We are delighted to introduce a new columnist to LymeLine today. Nicole Prévost Logan divides her time between Essex and Paris, spending summers in the former and winters in the latter. She will write a regular column for us from her Paris home where her topics will include politics, economy, social unrest — mostly in France — but also in other European countries. She also will cover a variety of art exhibits and the performing arts in Europe.
Logan is the author of Forever on the Road: A Franco-American Family’s thirty Years in the Foreign Service, an autobiography of her life as the wife of an overseas diplomat, who lived in 10 foreign countries on three continents. Her experiences during her foreign service life included being in Lebanon when civil war erupted, excavating a medieval city in Moscow and spending a week under house arrest in Guinea.
The End of an Era
By Nicole Prévost Logan
The International Herald Tribune – so familiar to American expatriates in Europe – is no more. After 125 years of existence, the newspaper lost its name, to become the International New York Times , on October 15 of this year. The change marks the end of an era.
Hemingway’s hero in The sun Also Rises read it and Jean Seberg, the journalist student in Jean Luc Goddard’s 1960 film Breathless, sold it on the Avenue des Champs Elysées.
Sold in 160 countries, the newspaper stood out as the most international of any daily publications. Being printed in Paris, it was anchored in its local culture. But at the same time, for we Americans visiting or living in the French capital, it represented a life line to the home country. Over the years it became the property of the New York Times and later of the Washington Post, allowing its op-ed page to offer a wide spectrum of opinions across partisan lines.
It was an entertaining paper to read. Some of us would go straight to the last page, looking for the crossword puzzles and the cartoons. The columns of humorist Art Buchwald were an institution. Syndicated in hundreds of newspapers, he had a special talent to make people laugh, particularly by poking fun at politicians. Every year at this time, the readers would look forward to the repeat of his column entitled “Merci Donnant” (literal translation of Thanksgiving).