THE MAN WHO COULD GROW HAIR: Or Inside Andorra

by William Attwood ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 7, 1949

A newspaperman abroad -- with an eye for the nonsensical -- writes of the funny to curious experiences he had during 1946- 1948 with a great deal of pokerfaced humor... and some touches of great wrath. These are the personal stories behind his dispatches to the New York Herald Tribune, his more than bowing acquaintance with Communist and Socialist reporters of all nationalities, his highly unusual assignments. A bachelor, he was outside man for HT, and these incidents come from Paris, Poitiers, the French Sudan, West Africa, a trip with Russell Hill to Finland, Poland, Germany, Slovakia, Austria, etc., etc. Covering the new laws against prostitution necessitates covering the whorehouses and discussing the situation with the madames and the girls; assigned to a political junket with Premier Schuman, he learns of the qualities of wine, old cemeteries, and maroons; with President Auriel, he eats his way through native feasts, fights a bike, reprimands musicians, and learns what it is like to fly with the French Air Force; he follows the course of M. Villa's attempts to grow hair and the abortive aeronauting of a fanatic balloonist; he bruises himself on the Iron Curtain and comes out the loser; he meets a spy in Warsaw. And there is his fantastic holiday in Andorra as an unbelievable interlude. And, at a cocktail party back home, bits and pieces of his experiences, bitter and sad, underline the ignorance of his fellow Americans. In spite of the grim shambles of the Continent he learned that there is a time for laughter, in spite of the threats of the future, he found guts and resiliency, and although there is levity, there is warm sympathy and understanding. Not for the too serious minded but sure fire for a special audience.

Pub Date: June 7, 1949

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Knopf

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 1949

Categories: NONFICTION