Eugene Walter, a man of great renown, had his life's story captured in the 2001 release of "Milking the Moon", an oral autobiography comprising hours of conversations with novelist Katherine Clark. The publishers touted him as "the most well-known man you've never heard of".
Walter's journey took him to various destinations, including Alaska, where he served as an Army cryptographer during World War II. He later made his way to New York's Greenwich Village, Paris, and Rome, where he rubbed shoulders with an array of famous and not-so-famous individuals, such as Robert Penn Warren, William Faulkner, Judy Garland, Alice B. Toklas, and Joan Crawford.
His friendships with notable figures like Federico Fellini, Michaelangelo Antonioni, and Franco Zeffirelli proved instrumental in securing him starring roles. Walter co-founded the Paris Review and Transatlantic Review with George Plimpton, and his literary endeavors earned him several prestigious awards, including a Rockefeller-Sewanee Fellowship, an O. Henry citation, and the Prix Guilloux.
Some of his most notable works include "Monkey Poems" (1953),"The Byzantine Riddle" (1980),and "American Cooking: Southern Style" (Time-Life, 1971). The University of Alabama Press recently reprinted his out-of-print book "The Untidy Pilgrim".
