Paul Theroux is a novelist who received his Eagle Scout in the 1950s.
Theroux was born in 1941 in Medford, Massachusetts. After college, he joined the Peace Corps and took off for Malawi. However, he was actually thrown out of the Peace Corps for helping an unpopular politician escape to Uganda.
So, he moved to Uganda and then to Singapore before ending up in England. All along the way, he taught at universities.
His first major success as a writer was “The Great Railway Bazaar.” It was based on his travels from Great Britain to Japan and back again.
Many of his books have been made into movies, such as Half Moon Street and The Mosquito Coast, which were made in 1986.