. "We" was published in 1927, placing it in the United States public domain, which is why we are able to offer this audiobook edition of the text.
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