Hemingway revealed as failed KGB spy
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2009/jul/09/hemingway-failed-kgb-spy
From the article:
"Its section on the author's secret life as a "dilettante spy" draws on his KGB file in saying he was recruited in 1941 before making a trip to China, given the cover name "Argo", and "repeatedly expressed his desire and willingness to help us" when he met Soviet agents in Havana and London in the 40s. However, he failed to "give us any political information" and was never "verified in practical work", so contacts with Argo had ceased by the end of the decade. Was he only ever a pseudo-spook, possibly seeing his clandestine dealings as potential literary material, or a genuine but hopelessly ineffective one?
The latter reading would chime with his attempts to assist the US during the second world war in his fishing boat El Pilar, patrolling waters north of Cuba in search of U-Boats, making coded notes but only one sighting."
From the article:
"Its section on the author's secret life as a "dilettante spy" draws on his KGB file in saying he was recruited in 1941 before making a trip to China, given the cover name "Argo", and "repeatedly expressed his desire and willingness to help us" when he met Soviet agents in Havana and London in the 40s. However, he failed to "give us any political information" and was never "verified in practical work", so contacts with Argo had ceased by the end of the decade. Was he only ever a pseudo-spook, possibly seeing his clandestine dealings as potential literary material, or a genuine but hopelessly ineffective one?
The latter reading would chime with his attempts to assist the US during the second world war in his fishing boat El Pilar, patrolling waters north of Cuba in search of U-Boats, making coded notes but only one sighting."
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2 Comments
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Comment by Eric Christopherson on July 11, 2009 at 9:20pm
- Interesting. At least one shrink has written thatHemingway was clinically paranoid near the end of his life and might even be why he offed himself.
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Comment by I. J. Parker on July 11, 2009 at 12:07am
- Hemingway was a bit of a loose cannon. By profession, in the early days, he was a journalist and may well have taken on an assignment purely because he wanted to see the place.
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