The Start: 1904–1930

By William L. Shirer

Deal Ends: Wed 29th April

The former CBS foreign correspondent provides an invaluable look back at his life—and the events that forged the twentieth century. A renowned journalist and author of The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, William L. Shirer chronicles his own life story—in a personal history that parallels the greater historical events for which he served as a witness. In the first of a three-volume series, Shirer tells of his early life, growing up in Cedar Rapids, and later serving as a new reporter in Paris. In this surprisingly intimate account, Shirer details his youthful challenges, setbacks, rebellions, and insights into the world around him. He offers personal accounts of his friendships with notable people including Isadora Duncan, Ernest Hemingway, and Sinclair Lewis. This fascinating personal account also provides an illuminating look into a lost pre-World War II era—and is notable as much for its historical value as for its autobiographical detail. Ideal for anyone fascinated by this period in history. Review "Foreign correspondent Shirer, it can conventionally be said, had led a full, rich life--at least from the age of twenty-one when, as a 'raw Iowa youth, ' late editor of the Coe College Cosmos, he landed a job on the fabled Paris Tribune, never to go home again...The days on the Paris Trib of Thurber, Elliot Paul, and Eugene Jolas are not without interest, nor his coverage of Lindbergh's arrival in Paris (which won him the promotion); and the Vienna he later shared with John Gunther, Whit Burnett and Martha Foley, Dorothy Thompson and "Red" Lewis, Moura Budberg and H. G. Wells is a wonderment...[along with] the affairs, sexual and otherwise, of a few remarkable personalities."-- "Kirkus Reviews" About the Author Grover Gardner is an award-winning narrator with over a thousand titles to his credit. Named one of the "Best Voices of the Century" and a Golden Voice by AudioFile magazine, he has won three prestigious Audie Awards, was chosen Narrator of the Year for 2005 by Publishers Weekly, and has earned more than thirty Earphones Awards.William L. Shirer (1904-1993) had a distinguished career as foreign correspondent, news commentator, and historian of the contemporary world. He reported from Berlin for the Universal News Service and for CBS on the rise of the Nazis, and he covered their fall as a war correspondent. Out of these reports grew his bestsellers, Berlin Diary and The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, which has sold more copies for the Book-of-the-Month Club than any other book in the club's history.