Birthday Quote

Kate Simon, a writer of popular, literate and vivid travel guides, was born December 5th, 1912 in a Warsaw ghetto. She emigrated to the United States with her family, by steerage, at the age of 4 and grew up in the Tremont section of the Bronx.

Her writing career began as a book reviewer for The New Republic and The Nation magazines. She worked for Book-of-the-Month Club, Publishers Weekly, and as a free-lance editor for Alfred A. Knopf, a Nobel & Pullitzer prize winning publisher with a reputation for a pursuit of perfection and elegant taste.

Miss Simon's travel works included the landmark – and best-selling – ''New York Places and Pleasures: An Uncommon Guidebook,'' which has undergone four revisions since 1959, and parallel studies of Mexico City, Paris, London and Rome. Among other guidebooks are ''Italy: The Places in Between'' (1970 and 1984), ''England's Green and Pleasant Land'' (1974), ''Fifth Avenue: A Very Social History'' (1978) and ''A Renaissance Tapestry: The Gonzaga of Mantua'' (1988).

Asked in 1986 by ''Contemporary Authors'' to advise travellers on how best to enjoy a trip, she replied: ''Go slow. If you have the time for eight countries, take five. If you're rushed to take five, take three.'' She also suggested regular eavesdropping on conversations in cafes, buses and trains and emphasised, ''Walk slowly, look, listen, smell.''

"A final reminder. Whenever you are in Paris at twilight in the early summer, return to the Seine and watch the evening sky close slowly on a last strand of daylight fading quietly, like a sigh."

Kate Simon

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