Hemingway, The KGB Spy? Archives Show Agent 'Argo' Was Willing Recruit

Guardian:

Up till now, this has been a notably cheerful year for admirers of Ernest Hemingway -- a surprisingly diverse set of people who range from Michael Palin to Elmore Leonard. Almost every month has brought good news: a planned Hemingway biopic; a new, improved version of his memoir, A Moveable Feast; the opening of a digital archive of papers found in his Cuban home; progress on a movie of Islands in the Stream.

Last week, however, saw the publication of Spies: The Rise and Fall of the KGB in America (Yale University Press), which reveals the Nobel prize-winning novelist was for a while on the KGB's list of its agents in America. Co-written by John Earl Haynes, Harvey Klehr and Alexander Vassiliev, the book is based on notes that Vassiliev, a former KGB officer, made when he was given access in the 90s to Stalin-era intelligence archives in Moscow.

Read the whole story: Guardian

Comments

[snoopbuzz]

This story smells like a dead bigfoot in a freezer.

[Foreground]

...Delicious?

[escribacat]

I'd have to see real evidence before I believe this story.

[robXdion]

It's about historical context. They won't post my comment describing Hemingway's experiences and the political background of 1941. They have to confirm it first because they don't even know history.

[WilliamL]

collaborating with a foriegn state is not a good thing regardless

he adds to the rights business with all artists, liberals, ds, are communitsts spies/terrorisstssts

[MikeDarooky]

Our government does it all the time. We let Mexico know what El Salvador is doing all the time and vise versa. As long as we don't tell them anything about us its fine.

[thebirdstheword]

yeah, i certainly wouldn't want victoria jackson, brittney spears, dennis miller, sonny bono, ronald reagan, jon voight, kelsey grammer, clint eastwood, fred grandy or arnold schwarzenegger to think i was a communist or terrorist.

[jeremymlucas]

At least the coded messages were poetically written...

[daedelus]

That would be "prosaically".

[stevemarvin]

In 1941 the Soviet Union and the United States were soon to be allies fighting Germany, Italy, and Japan so even if he was collaborating with the KGB it would hardly make him a traitor or, god forbid, a "communist."

[chicagomike]

Isn't Jonathan Pollard in jail for spying for our ally Israel?

[stevemarvin]

Point well taken

[Steamboater]

There's a great difference between one country allying with another and one of those countries spying on the other at the same time and recruiting spies from the country that's spied on, especially one that our government knew was a brutal regime.

[pissedmichael]

Doesn't really say he was ever a spy. Sounds like he was just a wannabe. Anyway, this is a little tabloidish isn't it HP? A non story.

[TFlint]

Adding facts to history is never a non-story.

[getalong]

While I agree that this site does often post non stories, this is not one of them.

This is relevant, and I'm glad they posted it.

[Nick D]

So, Hemingway was a spy. That just makes him even more of a badass. The article is just written negatively because he did for the "wrong" side*.

*Although I have never seen any evidence that communism, even at it's worst, is more 'wrong' than capitalism, and what has been perpetrated in it's name.

[Jesusland]

Yeah, at Huffpo the Soviet Union were the good guys.

[Catfish1968]

fail fail fail

[TFlint]

The massacre of millions of Russian peasants by Stalin was no worse than giving out parking tickets in Tulsa. Same, same, same..

[faceplant]

At the time, many on the harder fringe of the left refused to believe in the Gulags, just as our Holocaust deniers now do on the right. Given that context, Hemingway's statement, while absurd, wouldn't have seemed so to him.

[ethancorso]

Stalin was a US ally in WW2 just a few years after this Hemingway thing is alleged to have happened.

[Nick D]

What do parking tickets have to do with capitalism? I'm talking about institutional effects, not circumstancial ones. I'm talking about the American Slave Trade, the Genocide of Native Americans... that's capitalisms past. As for it's present... you tell me, is this working? At least communism was an attempt to do better.

[Hirnlego]

Count the years of colonialism from the west and you'll too have a large bodycount.
But few actually count these..but they happened.

Example
Only 90 years ago, the agents of King Leopold II of Belgium massacred 10 million Africans in the Congo.
http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/35/181.html

[Jesusland]

Welcome to Huff.po, where the S.oviets were the good guys.

[Catfish1968]

fail fail fail fail fail

[eugenegerard]

He was telling the Russkies how much ink and paper he used.

[tom928]

At least you admit you have not seen the evidence.

[Merckx]

Aw jeesh, this will make Andy Rooney happy.

[Sportswoman]

I liked aspects of his writing, but he was a man's man kind of writer--marlin fishing and war never held much topical appeal for me. Also, I personally prefer the greater descriptivity of Faulkner, whereas reading EH was not unlike reading a straight news report. He pared down emotion from his writing, maybe because he was in too much personal pain, or because he was known to over-edit every paragraph a minimum half dozen times. Still, a spy? Tough to believe...

[Feanor]

I agree, he's not my cup of tea. But I respect him just for his reputation - even if I don't like something, if enough other people do, I figure there's something to it.

[TFlint]

A "man's man" is almost always hiding something very personal.

[Sportswoman]

Such as?

[Talossa]

The NKVD must have rejected him because his sentences were too short.

[Matt Herlihy]

You really can't trust these British papers. Their only source is a book which has notes from only one ex-KGB officer who was himself basing his claims off of "research" he did in KGB archives. Even the paper admits that Hemingway might have just been gathering literary material.

[Mannock]

it's likely, as Hemingway was a leftist to his dying day, but the NKVD? It's not his style. You are right. The British papers are handy at overblowing a story or fabricating from a legitimate kernel. It may be the last that we hear of this old saw.

[pissedmichael]

The British papers? Are you kidding? American papers don't do this? Please.

[TFlint]

The Brits are such liars. Unlike us.

[eugenegerard]

LOL

[fcsakes]

WGAFF?

He was one of the great novelists of all time. Leave him the F alone.

Where do you useless scabs come up with the crap?

[TFlint]

Such a bad idea to tell the truth. Makes people so mad they call names.

[eugenegerard]

Who's truth? The winners usually write the history books.

[RedDogBear]

That's not a very insightful comment. I personally am far from convinced. Just because some ex soviet spy claims his name was on some list doesn't mean much. We know that he supported the rebels in Spain and other left wing causes so its not really much of a revelation. But its foolish to try and hide the truth. All great artists, in fact just about all people do things that look foolish in retrospect. Truly great people can stand up to the scrutiny and people who really admire such artists will want to know the truth, warts and all. So please don't leave him the F alone.

[ZenCrusader]

His stature as an author was elevated by his life and the myths that collected around him. His prose is often empty and he is far from one of the great novelists of all time - either you aren't very well read or you just buy into his reputation without knowing his work. It's great that you like his work but many feel he is the most overrated author of that American century.