I owe Russia $1200
Publisher: Doubleday
Published: 1963
Place of publication: Garden City, N.Y
Language: eng
Number of pages: 272
Description: America's Number One Expert (Old Sincere to his friends) didn't really cheat the Russians out of their money when he fled from Moscow. He left his writers there as security. They may have sneaked home by now, though. Someone had to write this book. It took guts. But on second thought...open the book and read a few pages. Could any hireling hand write this? Definitely not. For this you gotta have Hope:

On London fog: "I saw a light in the distance. Slowly it became clearer and clearer and finally I could make it out. It was the end of my cigarette."

On nervousness in planes: "Flying over to Europe I read a novel. Coming back I read the second page."

On Air Force transportation: "I didn't know how old the plane was, but Lindbergh's lunch was still on the seat. The path to the washroom was outside."

On Khrushchev in Hollywood: "Nikita was thrilled about coming to lunch at Twentieth Century Fox. He thought the studio was named after him."

To Marines at a remote training camp: "I hear one Marine rolled out of the lean-to this morning and shaved three times before he realized he was staring into a bear."

To sailors at Guantanamo: "My grandfather was the Naval hero who said, 'I have not yet begun to fight.' And you know, he never did. You probably remember him--Admiral Tuna, the chicken of the sea?"

There's more, lots more, inside this book. And it isn't all that serious.