Temple Fielding


Temple Hornaday Fielding was a noted American travel writer. During World War II, he was a psyop operative in Europe under the Office of Strategic Services Morale Operations Branch unit, 2677th Regiment OSS. The "2677" was the subject of an inside joke at MO Rome, since the Pantone color code for the ink used in the forgery of the 6 pfennig Hitler head stamp was 2677. MO Rome was headed by Eugene P. Warner, a civilian, formerly of the Associated Press.
Fielding was the grandson of author and naturalist William Temple Hornaday.
MO Rome used an existing Italian printing house where many of the leaflets, posters, and forged postage stamps were printed. Fielding allegedly helped with the printing as part of the Planning Group. Fielding was discharged from the army June 6, 1945.
In 1945, his OSS boss, Gene Warner, became public relations director for TWA International Division. Warner is said to have needed some institutional mentions for the airlines, and asked Temple to scare up some national magazine assignments in which the placements could be made. Fielding was able to place the airline ads in the Saturday Evening Post, Cosmopolitan, and TWA.
Fielding's first travel guide, Fielding's Travel Guide to Europe, was published in 1948. In 1951 he and his wife moved from New York to Denmark, but soon resettled in Formentor, Mallorca, Spain, where he established his company headquarters for Fielding Publications, Inc.
With World War II over, "Biedermeier Europe" being a thing of the past, it was ripe for exploration. Fielding viewed it as his mission to make Europe available to America.
Robert Young Pelton acquired the Fielding travel guide some time during the 1990s.

A Guide to the Field Artillery Replacement Training Center - Fort Bragg, North Carolina

According to an autobiographical manuscript by Nancy Fielding, Temple's wife, he wrote the above-referenced title for the United States Army. The 5th Edition pictured in this article was published March 1944. An estimated 2.5 million copies were printed according to Fielding's autobiography.

Publications