 Noting that travel guides of his time were boring, he wrote a guide to Europe, "On the Continent—The Entertaining Travel Annual", which was published in 1936 by Francis Aldor, Aldor Publications, London and was reprinted in 2011 by Random House as an e-book.In his youth, Fodor studied political economics at the Sorbonne and at the University of Grenoble in France.Fodor joined the US Army in 1942 during World War II, and was transferred to the Office of Strategic Services, serving in Europe.