Waiting for the Snow : The Peace Corps Papers of Charter Volunteer Thomas Scanlon
Waiting for the Snow
by Thomas J. Scanlon
ISBN 1-889274-03-8; Paperback, 253 pages; $14.95.
A memoir in letters by one of the first forty-five volunteers to go abroad after the Peace Corps was chartered by Congress in 1961; The Washington Post declared "Hundreds of books have been written [about the Peace Corps]. . . . Tom Scanlon’s is among the finest." Written to friends and family during two years in Chile, his letters describe a volunteer’s life and viewpoint. It offers a bright look at a different world, one endangered by the Cold War yet inspired by new idealism and hope among young people. As the first Peace Corps director Sargent Shriver declares in a foreword, "Waiting for the Snow reminds us of the enormous greatness that can happen when ordinary people do what is good and right."
Recommended by such authorities as Shriver and Father Theodore Hesburgh of Notre Dame, the book interests many readers, starting with the Peace Corps community and its 147,000 veterans who have served in 132 countries. For people interested in international development it is a kind of training manual. Referring to the book’s title, taken from a speech by President Kennedy, Paul Theroux writes "I distinctly remember JFK telling Scanlon’s story all those years ago and this excellent book reawakens the bright hopes I also felt when I joined the Peace Corps. This is a salutary story." Other authors praising the book include biographer Kitty Kelley, who writes "Waiting for the Snow makes you realize why the Peace Corps is America’s best export."
Our first popular title and most popular nonfiction title to date, Waiting for the Snow was praised in reviews in the Boston Globe, Washington Post and several foreign affairs magazines.
