Edgar Snow first came to China in the summer of 1936 when he met Chinese leader Mao Zedong in Bao'an, temporary capital of the Chinese revolution in Northwest China's Shaanxi Province.

Four months of painstaking observations and interviews with Mao not only dispelled Snow's previous misgivings about China and gave birth to "Red Star Over China," but also cultivated their life-long friendship.

"(Edgar) Snow came when no one would. He made a study of our situation and he helped make known to the world the facts about us," said late Chinese leader Mao Zedong in 1938 amidst the War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression (1937-1945).

"We shall always remember this great deed he did for our country. He was the first to open up the way to friendly relations."

An intimate friend of Mao, Snow came to China again in 1939, and in 1965 and 1969 when he stood with Mao on the balcony of Tian'anmen Rostrum for the National Day celebrations.

With honest accounts of the Chinese revolution, Mao Zedong and his people, "Red Star Over China" has so far been translated into more than 20 languages and is considered to be the first book to introduce the Chinese revolution to the western world.

For his efforts, Snow was at first received as a popular and insightful author.

But later, he was so vilified for helping to "lose China" that he "felt like an Ishmael in his own country" and he described himself as "a grain of wheat sandwiched between two blackboards" when talking about his experiences under McCarthyism in the 1950s.

Snow spent the last years of his life in self-imposed exile in Switzerland and died there on February 15, 1972, just four days before US President Richard Nixon left on his historic trip to China.

Snow's ashes were divided between the grounds of Weiming Lake in Peking University in China and the shores of the Hudson River in the United States.

(China Daily 05/14/2001)