About this item
The New York Times BestsellerThis is the inspiring story of an ordinary guy who achieved two great goals that others had told him were impossible. First, he set a record for the longest automobile journey ever made around the world, during the course of which he blasted his way out of minefields, survived a serious accident atop the Peak of Death, came within seconds of being lynched in Pakistan, and lost three of the five men who started with him, two to disease, one to the Vietcong.After that-although it took him forty-seven more years-Albert Podell set another record by going to every country on Earth. He achieved this by surviving riots, revolutions, civil wars, trigger-happy child soldiers, voodoo priests, robbers, pickpockets, corrupt cops, and Cape buffalo.
About the Author
ALBERT PODELL recently became the first American known to have visited every country in the world. Decades earlier, he was the co-leader of the successful Trans World Record Expedition and co-author of Who Needs A Road, an adventure classic still in print after 48 years. His thrilling new book, Around the World in 50 Years, will be published March 24 by St. Martin's Press.
Al has been an editor at Playboy and several outdoor magazines, reviewed books for the Chicago Sun-Times, managed the literary quarterly that introduced the Beat Generation writers to American readers, and has published more than 250 magazine articles, mostly on adventure.
Al holds a degree in government from Cornell, with emphasis on foreign affairs, was the Graduate Fellow of the Committee on International Relations at the University of Chicago, and received a law degree from NYU.
He has had successful careers as an editor, director of photography, freelance writer, advertising creative director, ad agency VP, good-government lobbyist, trial attorney, producer and director of feature-length music videos, and (much less successfully) theatrical investor and producer. He spent seven years supervising the marketing of movies for 20th Century Fox and Columbia Pictures, was president of the American Society of Magazine Picture Editors, head of the American Society of Film Advertisers, and ran the annual Motion Picture Advertising Awards. His music videos have won the bronze and silver awards at the Houston Film Festival and the gold award at the Charleston Film Festival. As an attorney, he never lost a jury trial in 32 years.
Al is an all-around outdoorsman - skier, boarder, hiker, biker, camper, backpacker, mountaineer, canoer, kayaker, long-distance swimmer, scuba diver, windsurfer, and adventurous vegetable gardener.
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