THE PARIS EDITION: The Autobiography of Waverley Root 1927-1934

The 20's and 30's were great times to be in Paris and Root writes about his life and times there with the pleasure and panache of a person who missed little and enjoyed himself hugely. Root left New York on a whim and in Paris took a job on the Chicago Tribune's Paris edition. His acquaintances were limited at first (Tribune publisher Colonel Robert McCormack, for one), but his circle soon broadened to include writers, artists and other denizens of the Left Bank. the Dome, The Select and other famous watering holes. His books on food would later make him famous and his descriptions of restaurants, menus, dishes and prices are a major delight here--painful too, for where can one now dine sumptuously for 35¢ ? The newspaper became the center of Root's Paris life, and he informs us here of his lively, literate and thoroughly sociable circle of co-workers and friends with both humor and piquancy. Some Paris Trib hog-carriers of the day--Henry Miller for one--later became famous; many of Root's group--Hemingway, Stein, Lewis, Thurber, Shirer--were eagerly circling fame, and Root measures their pluses and minuses with a clear yet kindly eye. Sauntering through Les Halles or frequenting a cheap restaurant, hearing the impassioned voices of the age, the reader is enamored and titillated. There's a little corner of Paris in everybody, and Root's fetching re-creation makes falling in love with the City of Light delightful anew.