CONTENTS 1. The Animal Waiter 7 2. Art at the Hotel Splendide 14 3. The Lost Mandolin 23 4. Easy Money 35 5. Kalakobe 43 6. A Night in Granada 51 7. The Hispano 56 8. The Homesick Bus Boy 62 9. The New Suit 70 10. The Ballet Visits the Magician 82 11. The Magician Doesa New Trick 89 12. The Dreams of the Magician 96 13. My Valet Lustgarten 105 14. The Banquet 116 15. The Murderer of the Splendide 129
Ludwig Bemelmans (1898-1962) was an Austrian-born American writer and illustrator of books for children and adults. He travelled to American in 1914, at the age of sixteen, and worked for three years in the dining halls of what he called, in his autobiographical works, the Hotel Splendide. In 1926, he quit working in hotels to become a full-time cartoonist and made frequent contributions to the New Yorker, Vogue and Town and Country. He is perhaps most well-known as the author of the beloved Madeline books.