The Kansas City Milkman by Reynolds Packard - 1950 FIRST EDITION Vintage Novel - Kansas City

This mid-century novel by Reynolds Packard chronicles the world of an international news agency set in Paris, France. Why then the title? As the seasoned vet coaches the young and hungry cub reporter, "And remember, you are writing so it can be understood by the Kansas City Milkman. If the Kansas City Milkman can't understand it, the dispatch is badly written." 

This is a first edition, published in 1950.

KIRKUS REVIEW, June 15, 1950... The cheap, mean policies of speedy news gathering, the needling up or amashing down of news, the peddling and pandering to customers that turns reporters into salesman or political sunuchs -- these background a novel of cynical disillusionment, in straight journalese, set in post-war France.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR (from his New York Times obituary in 1976) Reynolds Packard was a flamboyant foreign correspondent for many years. First with The United Press and later with The New York Daily News, the Packard byline appeared over dispatches from war areas throughout the world during the 1930's and 1940's. After three years with The United Press in Buenos Aires, he was transferred to Europe. He was to cover both sides in the Spanish Civil War, then the Italian invasion of Ethiopia, Hitler's conquest of Czechoslovakia and the World War II victories of the Allies. Mr. Packard once gave this pithy definition of his reporting: “If you've got a good story, the important thing is to get it out fast. You can worry about details later. And if you have to send a correction, that will probably make another good story.”

BIXLEY NOTES

• The Kansas City Milkman

• FIRST EDITION

• Written by Reynolds Packard

• Published by E.P. Dutton & Company, 1950

• With original dust jacket

VINTAGE NOTES

• In very good condition.

• Dust jacket shows expected wear - creases and some small tears along the binding

• Binding is a tiny bit loose

• Minor discoloration and aging on the dust jacket

• Yellowing on the inside front cover

• Pages are in great shape

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