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Paul Gallico (1897–1976)

Author of The Snow Goose

100+ Works 8,263 Members 199 Reviews 15 Favorited
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About the Author

Image credit: photographed by Carl Van Vechten, 1937 Dec. 28

Series

Works by Paul Gallico

The Snow Goose (1940) 1,318 copies
Mrs. 'Arris Goes to Paris (1958) 717 copies
Jennie (1950) 605 copies
The Poseidon Adventure (1969) 518 copies
The Silent Miaow (1964) 472 copies
Thomasina (1957) 357 copies
Mrs Harris Goes to New York (1959) 297 copies
Love of Seven Dolls (1954) 222 copies
The Man Who Was Magic (1966) 202 copies
The Small Miracle (1951) 202 copies
Too Many Ghosts (1959) 202 copies
Honorable Cat (1972) 140 copies
Snowflake (1952) 138 copies
Scruffy (1962) 126 copies
Ludmila (1955) 113 copies
Mrs Harris MP (1965) 111 copies
The Foolish Immortals (1953) 110 copies
The Zoo Gang (1973) 107 copies
Mrs. 'Arris goes to Moscow (1974) 100 copies
Love, Let Me Not Hunger (1963) 96 copies
Coronation (1962) 95 copies
Manxmouse (1968) 92 copies
Trial by Terror (1951) 91 copies
The Hand of Mary Constable (1964) 90 copies
The Lonely (1947) 77 copies
Ludmila [and] The Lonely (1955) 61 copies
Miracle in the Wilderness (1975) 56 copies
Matilda (1970) 56 copies
The Hurricane Story (1959) 55 copies
The story of Silent night (1967) 48 copies
Gallico Magic [7-in-1] (1967) 30 copies
Farewell to Sport (1938) 30 copies
The Clock [1945 film] (1945) — Writer — 20 copies
Ada Harris omnibus (1994) 15 copies
The Best of Paul Gallico (1988) 9 copies
The Golden People. (1965) 6 copies
Die silbernen Schwäne (1980) 4 copies
Omnibus 3 copies
Golf Is a Friendly Game (1942) 2 copies
Lili 1 copy
Man Story (1950) 1 copy
A Cat Affair 1 copy
Mooltiki 1 copy
The Best of 21 Years (1960) 1 copy
Pepino. Die Schneegans (2006) 1 copy
Die spanische Tournee. (1979) 1 copy

Associated Works

Baseball: A Literary Anthology (2002) — Contributor — 330 copies
The Literary Cat (1977) — Contributor — 239 copies
The Poseidon Adventure [1972 film] (1972) — Original book — 151 copies
The Saturday Evening Post Treasury (1954) — Contributor — 134 copies
Poseidon [2006 film] (2006) — Original book — 131 copies
Read With Me (1965) — Contributor — 128 copies
The Book of Cats (1976) — Contributor — 106 copies
Saints for Now (1952) — Contributor — 100 copies
The Pulps: Fifty Years of American Pop Culture (1886) — Contributor — 99 copies
Richard Adams's Favorite Animal Stories (1979) — Contributor — 69 copies
The Pride of the Yankees [1942 film] (1942) — Original book — 68 copies
The Three Lives of Thomasina [1963 film] (1963) — Original story — 50 copies
The Bedside Tales: A Gay Collection (1945) — Contributor — 43 copies
The Lucifer Society (1971) — Contributor — 39 copies
Vogue's First Reader (1942) — Contributor — 27 copies
Eastern Ghosts (1990) — Contributor — 24 copies
Stories to Remember: Literary Heritage Series (1967) — Contributor — 20 copies
The Girls from Esquire (1952) — Contributor — 18 copies
Western Ghosts (1990) — Contributor — 17 copies
Reader's Digest Condensed Books 1959 v01 (1959) — Contributor — 15 copies
New Stories for Men (1941) — Contributor — 13 copies
Great American Detective Stories (1945) — Contributor — 12 copies
1935 Essay Annual — Contributor — 4 copies
Americans All: Stories of American Life To-Day (1971) — Contributor — 3 copies
A Reader for Writers — Contributor — 2 copies
Horror (1978) — Contributor — 2 copies
The Bedside Bonanza (1944) — Contributor — 2 copies

Tagged

20th century (61) adventure (68) American (34) American literature (63) animals (140) anthology (154) baseball (110) biography (34) cat (39) cats (421) children (57) children's (118) children's fiction (38) children's literature (65) disaster (31) drama (30) Dunkirk (52) DVD (48) England (68) fantasy (90) fiction (1,318) France (38) Gallico (46) hardcover (52) humor (133) literature (116) London (31) mystery (86) non-fiction (99) novel (133) Paris (37) poetry (56) read (88) Roman (57) short stories (181) sports (53) to-read (177) unread (46) war (30) WWII (117)

Common Knowledge

Legal name
Gallico, Paul William
Birthdate
1897-07-26
Date of death
1976-07-15
Gender
male
Nationality
USA
Birthplace
New York, New York, USA
Place of death
Antibes, France
Places of residence
New York, New York, USA
South Devon, England
Mexico
Liechtenstein
Monaco
Education
Columbia University (BSc|1921)
Occupations
sports reporter
longshoreman
foreign correspondent
novelist
short story writer
founder of Golden Gloves amateur boxing competition (show all 7)
children's book author
Relationships
Gallico, Paolo (father)
Organizations
New York Daily News
Awards and honors
O. Henry Award (short story: The Snow Goose, 1941)
Agent
Ober, Harold
Short biography
Paul Gallico was born in New York City, the son of immigrants from Italy and Austria. His father was a concert pianist and composer and his mother had studied to be a singer. Paul attended public school and worked his way through Columbia University with jobs as a tutor and longshoreman. He got a job with the New York Daily News, originally as the movie critic, but more successfully in the sports department. His first big break came when he was sent to cover the training camp of Jack Dempsey, and decided to ask the boxer if he could spar with him. Gallico was knocked out within two minutes, but he had a great story, and from then on his sportswriting career took off. He became editor of the Sport Section of the Daily News in 1923, and had a daily sports column. He also created and organized the Golden Gloves competition for amateur boxers. He became one of the best-known sports writers in the USA and a minor celebrity. But he was always drawn to writing fiction. In 1937, he went to live in Europe to devote himself to this new career. He produced short stories and articles that were published in magazines such as The New Yorker, Vanity Fair, and the Saturday Evening Post. In 1941, he published the novella The Snow Goose, which made him well-known. Apart from a short spell as a war correspondent between 1943 and 1946, Gallico was a full-time freelance writer for the rest of his life. He continued to live outside the USA, mostly in England, Monaco, and the Antibes. He was a first-class fencer, and a keen deep-sea fisherman. He was married four times, and had several children. Among his more than 40 books for adults and children were Manxmouse (1968), cited by J.K. Rowling as one of her favorite books; Mrs. ’Arris Goes to Paris (1958) and its four sequels; and The Poseidon Adventure (1969), the basis for the hugely successful 1972 film.

Members

Discussions

best cat book ever!!! in Cats, books, life is good. (Friday 12:53am)
Group Read, December 2020: Mrs. ‘Arris Goes to Paris in 1001 Books to read before you die (December 2020)

Reviews

Here we have the third of four books about Ada Harris.

She's yet a woman with determination and spunk, a big heart, and a sometimes brash way of speaking her mind. It's plenty interesting how each of her adventures has been so different, but they each fit her in a convincing way. It isn't as if she suddenly takes off in a rocket ship for no reason or anything, and it's been fun seeing some supporting characters return for significant purposes.

Especially given how this adventure turns out for Mrs. Harris, I suppose I'd call this a gentle political satire? In any case, I found this quick and quirky read to be entertaining, Mrs. Harris has a new thing or two to learn (as always), and I was pleasantly surprised and intrigued by the ending.

I definitely plan on reading the next and last book.
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NadineC.Keels | 2 other reviews | Nov 30, 2023 |
(These are my thoughts on Mrs. Harris Goes to New York. My thoughts on Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris are in a separate review.)

What an adventure this turns out to be! Well, a pretty unlawful caper, that is. One with chuckle-worthy moments, but it also gets rather serious.

Ada Harris is interesting because she isn't just a sweet little older lady. Yes, her personableness appeals to people, and she's got compassion and principles, but she also has a sometimes sharp and/or "naughty" tongue. (The author doesn't write out everything Ada says at those times, tsk, tsk, tsk.) And Ada is cunning and quite willing to make up falsehoods when they advance her plans.

On the other hand, when her bold, proactive choices sometimes tip into folly, she openly kicks herself. Her moments of worry and despair can have a way of breaking your heart a little.

And, um, my heart may have done a little something else entirely while reading this second book about Mrs. Harris. What with the slightly, adorably awkward and precious hint of romance in this one.

On a different note, this story features a boorish character nobody likes, who uses coarse language in reference to a few women and a child. No F-bombs, but he drops the N-word an aggravating handful of times, including when he "deliver[s] an oration on his prejudices." Also, as the story addresses child abuse, most of which happens off-screen, there is an on-page slap during a scene with the boor.

Anyhow.

While this story isn't the sparkly variety like its predecessor, it has its share of substance, as the first one does. And, boy, a certain simple, heartfelt line from a character on the next-to-last page gave me a teary smile. I hear tell there are two more books about Mrs. Harris's doings...
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NadineC.Keels | 13 other reviews | Nov 25, 2023 |
(Only my thoughts on Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris, here. My thoughts on Mrs. Harris Goes to New York will be in a separate review.)

Oh my very goodness! Where has this extraordinary little 20th-century fairy tale been all my millennial life?

Ada Harris is a wonder in her spunk, determination, and imperfections. Imperfections indeed, as she's got a temper sometimes and may mouth off when vexed. She also has a thing for inventing falsehoods (even as she doesn't like to cross her self-prescribed line between "fibs" and "lies").

But, oh, what a journey this turns out to be, just by Mrs. Harris being herself. I was fairly entertained by this light, clever, and quirky read for a while—and then along through all of the little turns and twists, the downs that did some tugging on my heart and the ups that made my heart sparkle—goodness. I can pinpoint the exact moment when I realized I was falling in love with this story.

I won't mention which moment it was, out of respect for those of you who haven't read the book yet. But, oh! My very heart. At several points, I had to stop reading so that I could just sit there and smile and be in my warm and sparkly feelings.

The small miracles, when human understanding would spring up along the way, drew me in. And once I was up on my toes, the story kept me right up there to the very end, to the closing of Mrs. Harris's meaningful journey and what she takes away from it.

This fairy tale was more than a fairy tale for me. Reading it was an experience. One that spoke to me and has me using exclamation points and bold italics a bit more than I usually do in a book review.

I'm looking forward to reading about Mrs. Harris's adventure in New York.
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NadineC.Keels | 29 other reviews | Nov 21, 2023 |
Beautiful story, even more fun to listen to the audiobook over the camel album, both of which happened to be a 43 minutes long and perfect.
 
Flagged
Nlandwehr | 6 other reviews | Nov 6, 2023 |

Lists

Awards

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Associated Authors

Heck Allen Writer
Tex Avery Director
Joseph Schrank Screenwriter
Joe Ansen Writer
David Knight Illustrator
Reise Lonette Illustrator
Bill Dickey Introduction
Jack Jonathan Illustrator
Manning Coles Contributor
Garland Roark Contributor
Art Linkletter Contributor
Ernest Gruening Contributor
Robert Cromie Contributor
Thomas B Costain Contributor
Art Buchwald Contributor
Angela Barrett Illustrator
Ezra Jack Keats frontpiece, Illustrator
Gioia Fiammenghi Illustrator, Cover artist
Suzanne Szasz Photographer
Jenny Collins Cover artist
Reisie Lonette Illustrator
Robert Nix Illustrator
Pieter Grashoff Translator
Jutta Knust Translator
Theodor Knust Translator

Statistics

Works
100
Also by
53
Members
8,263
Popularity
#2,925
Rating
3.9
Reviews
199
ISBNs
385
Languages
16
Favorited
15
Touchstones
315

Charts & Graphs