A child of the Second World War, Peter Weidhaas could only find home by running away from the authoritarian culture into which he had been born. His early years on the road as a hitchhiker in Europe, the first loves of his life and his youthful exploits in Europe and South America, on to his initial encounters with the world of publishing from book dealing to bookbinding to book design and exhibitions set him down the twisting path to his future as Director of the Frankfurt Book Fair and one of the most important cultural figures in Europe. "Life Before Letters" is the story of how a man confronted his past by writing his future.

Hotel Dorá
25 Years Ago
Dialogue with Latin America
Walking on the Moon in Córdoba
The Learned Lady
Raising Me Up and Pulling Me Down
The Last Big Trip
Austria
Yugoslavia
Greece
Turkey
Italy
Going Home Again
Detours
1968
Riot in Frankfurt
Nineteen sixty-nine
Back to South America
Prague
Bucharest
Alienation
Seeking Sanctuary
Finland
Brazil
Porto Alegre
São Paulo
Rio
Death of a Communist
The East in the Forefront
The Berlin Agreement
Moscow
Back in the U.S.S.R
Tripping in Asia
Moscow
Tokyo
Seoul
Hong Kong
Manila
Singapore
Calcutta
Kathmandu
New Delhi
Year of Decision
Diary of a Trip
México
Guatemala
El Salvador
Honduras
Nicaragua
Costa Rica
Panamá
Colombia
Ecuador
Peru
Chile