The extraordinary untold story of Ernest Hemingway's dangerous secret life in espionage
A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A finalist for the William E. Colby Military Writers' Award
"IMPORTANT" (Wall Street Journal) • "FASCINATING" (New York Review of Books) • "CAPTIVATING" (Missourian)
A riveting international cloak-and-dagger epic ranging from the Spanish Civil War to the liberation of Western Europe, wartime China, the Red Scare of Cold War America, and the Cuban Revolution, Writer, Sailor, Soldier, Spy reveals for the first time Ernest Hemingway’s secret adventures in espionage and intelligence during the 1930s and 1940s (including his role as a Soviet agent code-named "Argo"), a hidden chapter that fueled both his art and his undoing.
While he was the historian at the esteemed CIA Museum, Nicholas Reynolds, a longtime American intelligence officer, former U.S. Marine colonel, and Oxford-trained historian, began to uncover clues suggesting Nobel Prize-winning novelist Ernest Hemingway was deeply involved in mid-twentieth-century spycraft — a mysterious and shocking relationship that was far more complex, sustained, and fraught with risks than has ever been previously supposed. Now Reynolds's meticulously researched and captivating narrative "looks among the shadows and finds a Hemingway not seen before" (London Review of Books), revealing for the first time the whole story of this hidden side of Hemingway's life: his troubling recruitment by Soviet spies to work with the NKVD, the forerunner to the KGB, followed in short order by a complex set of secret relationships with American agencies.
Starting with Hemingway's sympathy to antifascist forces during the 1930s, Reynolds illuminates Hemingway's immersion in the life-and-death world of the revolutionary left, from his passionate commitment to the Spanish Republic; his successful pursuit by Soviet NKVD agents, who valued Hemingway's influence, access, and mobility; his wartime meeting in East Asia with communist leader Chou En-Lai, the future premier of the People's Republic of China; and finally to his undercover involvement with Cuban rebels in the late 1950s and his sympathy for Fidel Castro. Reynolds equally explores Hemingway's participation in various roles as an agent for the United States government, including hunting Nazi submarines with ONI-supplied munitions in the Caribbean on his boat, Pilar; his command of an informant ring in Cuba called the "Crook Factory" that reported to the American embassy in Havana; and his on-the-ground role in Europe, where he helped OSS gain key tactical intelligence for the liberation of Paris and fought alongside the U.S. infantry in the bloody endgame of World War II.
As he examines the links between Hemingway's work as an operative and as an author, Reynolds reveals how Hemingway's secret adventures influenced his literary output and contributed to the writer's block and mental decline (including paranoia) that plagued him during the postwar years — a period marked by the Red Scare and McCarthy hearings. Reynolds also illuminates how those same experiences played a role in some of Hemingway's greatest works, including For Whom the Bell Tolls and The Old Man and the Sea, while also adding to the burden that he carried at the end of his life and perhaps contributing to his suicide.
A literary biography with the soul of an espionage thriller, Writer, Sailor, Soldier, Spy is an essential contribution to our understanding of the life, work, and fate of one of America's most legendary authors.
Nicholas Reynolds has worked in the fields of modern military history and intelligence off and on for forty years, with some unusual detours. Freshly minted PhD from Oxford University in hand, he joined the United States Marine Corps in the 1970s, serving as an infantry officer and then as a historian. As a colonel in the reserves, he eventually became officer in charge of field history, deploying historians around the world to capture history as it was being made. When not on duty with the USMC, he served as a CIA officer at home and abroad, immersing himself in the very human business of espionage. Most recently, he was the historian for the CIA Museum, responsible for developing its strategic plan and helping to turn remarkable artifacts into compelling stories. He currently teaches as an adjunct professor for Johns Hopkins University and, with his wife, Becky, cares for rescue pugs.
Table of Contents
Cast of Characters xiii
Introduction xxi
Chapter 1 Awakening: when the Sea Turned the Land Inside Out 1
Chapter 2 The Writer and the Commissar: Going to War in Spain 15
Chapter 3 Returning to Spain: To Stay the Course 37
Chapter 4 The Bell Tolls for the Republic: Hemingway Bears Witness 53
Chapter 5 The Secret File: The NKVD Plays its Hand 69
Chapter 6 To Spy or Not to Spy: China and the Strain of War 91
Chapter 7 The Crook Factor: A Secret War on Land 108
Chapter 8 Pilar and the War at Sea: A Secret Agent of my Government 131
Chapter 9 On to Paris: Brave as a Saladang 151
Chapter 10 At the Front: The Last Months of the Great War against Fascism 173
Chapter 11 "The Creeps": Not War, not Peace 185
Chapter 12 The Cold War: No more Brave Words 207
Chapter 13 No Room to Maneuver: The Mature Antifascist in Cuba and Ketchum 221
A thrilling debut, reminiscent of new fan favorites like One of Us Is Lying and
the beloved classics by Agatha Christie, that will leave readers guessing until the explosive ending. “Welcome to dinner, and again, congratulations on being selected. Now you must ...
L. J. Smith, New York Times best–selling author of The Vampire Diaries and inspiration for
the massively popular TV show from CW, returns to her thrilling Secret Circle series in this fourth installment, following Cassie as she battles good and ...
Explore Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets with this never before available collection of
twenty removable postcards—including four lenticular postcards—that capture some of the most beloved scenes from the movie.Inspired by the album of moving photographs that Hagrid gives ...
A terrifically engaging and original biography of one of England’s greatest novelists, Evelyn Waugh, and
the glamorous, eccentric, debauched, and ultimately tragic family that provided him with the most significant friendships of his life and inspired his masterpiece, Brideshead Revisited. ...
With intrigue that rivals the best le Carré novels, Russians Among Us tells the explosive story of Russia’s
espionage efforts against the United States and the West—from the end of the Cold War to the present and the significant threat of hacking the 2020 ...
In the glittering world of Regency London, where gossip is exchanged—and reputations ruined—with the tilt
of a fan, Mélanie Fraser is the perfect wife. Devoted to her husband, Charles, the grandson of a duke, she is acknowledged as society's most ...
When a mission goes awry in Syria, senior CIA officer Bob Oakland is captured by
aspiring members of ISIS, who demand the release of one of their own, Arzam Saud, in U.S. captivity. When their hands are tied by Washington's ...
John Reynolds Gardiner's classic action-packed adventure story about a thrilling dogsled race has captivated readers
for more than thirty years. Based on a Rocky Mountain legend, Stone Fox tells the story of Little Willy, who lives with his grandfather in Wyoming. ...
