Bunker Bean by Harry Leon Wilson, Science Fiction, Action & Adventure, Fantasy, Humorous

Bunker Bean leads a dull, gray life, his only bit of color provided by a red silk cravat buried at the bottom of his bottom drawer. But all of that changes after he consults the Countess Cassanova and she tells him of his past lives. Armed with the knowledge that he used to be Napoleon or an Egyptian Pharaoh, he begins to live a different life. Bunker Bean is populated with eccentric and exotic characters -- this is a lively and entertaining tale of the turning worm.

I had to live ten years in New York. It was then a simple town, with few street lights north of Forty-second street. Now the place is pretty terrible to me, perhaps the ugliest city in the world. I decided that the only way to get out of New York was to write a successful novel. So I tried with The Spenders and when I got a substantial advance from publishers, I quit my job and beat it for the high hills of Colorado. -Harry Leon Wilson