Title

Whittaker Chambers : a biography

Description

Nearly half a century after giving the testimony that sent Alger Hiss to prison, Whittaker Chambers remains among the most controversial of twentieth-century Americans, hated by many, revered by others. Whittaker Chambers is the first biography of this complex and enigmatic figure. Drawing on dozens of interviews and on materials from forty archives in the United States and abroad - including still-classified KGB dossiers - Sam Tanenhaus traces the remarkable journey that led Chambers from a sleepy Long Island village to center stage in America's greatest political trial and then, in his last years, to a unique role as the godfather of post-war conservatism. Whittaker Chambers is rich in startling new information about every phase of its subject's varied life: his days as New York's "hottest literary Bolshevik"; his years as a Communist agent and then defector, hunted by the KGB; his conversion to Quakerism; his secret sexual turmoil; his turbulent decade at Time, where he rose from the obscurity of the book-review page to transform the magazine into an oracle of apocalyptic anti-Communism. But all this was merely a prelude to the memorable events that began in August 1948, when Chambers was summoned by a congressional committee to testify about his past as a Communist agent. Reluctantly, he divulged his key part in a spy ring that had penetrated the most sensitive areas of the U.S. government, including the State Department, where one of his accomplices, Alger Hiss, had risen to a senior position. Chamber's allegations, and Hiss's prompt, emphatic denial, held the nation spellbound - and initiated a drama that changed the face of America. Drawing on an array of new sources, including transcripts of secret HUAC testimony, Whittaker Chambers goes far beyond all previous accounts of the Hiss case, re-creating its improbable twists and turns, and disentangling the motives that propelled a vivid cast of characters in unpredictable directions.

Identifier

617196

394585593

Creator

Tanenhaus, Sam

Format

1st ed.

Source

Brian Lamb Booknotes Collection

Gift of Brian Lamb, 2011.

Catalog record

Language

eng

Date

1997

Program air date: February 23, 1997.

Publisher

Random House

George Mason University. Libraries. Special Collections & Archives

Text

Transcription of Annotations
Notes on front end papers and fly leaf begin with a list of 19 names including William F. Buckley, Jr., Lionel Trilling and Donald Hiss. Chambers's aliases Carl, Lloyd Cantwell, Bob and for family. "Conflict is between Communism and Christianity." Chamber's teeth, Earle Avenue, Daily worker, chronology birth April 1, 1901, death July 9, 1961 and marriage April 15, 1931, births of children, 1925 becoming a Communist, New Masses, John Reed Club, homosexual revelations, 228 Earle Avenue, Chambers 13 years as a Communist, 1951 completed Witness, published in 1952. Liberal columnists all for Hiss: James Reston, Walter Lippmann, Marquis Childs, Joseph Alsop. Nov. 1954 Hiss released from Lewisburg Prison, Hiss and Chambers--Quakers? Nixon. Did you read reports of Jim Bell for Time, Edward R. Murrow, Alistair Cooke?

Subject

"Chambers, Whittaker."

"Hiss, Alger."

"Anti-communist movements--United States--History."

"Spies--United States--Biography."

"Journalists--United States--Biography."

Relation

Original Booknotes interview

Rights

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