Season of High Adventure: Edgar Snow in China

In 1928, Edgar Snow (1905-1972) set out to see the world, hoping to make his mark as a travel-adventure writer. Shanghai was to be a mere stopover, but Snow stayed on in China for thirteen more years. The idealistic young Mid-westerner became a journalist and ultimately developed close friendships with China's emerging revolutionary leaders. His 1938 classic, "Red Star over China", strongly influenced American views of the Chinese Communists and is still in print nearly sixty years later. S. Bernard Thomas's sensitive biography emphasises Snow's China experience and shows how he became involved in events while he was reporting them. An epilogue takes up Snow's later Cold War travails and his often frustrating "bridge-building" efforts between China and the United States in the final decade of his life. This biography breaks fresh ground with its unique and extensive use of Snow's diaries of over forty years. These writings convey Snow's private hopes and fears, his moods and motivations. Thomas skillfully links them with Snow's public writings and deeds. By recreating the milieu in which Snow worked in China, Thomas provides a clearer understanding of both the man and his times. Snow came to China devoid of any political agenda or sinological background. He returned home a politically astute China hand and famed journalist-author. His writing had taken on the nature of political action, which resulted in troubled soul-searching that Snow usually confined to his diary. Thomas's portrait of Ed Snow reveals a man caught up in an important historical moment, a man who profoundly influenced, and was influenced by, the events that swirled around him.