TLS signed “Charles A. Lindbergh,” one page, 8.5 x 10.75, April 5, 1940. Lindbergh writes from Huntington, New York to Albert Ebeling at Lederle Laboratories. In part: “I am sending under separate cover two books which you loaned to me several years ago. They were misplaced with our own books at the time we sailed for Europe in 1935, and I have just located them. I apologize for this long delay and hope that it has not caused you inconvenience. I just had a letter from Dr. Carrel which indicates that he may be coming over here in the near future. I suppose that his trip depends upon developments in France…. If Dr. Carrel comes over, I hope we can all meet in New York….” Ebeling was a close associate of vascular researcher Alexis Carrel (1873–1944), recipient of the 1912 Nobel Prize in Medicine. In the 1930s, Lindbergh’s mechanical inclinations led to a collaboration with Carrel on a book titled The Culture of Organs, as well as on the development of a “perfusion pump” which allowed human organs to survive outside the body—a crucial advance in the development of organ transplants and open-heart surgery. Despite the acclaim lavished upon Lindbergh and Carrel, who appeared together on the cover of Time magazine in June 1938, their respective legacies were forever clouded by intertwined controversies. At a time when the Nazi regime was becoming ever more blatant in its aims, Carrel, a devoted eugenicist, vigorously promoted the notion of genetic “superiority” among an elite group of intellectuals, going so far as to advocate the use of gas chambers to rid humanity of “inferior” stock. During World War II, moreover, he was closely allied with a prominent collaborationist party in France and implemented a number of policies believed to have resulted in the execution of countless “defectives.” Carrel’s ties with Lindbergh only added fuel to the persistent, lifelong accusations of anti-Semitism against the flier, which would forever sully his image as an aviation hero. Accompanied by the original mailing envelope. In very fine condition. R&R COA.
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