"Eugene Walter was the best-known man you've never heard of. In his 76 years, he ate of "the ripened heart of life," to quote a letter from Isak Dinesen, one of his many illustrious friends. He savored the porch life of his native Mobile, Alabama, in the 1920s and '30s. He stumbled into the Greenwich Village art scene in late-1940s New York. He was a ubiquitous presence in Paris's expatriate cafe society in the 1950s, where he was part of the Paris Review at its inception.

Perhaps most remarkably of all for a poor Southern boy, he spent the 1960s in Rome, where he participated in the golden age of Italian cinema - including a role in Fellini's 8 1/2 - and entertained some of the most famous people in the world.".

"As recorded by Katherine Clark toward the end of Walter's life, his story - enlivened with personal glimpses of luminaries from William Faulkner and Martha Graham to Judy Garland and Leontyne Price - is an eyewitness history of the heart of the last century and a pitch-perfect addition to the Southern literary tradition.

Most of all, this sumptuous oral biography conveys the spirit and charm of a truly unique American who defied the odds and authority, embarked on life, and went wherever his fancy and whimsy led him."--BOOK JACKET.