Member Since: Dec. 28, 2010

John Hlavacek


Biography

John and Pegge spent their lives traveling the world reporting as foreign press correspondents. John first taught English in China during the 1930s, after graduating from Carleton College. He then joined the United Press in 1944 as a war correspondent. He met Pegge Parker, a beautiful widowed journalist with an eye toward writing her way around the world. They married, living and working in India during the first years of their marriage.

The Hlavaceks were then off to New York and next Jamaica, where John and Pegge supported the family by covering news events across the globe. In 1961, the family moved to Florida when John began work as staff correspondent for NBC in Havana. John and Pegge meticulously chronicled their lives before and after they met—and the stories they brought to us from afar. Today, John resides in Omaha, Nebraska. Pegge passed away in November 2008.

Where to find John Hlavacek online

Website: http://www.hluckybooks.com
Blog: http://hluckybooksblog.com/

Where to buy in print

http://www.hluckybooks.com

Books

United Press Invades India: Memoirs of a Foreign Correspondent, 1944-1952    by John Hlavacek
Price: $5.95 USD. 127900 words. Agented by Concierge Publishing Services  on January 5, 2011. Nonfiction.
How does a Midwestern boy end up reporting world events from India for United Press? He comes by way of boat, after reporting from China during the Communist takeover. Such is the life story of John Hlavacek, correspondent for NBC and Time-Life. John left his career reporting from China to join United Press as a war correspondent. He reported world events from India from 1944-1952.
Letters Home: An American in China: 1939-1944    by John Hlavacek
Price: $5.95 USD. 101380 words. Agented by Concierge Publishing Services  on January 5, 2011. Nonfiction.
After graduating from Carleton College in Northfield, MN in 1939, John Hlavacek sailed to China to the Carleton-in-China Middle School in Fenchow, Shansi Province. As John describes it, many Midwesterners had little knowledge of China, other than famine, disease, and war. After weeks of training in Chinese in Peking, John traveled to the compound in what was then Japanese-occupied China.
Freelancing in Paradise:The Story of Two American Reporters Who Supported Their Family by Covering Turbulent Times in the Caribbean, 1958-1963    by John Hlavacek
Price: $5.95 USD. 129890 words. Agented by Concierge Publishing Services  on January 5, 2011. Nonfiction.
After living and working in India during the first years of their marriage, John and Pegge Hlavacek moved their children and Indian nanny to New York when John accepted a fellowship from the Council on Foreign Relations. When the fellowship ended, the Hlavaceks moved to Jamaica and supported the family by providing news and photography services to print, radio, and TV.
Diapers on a Dateline: The Adventures of a United Press Family in India During the 1950s    by John Hlavacek
Price: $5.95 USD. 126190 words. Agented by Concierge Publishing Services  on January 3, 2011. Nonfiction.
Pegge Mackiernan was a widow and single mother of twins working as Vice Consul in the American Embassy in Pakistan in 1951. Her husband had been a CIA agent who was killed by Tibetan guards while evacuating newly Communist China. In her work at the embassy, she met John Hlavacek. A passionate international reporter with humble Midwestern values, John convinced Pegge to bring her children to India.
Alias Pegge Parker    by John Hlavacek
Price: $5.95 USD. 93270 words. Agented by Concierge Publishing Services  on January 3, 2011. Nonfiction.
During World War II, Margaret Lyons, a small-town Pennsylvania girl, had a taste for adventure. She began her career as an advice columnist, adopting the pen name Pegge Parker. She began literally writing her way around the world. Before long, she was headed for China where she met and married Douglas Mackiernan, an undercover CIA agent. The couple became the proud parents of twins, Mike and Mary.
Slow Boat to Pakistan: The Personal Diaries and Letters of Pegge Parker, 1951-1952    by John Hlavacek
Price: $5.95 USD. 75450 words. Agented by Concierge Publishing Services  on December 28, 2010. Nonfiction.
Pegge Parker lived two lives. Her first as a journalist in D.C., and Alaska took her by Slow Boat to China (the first book of the series) where she landed in China. Slow Boat to Pakistan picks up after her husband Doug Mackiernan, a CIA agent, was killed. Now a mother and a widow, and needing to make a living, Pegge left their twins and began a new career as Vice Consul and Press Officer.
Slow Boat to China: The Personal Diaries and Letters of Pegge Parker, 1942-1951    by John Hlavacek
Price: $5.95 USD. 199310 words. Agented by Concierge Publishing Services  on December 28, 2010. Nonfiction.
Pegge Parker lived two lives. Her second life was as a wife, mother and freelance journalist, but her first was that of a courageous young woman traveling the world. Before cell phones or email, when the world seemed much larger, Pegge moved from Washington D.C., where she was a newspaper columnist, to live in Alaska, China, India, and Europe, making a living as a freelance reporter.

John Hlavacek’s tag cloud

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