Gruber herself is a remarkable woman. She started college at the age of 15, became the youngest person to obtain a Ph.D. degree at age 20 in 1932 and was one of the first reporters to penetrate the Soviet media barrier. Furthermore, she won a full scholarship to both the university of Wisconsin and Cologne in Germany to study the German language, despite inate anti-semitism in both schools.
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| Gruber standing on the wing of Junkers flying boat en route to Yakutsk, 1936. |
What's so great about Gruber's story is that no one hindered her from travelling around the world alone, even though she was in her early twenties. She was comissioned to write about women under democracy, fascism, and communism by the New York Herald-Tribune and was allowed to visit Germany on the brink of World War II, as well as the Soviet Arctic and the Gulag. Even in the 1930's, she had her own agenda and relinquished pleas to settle down until she was ready. As foreign as Communist Yakutsk (of Risk fame) and Siberia may be to a Jewish girl from Brooklyn, she points out many similarities between her world and theirs. For example, a 104-year-old Yakut woman who, like a good Jewish mother, lambasted her about marital prospects and stuffed her with some homemade grub.
Ahead of Time is a must-read for just about everyone. Not only does Ruth Gruber prove that a young woman can do anything, without preaching or self-promotion, she also reveals fascinating periods of history that cannot be found in textbooks.
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