Description
First edition of Charles Lindbergh’s Of Flight and Life, inscribed to Connecticut Senator William Benton.
Twelvemo, viii, 56pp. Blue cloth, title printed on spine. The first printing with “Scribner’s A” on the copyright page. Solid text block, two ring marks on front panel of cloth. In the publisher’s dust jacket, $1.50 on front flap, short closed tear along lower edge of the front panel, light wear to corners and spine, a very good example.
Inscribed on the half-title: “To Bill and Helen Benton / with best wishes from / Charles A. Lindbergh / August 1948.”
William Benton (1900-1973) was a U.S. Senator from Connecticut from 1949 to 1953. A Yale graduate and co-founder of the advertising firm Benton & Bowles, he served as Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs (1945-1947) and was publisher of Encyclopedia Britannica. In the Senate, he introduced a resolution to expel Senator Joseph McCarthy and became a prominent opponent of McCarthyism. He lost reelection in 1952 to William A. Purtell.
