Dateline-Liberated Paris
The Hotel Scribe and the Invasion of the Press
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- USD 26.99
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- USD 26.99
Descripción editorial
Vividly capturing the heady times in the waning months of World War II, Ronald Weber follows the exploits of Allied reporters as they flooded into liberated Paris after four dark years of Nazi occupation. He traces the remarkable adventures of the men and women who lived, worked, and played in the legendary Hôtel Scribe, set in a highly fashionable part of the largely undamaged city. Press jeeps and trailers packed the street outside, while inside the hotel was completely booked with hundreds of correspondents. The busiest spot was the dining area, where the clatter of typewriters combined with shouts of correspondents needing hot water to brew coffee from military powder. But the basement-level bar was the hotel’s top attraction, where famed war correspondents like Ernie Pyle, Walter Cronkite, A. J. Liebling, Ernest Hemingway, Martha Gellhorn, Janet Flanner, Lee Miller, Marguerite Higgins, Irwin Shaw, Edward Kennedy, Charles Collingwood, Robert Capa, and many others held court while in the company of military censors and top brass. Weber uncovers the struggles between correspondents and Allied officials over censorship and the release of information, the heated press chaos surrounding the war’s end, and the drama of the second German surrender orchestrated by the Russians in shattered Berlin. The elation of total victory was mixed with the abrupt emptiness of a task finished. While work on the Continent remained for journalists, it now dealt with the slog of the occupation of Germany rather than the blood and glory of war. Yet Weber shows there were many reasons to carry on after VE Day in this delightfully entertaining account of the hotel where correspondents were regularly briefed on the war and its aftermath, wrote their stories, had them transmitted to international media outlets, and rarely neglected the pleasures of a Paris reborn until December 1, 1945, when the Hôtel Scribe was officially vacated by the American military.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Paris's luxury Hotel Scribe bursts to life in Weber's engaging behind-the-scenes tale of its starring role as communications central for war correspondents at the end of WWII. This well-researched profile of the legendary establishment captures the euphoria of war reporting, picking up where the author's last book (News of Paris) ends. Drawing on articles, letters, and journals from literary luminaries such as Ernest Hemingway, A.J. Liebling, and Janet Flanner, Weber reveals how these writers pursued their work and took their pleasure. Most daring are the female correspondents such as Helen Kirkpatrick, who traveled with a French armored division, and Iris Carpenter of the Boston Globe, who joined a French Resistance group for "nocturnal Hun hunting.' " In Part I, the Occupation ends and newspaper writers angle for a scoop. Part 2 evokes the sounds of clacking typewriters as correspondents fill the reception area and the basement bar, and the book closes with the hotel's evacuation, during which writers decamped to Berlin. There are anecdotes and titillating details galore Charles Collingwood is described as receiving guests to his room at the Scribe in a red silk dressing gown, surrounded by Picasso paintings he'd won playing poker. This story of remarkable, brave reporters is a colorful and satisfying historical treat.