by Amory Sommaripa

Alexis Sommaripa was born to minor nobility in pre-Revolutionary Russia and his diary describes the next forty years of his life. Using proceeds from his brother's stamp collection he escaped from “Mother” Russia to Boston. There, he fell in love and married a Bostonian widow with three little daughters. Meanwhile, he changed careers, sped through Harvard with a business degree and got a job at DuPont researching textiles. Though neither alcohol nor cigarettes attracted him, this flirtatious, dashing charmer had a weakness for women that eventually destroyed his marriage.