Emigré 95 Years in the Life of a Russian Count

Part I describes a privileged childhood in St. Petersburg, the beginning of the Russian Revolution, and escape from the Bolsheviks. Part II describes four years spent in Denmark where Paul rescues the Hand of St. John the Baptist (a relic) for the Dowager Empress of Russia and falls in love with another émigré named Veta Bezobrazova.

When she marries a rich Dane in 1923, Paul leaves for the United States. Part III describes his adventures in America. Paul teaches himself English while a pallbearer in San Francisco; in Colorado, he works as a gold-miner and as a waiter in a tuberculosis sanitarium.

Although starving, Paul refuses to sell his typewriter in Hollywood where he takes part in a Chaplin movie and writes a screenplay for actress Dolores Del Rio. Part IV describes reaching for broader horizons. Some of Paul's jobs during the thirties, forties, and fifties: writer of books on music, wartime graphic specialist, consultant for AT & T, civil servant.

Highlights of his career in the Federal Government include a presentation for President Eisenhower and a change in status following a compliment from Nelson Rockefeller. Paul Grabbe tells his story with humility and wonder. He lived through the Russian Revolution, the Great Depression, two World Wars. This is a tale of triumph that spans a century.

A man loses everything at age fifteen. He proves that taking charge of one's own destiny and living the "American Dream" is possible.