Is there an earthbound paradise—one single spot in all the world which is the perfect place to live? This is the question Richard Tregaskis set out to answer, and here is his story of a thrilling 48,000–mile search for a modern–day Eden. Fulfilling a dream that everyone has shared at one time or another, the author voyaged leisurely around the globe—to the East Indies, Asia and Australia, Africa and Europe, New York and California. He visited many of the world's most fabulous regions, and he chronicles his adventures with exciting accounts of everyone he met, gaining a fascinating insight into the true nature of each country. The people are vivid and varied: Ex-GIs in Australia, the land of beautiful beaches, the worker's paradise. Bare-bosomed women of Bali, typifying the movie ideal of a tropic isle. Indian untouchables, courageous despite their lowly, caste-bound state. Ladies of the evening in Singapore. A Swiss watchmaker, passionately proud of his democratic heritage. An American, married and settled in England, strongly advocating the British way of life. These are but a few of the many personalities whose stories highlight this seven-league search. In pursuing his own paradise, Richard Tregaskis presents a colorful, frequently humorous, always perceptive picture of our far-flung neighbors and the lands in which they live. Born in Elizabeth, New Jersey in 1916, Richard Tregaskis was graduated from Harvard, cum laude, in 1938. He was a reporter, war correspondent, motion picture and television writer, and author of the best-selling Guadalcanal Diary and Vietnam Diary. He was the winner of the George Polk Award in 1964 for reporting under hazardous conditions. Readers of Seven Leagues to Paradise will enjoy his style of reporting under more leisurely conditions, as well.