Nicholas Reynolds, author of
a new book on Hemingway, was interviewed on NPR.
CIA archivist Nicholas
Reynolds discusses his new book, Writer, Sailor, Soldier, Spy: Ernest
Hemingway's Secret Adventures. It describes Hemingway's relationship with
Soviet intelligence.
SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
You'd think it might be hard
to find new insights into one of the most famous lives in literature, but
Nicholas Reynold's new book does just that - "Writer, Sailor, Soldier,
Spy: Ernest Hemingway's Secret Adventures," which reveals a secret that a
writer who stripped them from the lives of others concealed in his own - that
he'd offered to be a spy for Soviet intelligence and tried to spy for the U.S.,
too, during World War II.
Nicholas Reynolds, a former
historian at the CIA Museum, joins us in our studios. Thanks so much for being
with us.
NICHOLAS REYNOLDS: It's my
pleasure.
SIMON: I'll explain in the
interest of full disclosure, I'm on the Hemingway Council. Now, Hemingway is
perhaps the best known American novelist. And even before he wrote "For
Whom The Bell Tolls," he went off to witness the Spanish Civil War and
crossed from being a journalist into a participant, didn't he?
REYNOLDS: Absolutely. So
Hemingway before the Spanish Civil War was largely apolitical. And it was only
in the Spanish Civil War that he starts to develop his own signature brand of
politics. And if I had to characterize them in two or three words, I'd say
anti-fascism is the governing idea there.
SIMON: And that wound up
putting him in touch with elements of the Soviet espionage establishment?
REYNOLDS: That's exactly
right. In Spain, on the anti-fascist side, the only serious support was from
the Soviet Union. On the fascist side, that is, the nationalists, Nazi Germany
and Fascist Italy were supporting Francisco Franco.
You can listen to the
interview and/or read the rest of the transcript via the below link:
No comments:
Post a Comment