by Simon de Swaan and Jonell Galloway

All happiness depends on a leisurely breakfast.–John Gunther

John Gunther is best known for his 500-page tome Inside Europe about pre-war and wartime Europe, and went on to write “inside” books about several continents. They were translated into 90 languages and sold by the millions around the world. As he traveled around the world, he wined and dined in the highest places.

His description of Hitler in Inside Europe is unforgettable:

He reads almost nothing. He dislikes intellectuals. He has never been outside Germany since his youth in Austria and speaks no foreign language, except a few words of French. He is nearly oblivious of ordinary personal contacts. A colleague of mine traveled with him, in the same airplane, day after day, for two months during the 1932 electoral campaigns. Hitler never talked to a soul, not even to his secretaries, in the long hours in the air; never stirred; never smiled.

Photo courtesy of NNDB.

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