John Blake: Growing Up at the Legation
John Blake, who grew up at the American Legation, was witness to the march of history in mid-twentieth century Tangier.
Interzone
Moulay Hafid Palace: 100 Years Young
The restored Moulay Hafid Palace 1912 – 2012 and the centenary of the establishment of protectorate Morocco has had its occasional magazine article, but so far I haven't seen any mention of the 100th birthday of what has been called Tangier's most beautiful building. Moulay Hafid Palace, also known locally as the Palais des … Read more Moulay Hafid Palace: 100 Years Young
Tangier 1949: Gore Vidal Ambushes Truman Capote
Arch literary enemies Gore Vidal and Truman Capote meet on the docks of Tangier.
Tangier’s Long Transition: Interzone to Moroccan City
From the blog "Space and Place," Dr. George F. Roberson The Frontline Diplomacy collection of oral histories, part of the American Memory project at the Library of Congress, offers priceless insights into the practice of US foreign policy over the latter half of the twentieth century. The collection was compiled by ADST, the Association for … Read more Tangier’s Long Transition: Interzone to Moroccan City
The Rooms Still Have a View
Art critic and social historian Terence MacCarthy has done it again: another historic hotel, another book. The title choice A Room With a View may disturb E.M. Forster and Merchant-Ivory fans, but the subtitle shows that this is not plagiarism: A History of the Grand Hotel Villa de France. And it's MacCarthy's Tangier, not Forster's … Read more The Rooms Still Have a View
A Century of Moroccan Mail
Commemorations often have a political or symbolic edge, so the 1912 establishment of French and Spanish protectorates in Morocco has been noted, but of course not celebrated. It's different with the centenary of the Moroccan post office. Cause for celebration – and innovation, with the first "audio stamp," which can play the national anthem on … Read more A Century of Moroccan Mail
First Across the Strait: Mercedes Gleitze 1928
The personnel of the American Legation must have been as excited as the rest of Tangier on April 5, 1928. The swimmer herself would have been out of sight, a tiny figure among the waves and treacherous currents of the Strait of Gibraltar, though her flotilla of witnesses, onlookers, and supporters may have been visible. … Read more First Across the Strait: Mercedes Gleitze 1928
OSS Diplomatic Courier Gordon Browne’s Fateful Pouch Run
This week marked the 70th anniversary of the creation of the OSS, the Office of Strategic Services, barely six months after the attack on Pearl Harbor. OSS Society President Charles Pinck has penned this article in the Tampa Tribune, "General Donovan's Glorious Amateurs," whose title provides a glimpse of the kind of recruits Donovan gathered … Read more OSS Diplomatic Courier Gordon Browne’s Fateful Pouch Run
Reliving Forties Tangier with Ruth Wolfe Weems
Dorothy Weems as her mother, Ruth Wolfe Weems “I was the youngest member of the Legation, the one most newly arrived from America…” There’s a touch of Isak Dinesen’s wistful remembrance of Africa in Ruth Wolfe Weems’ writing on her years in Tangier. A bit of the postwar sense of loss after the adventures, the … Read more Reliving Forties Tangier with Ruth Wolfe Weems
Miss Weems & Miss Wolfe: Tangier Stories from the ’40s
Dorothy Weems (left) as her mother, Ruth Wolfe Weems (right) It started with a simple sentence, a comment on a TALIMblog post about the Legation during the Second World War: My mother worked at the US Legation in the early 1940's. That one-liner from Dorothy Weems blossomed into several months' correspondence, where it emerged … Read more Miss Weems & Miss Wolfe: Tangier Stories from the ’40s
