TLS signed “Charles A. Lindbergh,” one page, 8.5 x 11, October 23, 1939. Letter to John Zwick in Long Island. Lindbergh congratulates Zwick on a successful demonstration of a mechanical heart apparatus and is regretful he could not see it in person. He writes, in part: “I would like very much to have seen the apparatus you installed at the Fair but, contrary to press reports, I have not even had a chance to get inside the gates, and I have only been to the Institute on one or two occasions since I arrived home last April.
I have to leave for Washington again within the next day or two and don’t see how I will be able to go to the Fair before it closes for the year. As you know, there are a number of complications to my going to the Fairgrounds aside from finding the necessary time. My wife went in for a visit last summer and encountered a very disagreeable experience with a press photographer in the Art Building which caused her to return without going further. Dr. Carrel told me of the exhibit …and, from his description, you must be doing a good job in demonstrating.” In very good condition, with intersecting folds, some scattered light irregular toning, a paperclip impression to top left edge, and several creases.
Long before the word ‘paparazzi’ became part of the mainstream vocabulary, Lindbergh and his family were constantly faced with a meddlesome press that often prevented them from pursuits others took for granted. Yet that fame allowed Lindbergh other perks, such as access to the physician referenced here, Alexis Carrel, who had co-authored a book with the legendary aviator entitled The Culture of Organs. He also worked with Lindbergh in the mid-1930s to create the ‘perfusion pump,’ a device that allowed living organs to exist outside of the body during surgery and one that is seen as being a crucial step in the development of open-heart surgery and organ transplant.
Lindbergh’s interest in medical technology can be traced to the 1929 diagnosis of his sister-in-law with rheumatic heart disease. At the time, the disease carried a poor prognosis, as surgeons were unable to operate on a beating heart. Once Lindbergh learned that the lack of the surgeon’s ability to provide artificial mechanical means of circulating oxygenated blood prevented a cure, he made up his mind to design a pump capable of circulating blood through the body while the heart was being repaired. Unique content on a subject not typically associated with the famed aviator. Pre-certified PSA/DNA and RRAuction COA.
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