Roaming Around-From Hollywood to Outer Mongolia

“Roaming Around” was Austin Conover’s column in the Hollywood Citizen-News and roam he did. He covered the movie capital during the “nightmare years” when Communist infiltration was suspect in the film industry. As foreign correspondent he was present during the first CIA incited revolt in Guatemala. He roamed to Israel in search of the Dead Sea Scrolls, to Outer Mongolia during the clash that broke the Communist monolith, to South Viet Nam for updates on the war and to the USSR for glimpses of life behind the Iron Curtain. In the course of 32 years, he interviewed five U.S Presidents, the general who led the first air raid on Tokyo, a chancellor of West Germany who defied Hitler and the first Prime Minister of India. Also included are noteworthy stories about actors, educators, novelists and scientists, as well as blacklisted Communist Party members and one idealist who served with the Abraham Lincoln Brigade in the Spanish Civil War. His “Campground Russia” series, in which he reported a trek across Russia with his family, was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. At the heart of this book is a love story: for almost 65 years, he shared these adventures with his beloved Cathy.