The Snow Goose by Paul Gallico

Paul Gallico (1897-1976) was a well-known sports columnist, scriptwriter, and author of both adult and children's novels. He was born in New York City to an Italian immigrant musician father and a singer mother, and he supported himself at Columbia University by teaching children and working as a longshoreman. He began his career as a reporter for the New York Daily News, where he quickly became known for his encounters with notable athletes of the time. He switched to fiction after publishing the essay Goodbye to Sport in 1937 and pieces in Cosmopolitan, The Saturday Evening Post, and The New Yorker. The novella The Snow Goose (1941) is one of his forty-one books, as is Manxmouse (1968), which is frequently quoted by J.K. Rowling.

Mrs. Rowling as a favorite author); Mrs. 'Arris Goes to Paris (1958) and its four sequels; and The Poseidon Adventure (1969), which served as the inspiration for the massively popular 1972 blockbuster. Gallico spent most of his life abroad of the United States, primarily in England, Antibes, and Monaco, from 1950 till his death.