"In 1958, Knute Skinner, a Ph. D. candidate at Iowa University, made an impulsive decision to leave for the Canary Islands and spend the rest of his life there writing poetry. His travels took him to Ireland, Denmark, England, Spain, Italy, and France. Along the way, his adventures involved diverting men and romantic women, and all the time he was experimenting with his art. Help Me to a Getaway, a memoir of his two-year sojourn, describes a Europe that no longer exists and tells a story which was not at all what the author expected."--Jacket.