The Paris Edition: The Autobiography of Waverley Root, 1927-1934

by Waverley Root, Samuel Abt

Paris Edition, The Autobiography Of Waverley Root 1927-1934 by Abt, Samuel, Ed.

Genres: France

224 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1987

About the author

Waverley Lewis Root (April 15, 1903, in Providence, Rhode Island – October 31, 1982 in Paris) was an American journalist and writer. Root authored the classic The Food of Italy on Italy and its regional cuisines.

Root was a news correspondent for over 30 years; in 1969 he retired from daily journalism. He was the Paris correspondent for the Chicago Tribune and then The Washington Post. He was also a columnist for the International Herald Tribune.

His books and writings focused on food, and yet mingled culinary details of the regions he wrote about with historic facts, and literary references. [wikipedia]

Reviews

[Elizabeth Quinn · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a find! Waverly Root is a fine writer with a keen wit, and I'll be searching out his "The Food of France" ASAP. This memoir was a natural for me as someone who loves Paris and the rapscallion days of newspapering when the focus was on interesting stories rather than the earnest and self-important "journalism" of today. Root recounts his days at the Paris edition of the Chicago Tribune in the 1920s and 1930s, a foreign edition also known fondly as the Daily Miracle. The owner of the paper was Col. McCormick, one of the last of the great press barons of the US, one who tried to change the nation's spelling (cigaret, thru, etc.) and the nation's politics with editorial crusades for his pet causes. One anecdote suffices: McCormick sent one of his own signed editorials to his editor with a couple of sentences circled and the handwritten query: 'What do I mean by this?' Root was a young man with no news experience beyond his college paper when he washed up in Paris and landed his first gig at the Paris edition. About a decade later, he was at the helm as managing editor when McCormick sold his Paris daily to the New York Herald Tribune. In the years between Root covered some big stories -- Lindbergh's landing -- and rubbed elbows with a lot of well-known expatriates in Montparnasse (but not Hemingway). But it is the loving details of the era's bountiful but inexpensive Paris lifestyle and cut-throat but exhilarating news biz that sold me on this book. Root's writing brings it all back to life.

[Colleen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Short chapters on Root's life working in Paris (mostly) for American newspapers. His primary employer was Colonel McCormick's Chicago Tribune who put out The Paris Edition of the Tribune. Root had various jobs, journalist, editor, book critic, from 1927 to 1934. And Paris after WWI was a wonderful place for a young writer to be. Great bars, cheap good food, willing lovers, eccentric coworkers and an atmosphere of freedom and exploration that would delight any young person. Root's vignettes include stories about the other writers, the wealthy dilettantes, the stuffy social climbing Americans, the scam artists (Isobel Duncan's brother Raymond), the cult around Gertrude Stein, the benefactor for James Joyce, and the famous drunks (Hérol Egan, British Air Force officer born and raised in Texas and shirking his days away at the Paris Edition). The book is best read in small doses so that you can savor the jokes and scenes. It took be about 4 months to read it. Now I understand where The Paris Review of Books started (Root disputed the world's best booklist compiled by Yale Professor William L. Phelps and started publishing his own list). The enterprise developed into a book review page that expanded everyone's horizon. If you want to get a more intimate picture of pre-WWII Paris, this is the book to read.

[Chris · Rating 5 out of 5]

All-time favorite book ... Root writes about his days working on the Paris Edition newspaper, and living in 1920s and 1930s Paris. Every time I read it I want to hop in the Wayback Machine and go live in 1920s Paris. I want Waverly Root's life back then. His prose is engaging, and his stories are all wonderful. Anyone who likes the "lost generation" literary Paris between the wars has got to read this book.

[Tony Laplume · Rating 5 out of 5]

It’s just as well Goodreads doesn’t have a cover for Paris Edition, since the one the book has filled me with trepidation about its contents until I finally got around to reading it, despite the suspicion when I bought it that it would be worth it. I’ve been fooled a few times. My faith was rewarded with a memoir covering the Hemingway Lost Generation from a different insider’s perspective. Root was apparently edited down from a much larger volume to reach this state, and even then he repeats himself to little purpose a few times. But it’s invaluable, it really is, the results. One of the great finds at a Dollar Tree for sure.

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

Those of us who work for newspapers now know that we're not living in the golden age of our trade.
Perhaps the golden age was the 1920s and '30s, and perhaps the best place to be was Paris, and perhaps the place to work was the Paris Edition (technically, the European Edition) of the Chicago Tribune.
Waverley Root worked for the Tribune, mostly with the Paris Edition, from 1927 to 1934. His memoir is filled with memorable characters, chortle-inducing anecdotes and a bit too much information.
Newspaper folks of that day, if Root's account can be believed, merrily and regularly committed transgressions that would get today's newspaper people fired.
It appears that everyone was having a good time, although they weren't getting paid very well.
SOME things haven't changed.
People who work for newspapers or love newspapers will enjoy this book, I think. Others might not find it very interesting.

[Jamon · Rating 2 out of 5]

A book about an American Newspaper reporting news in Paris, the beauty is that Root had the experience of building an entire newspaper in a condensed process. It showed alot as to how a newspaper is put together. The writing was not chronological but more by topic which was hard to track and follow as he described people in a variety of meetings over time in Paris prior to rise of Hitler.

[Sherry · Rating 3 out of 5]

Self contained chpaters describe the life and times on the paper. He was editor at the end whtn the paper was sold to the Herald.