The Adventures of Hiram Holliday
About this ebook
Who is Hiram Holliday?
On the surface, Hiram is a bespectacled, middle-aged copyeditor at an esteemed New York City newspaper. Punctual and polite, he leads a mundane existence behind a desk with a well-sharpened pencil in hand. The only excitement that he ever sees is in the news stories that pass beneath his fingers.
But on the inside, he longs to travel to Europe and be a man of action. Over the years, he saved his money and studied hard to learn all the skills of a romantic hero. He has become a crack shot, a skilled boxer, an expert swordsman, a poly-linguist, and an analyst of disguises and facial expressions. Then, after his knowledge of the comma is rewarded at work with a hefty bonus and vacation time, Hiram decides to fulfill his life's dream and head across the pond.
Excitement soon finds him after his arrival in London. An international kidnapping plot envelops him, spies and Nazis spar with him, and he rescues a beautiful princess. Traveling to Paris, Prague, Berlin, Vienna, and then Rome, he tackles one challenge after another. But with the clouds of war looming over the country, Hiram must remember his studies if he wants to end his vacation in one piece . . .
Originally published in 1939.
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About the author
Paul Gallico (1897–1976) began his writing career at the New York Daily News, where he became one of the best-known sports journalists in America. Over the course of his fourteen years as a daily columnist and editor, he took a knockout punch from Jack Dempsey, caught Dizzy Dean's fastball, teed off against Bobby Jones, and founded the Golden Gloves boxing tournament. In 1937, at the height of his fame, Gallico quit his column to devote himself to writing fiction. He went on to publish more than forty books for adults and children, including The Snow Goose (1941) and The Poseidon Adventure (1969), the basis for the blockbuster movie of the same name. Lou Gehrig: Pride of the Yankees (1942), a biography of the baseball icon, inspired the Academy Award–nominated film starring Gary Cooper.
Born in New York City to an Italian father and an Austrian mother, Gallico left the United States in 1950 and lived the rest of his life abroad, with stops in England, Monaco, and Antibes, France, among numerous other locales.
