Paul Gallico

Author profile

born

July 26, 1897 in New York, NY, The United States

died

July 15, 1976

gender

male

website

http://www.paulgallico.info/

genre

Literature & Fiction, Children's Books

About this author

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Paul William Gallico was born in New York City, on 26th July, 1897. His father was an Italian, and his mother came from Austria; they emigrated to New York in 1895.

He went to school in the public schools of New York, and in 1916 went to Columbia University. He graduated in 1921 with a Bachelor of Science degree, having lost a year and a half due to World War I. He then worked for the National Board of Motion Picture Review, and after six months took a job as the motion picture critic for the New York Daily News. He was removed from this job as his "reviews were too Smart Alecky" (according to Confessions of a Story Teller), and took refuge in the sports department.

During his stint there, he was sent to cover the training camp of Jack Demps...more Paul William Gallico was born in New York City, on 26th July, 1897. His father was an Italian, and his mother came from Austria; they emigrated to New York in 1895.

He went to school in the public schools of New York, and in 1916 went to Columbia University. He graduated in 1921 with a Bachelor of Science degree, having lost a year and a half due to World War I. He then worked for the National Board of Motion Picture Review, and after six months took a job as the motion picture critic for the New York Daily News. He was removed from this job as his "reviews were too Smart Alecky" (according to Confessions of a Story Teller), and took refuge in the sports department.

During his stint there, he was sent to cover the training camp of Jack Dempsey, and decided to ask Dempsey if he could spar with him, to get an idea of what it was like to be hit by the world heavyweight champion. The results were spectacular; Gallico was knocked out within two minutes. But he had his story, and from there his sports-writing career never looked back.

He became Sports Editor of the Daily News in 1923, and was given a daily sports column. He also invented and organised the Golden Gloves amateur boxing competition. During this part of his life, he was one of the most well-known sporting writers in America, and a minor celebrity. But he had always wanted to be a fiction writer, and was writing short stories and sports articles for magazines like Vanity Fair and the Saturday Evening Post. In 1936, he sold a short story to the movies for $5000, which gave him a stake. So he retired from sports writing, and went to live in Europe, to devote himself to writing. His first major book was Farewell to Sport, which as the title indicates, was his farewell to sports writing.

Though his name was well-known in the United States, he was an unknown in the rest of the world. In 1941, the Snow Goose changed all that, and he became, if not a best-selling author by today's standards, a writer who was always in demand. Apart from a short spell as a war correspondent between 1943 and 1946, he was a full-time freelance writer for the rest of his life. He has lived all over the place, including England, Mexico, Lichtenstein and Monaco, and he lived in Antibes for the last years of his life.

He was a first-class fencer, and a keen deep-sea fisherman. He was married four times, and had several children.

He died in Antibes on 15th July, 1976, just short of his 79th birthday.

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Average rating: 3.93 · 3,348 ratings · 440 reviews · 63 distinct works

	The Snow Goose 4.08 avg rating — 721 ratings — published 1940 — 21 editions	My rating:
	The Poseidon Adventure 3.49 avg rating — 395 ratings — published 1969 — 18 editions	My rating:
	Mrs. 'Arris Goes to Paris 3.81 avg rating — 497 ratings — published 1958 — 15 editions	My rating:
	Jennie 4.32 avg rating — 275 ratings — published 1950 — 12 editions	My rating:
	Thomasina 4.08 avg rating — 228 ratings — published 1957 — 8 editions	My rating:
	The Silent Miaow: A Manual for Kittens, Strays, and Homeless Cats by Paul Gallico, Suzanne Szasz 4.34 avg rating — 166 ratings — published 1964 — 5 editions	My rating:
	Love of Seven Dolls 4.12 avg rating — 137 ratings — published 1954 — 4 editions	My rating:
	The Man Who Was Magic 4.30 avg rating — 125 ratings — published 1966 — 4 editions	My rating:
	The Snow Goose and The Small Miracle 4.19 avg rating — 67 ratings — published 1967 — 2 editions	My rating:
	Mrs. 'Arris Goes to New York 3.64 avg rating — 90 ratings — published 1960 — 5 editions	My rating:

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Quotes by Paul Gallico

“No game in the world is as tidy and dramatically neat as baseball, with cause and effect, crime and punishment, motive and result, so cleanly defined. ”
― Paul Gallico

10 people liked it

“You learn eventually that, while there are no villains, there are no heroes either. And until you make the final discovery that there are only human beings, who are therefore all the more fascinating, you are liable to miss something.”
― Paul Gallico

tags: heroes , humanity , villains

9 people liked it

“Nobody's a natural. You work to get good and then work to get better. It's hard to stay on top.”
― Paul Gallico

5 people liked it

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Paul Gallico

Author profile

combine editionsBooks by Paul Gallico

Quotes by Paul Gallico

Topics Mentioning This Author

combine editions
Books by Paul Gallico