Marshall Sprague's colorful lifetime spanned the century like a mountain rainbow. Somewhere between the time he learned the true function of the umbrella stand in the Midwest Victorian household of his youth and his first solo train ride to New York City, he surrendered to an innate talent and inquisitiveness that subsequently engaged tens of thousands of his friends and readers. He played the Tiger Rag with a Princeton band on transatlantic steamer crossings.

He deftly navigated New York City during Prohibition. He interviewed Gertrude Stein and Eddie Rickenbacker for the Paris Herald. He crossed the Pacific on an oil tanker to get to Tientsin, where he reported the social news for the North China Star.

1. Then, early in his career, Sprague was diagnosed with tuberculosis. With his wife and young son, he moved to Colorado Springs, where, according to the recommended treatment of the day, he was hospitalized. How he came to grips with this sudden incapacity is reflected in this candid and engaging memoir.