Eugene Fodor (writer)

Eugene Fodor (/juːˈdʒiːn ˈfoʊdər/; October 14, 1905 – February 18, 1991) was a Hungarian-American writer of travel literature.

Biography

Fodor was born in Léva, Hungary (then Austria-Hungary; now Levice, Slovakia). Noting that travel guides of his time were boring, he wrote a guide to Europe, On the Continent—The Entertaining Travel Annual, which was published in 1936 by Francis Aldor, Aldor Publications, London.

He married Vlasta Zobel, a Czech national, joined the US Army during World War II, and was transferred to the Office of Strategic Services, serving in Europe.

From the Wall Street Journal: In the race to liberate Prague at the end of World War II, Eugene Fodor won. The founder of the eponymous travel-guide series was a U.S. Army lieutenant and officer of the Office of Strategic Services when he bounced into the Czechoslovak capital with two other Americans in a lone jeep on May 8, 1945, V-E Day. Though Berlin had fallen to the Soviets almost two weeks before, Prague was still something of a no-man's land, with Russian forces hundreds of miles east of the city, American troops stalled just to the west and Czech insurgents battling it out against scattered Nazi diehards.

Fodor and the rest of his group—Sgt. Kurt Taub and Pvt. Nathan Shapiro—made it 100 miles through disintegrating German lines armed with only a rifle and a few pistols. Along the way, they managed to depose the pro-Nazi mayor of Karlsbad and pick up a shipment of insulin to deliver to Prague's besieged hospitals.

In 1949, he founded Fodor's in Paris, France. He created Fodor Modern Guides, operating mainly from Paris but moved to Litchfield, Connecticut in 1964, and lived there until his death.

Fodor was elected to the American Society of Travel Agents (ASTA) World Travel Congress Hall of Fame, the only travel editor to be so honored.

References