Title
Writer, Sailor, Soldier, Spy: Ernest Hemingway’s Secret Adventures, 1935-1961
Document Type
Book
Annotation
Biography focusing on Hemingway’s espionage activities and their influence on his writing, including For Whom the Bell Tolls, The Fifth Column, and The Old Man and the Sea. Reynolds, former CIA officer and historian, digs into U.S. government archives, Soviet NKVD files, biographies, and Hemingway’s letters to reconstruct the author’s experiences as both an American and Soviet operative. Beginning with the Spanish Civil War and ending with the Cuban Revolution, Reynolds covers Hemingway’s growing disillusionment with American politics following the 1935 Florida Keys hurricane tragedy, connections with the Lincoln Brigade, work as a war correspondent, complex relationship with the FBI, and stint as a Nazi submarine hunter for the Office of Naval Intelligence. Reynolds speculates that Hemingway’s covert adventures with spying contributed to his later mental decline, including his growing obsession that he himself was under surveillance by the FBI. Includes over thirty black-and-white photographs.
Date
2017
Citation
Reynolds, Nicholas. Writer, Sailor, Soldier, Spy: Ernest Hemingway’s Secret Adventures, 1935-1961. New York: William Morrow, 2017.