Was Ernest Hemingway a player in international espionage?
A new book, “Writer, Sailor, Soldier, Spy,” by Nicholas Reynolds, details Hemingway’s suspected undercover work for both the U.S. and the Russians before and during the Cold War.
In late 1940, as Hemingway’s new novel “For Whom the Bell Tolls” was becoming a literary phenomenon, the American author was secretly meeting with a Soviet agent to sign up as a spy, reports “CBS This Morning: Saturday” co-host Anthony Mason.
Reynolds, a Hemingway fan since he was a boy, also spent more than a decade as an officer with the Central Intelligence Agency. Reynolds said he felt “almost physically ill” when he found that out.
“So the idea of Ernest Hemingway have done anything with the Soviets, especially having been recruited by the Soviets, was really difficult for me to absorb,” Reynolds said.
In his new book, Reynolds tracks Hemingway’s courtship with Soviet intelligence.
“What I found was the record of Hemingway having agreed to a recruitment by the NKVD, which is the predecessor to the KGB. That’s like a pivotal moment in the spy business. It’s like a sale to a realtor,” Reynolds said.
Reynolds, a Hemingway fan since he was a boy, also spent more than a decade as an officer with the Central Intelligence Agency. Reynolds said he felt “almost physically ill” when he found that out.
“So the idea of Ernest Hemingway have done anything with the Soviets, especially having been recruited by the Soviets, was really difficult for me to absorb,” Reynolds said.
In his new book, Reynolds tracks Hemingway’s courtship with Soviet intelligence.
“What I found was the record of Hemingway having agreed to a recruitment by the NKVD, which is the predecessor to the KGB. That’s like a pivotal moment in the spy business. It’s like a sale to a realtor,” Reynolds said.
Translated excerpts of Hemingway’s Soviet file, smuggled out of Russia, show he was given the code name “Argo” and was recruited by Jacob Golos, a top agent in the NKVD office in New York.
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