New York: Hill and Wang, 1968. First Edition [stated], presumed first printing. Hardcover. ix, [1],214 pages. Illustrations. Maps. Chronology. Index. Small dent in fore-edge. DJ soiled with some edge wear and small tear. Presentation copy signed by author. Ruth Gruber (September 30, 1911 – November 17, 2016) was an American journalist, photographer, writer, humanitarian, and a United States government official. Born in Brooklyn to Russian Jewish immigrants, she was encouraged to pursue her dream of becoming a writer. At age 20 she became the youngest person ever to receive a doctorate, which was awarded for her dissertation on Virginia Woolf. She authored nineteen books, including the National Jewish Book Award–winning biography Raquela (1978). She also wrote several memoirs documenting her astonishing experiences, among them Ahead of Time (1991), Inside of Time (2002), and Haven (1983), which documents her role in the rescue of one thousand refugees from Europe and their safe transport to America. In the 1930s she established herself as a journalist writing about women under fascism and communism, traveling as far as the Soviet Arctic. As World War II raged in Europe, she turned her attention to the crisis of Jewish refugees: acting on behalf of the Roosevelt administration, she escorted 1,000 refugees from Italy to the United States and recorded their stories. She witnessed the scene at the Port of Haifa when Holocaust survivors on the ship Exodus 1947 were refused entry to British-controlled Palestine, and she documented their deportation back to Germany. She was a recipient of the Norman Mailer Prize. More