CAPTIVA ISLAND, Fla. (Feb. 6, 2005) – A 50th anniversary edition of Anne Morrow Lindbergh’s locally-inspired, best-selling book, “Gift from the Sea,” will be launched at a book-signing event with the author’s daughter, Reeve Lindbergh, on February 22 on Captiva Island, Florida.

The 50th anniversary edition includes a new introduction by Reeve Lindbergh, award-winning author and daughter of Charles A. and Anne Morrow Lindbergh. The special edition is being published by Pantheon Books, a subsidiary of Random House Inc.

After its initial publication in 1955, “Gift from the Sea” remained on the New York Times best-seller list for an entire year. More than three million copies of “Gift from the Sea” have been sold during the past 50 years, and it has been translated into 25 foreign languages. It continues to sell well today in several formats, including hard-cover, paperback, large-print and audiobook.

“Even though ‘Gift from the Sea’ was published 50 years ago, it is remarkable how relevant people still find it today,” said Southwest Florida resident Margaret Eiluned Morgan, niece of Charles A. and Anne Morrow Lindbergh and coordinator of the book-signing. “The book’s focus on the importance of time for oneself amidst all the competing pressures of family, work and community still strikes a chord for many in today’s society.”

The book-signing will be held from 4:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. at the Captiva Island Inn at 11509 Andy Rosse Lane on Captiva Island. The event is open to the public, and there is no admission fee. Copies of the 50th anniversary edition of “Gift from the Sea” will be available for purchase for $16.00. Other books by Anne Morrow Lindbergh also will be available for purchase, as well as books authored by Reeve Lindbergh.

“It’s quite appropriate to be celebrating this book, with its ‘renewal’ theme, at a time when Captiva Island is recovering from last hurricane season,” Morgan said. “We hope people will come out for the book-signing, then take a walk on the beach, stay to see the sunset and enjoy dinner at one of the island's fine restaurants. We hope as admirers of my aunt's book reconnect with their favorite passages, they will also reconnect with the beauty of Captiva and the very special spirit of the Captiva community.

In addition to the February book-signing, a week-long “Gift from the Sea” 50th Anniversary Festival will be held on Captiva Island in November 2005, with a theme of “Celebrating 50 years of Wisdom, Insight and Inspiration: 1955-2005.” The festival will celebrate the book’s anniversary through a variety of artistic and cultural events, including an invitational art show, a Taste of Captiva culinary event and the annual Lindbergh Symposium.

The February book-signing and the November festival are being presented by The Earth Shine Institute, a supporting organization of The Charles A. and Anne Morrow Lindbergh Foundation. The Earth Shine Institute presents educational and cultural programs in Southwest Florida that further the vision of Charles A. and Anne Morrow Lindbergh. For more information, visit www.earthshineinstitute.com.

Additional Comments From Margaret Eiluned Morgan on the Variety of Readers Who Enjoy “Gift from the Sea”:

The book’s message is a remarkably enduring one and attracts readers across a wide range of interests: nature, spirituality, biography, women’s writing, beach and seashore, Florida writers, etc. A wide variety of readers respond to it: girls as young as 10 enjoy it; often it is given as graduation gift or coming of age gift to girls (sometimes as a family tradition from one generation to the next); Buddhists read it as an inspirational text as well as many church groups; caregivers, hospital workers, therapists and many under stress find it useful for balancing their own stressful lives; vacationers to Florida and other beaches read it as a “beach book”; it is read at weddings, funerals, birthdays, and graduation ceremonies.

Excerpt from 50th Anniversary Edition Introduction by Reeve Lindbergh:

“Her book offers its readers, finally an extraordinary kind of freedom, and I think this is the reason it continues to be so well loved, and so well read, after all these years. I am talking about the freedom that comes when one chooses to remain open, as my mother did again and again, to life itself, whatever it may bring: joys, sorrows, triumphs, failures, suffering, comfort, and above all, always, change.”