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Steinbeck: Citizen Spy
This changes everything we thought we knew about John Steinbeck.
After languishing in the CIA’s archives for 60 years, a letter is uncovered in John Steinbeck’s own hand that shatters everything history tells us about the author’s life. Written in 1952, to CIA Director Walter Bedell Smith, Steinbeck makes an offer to become an asset for the Agency during a trip to Europe later that year. More shocking than Steinbeck’s letter is Smith’s reply accepting John’s proposal.
Discovered by author Brian Kannard, these letters create the tantalizing proposal that John Steinbeck was, in fact, a CIA spy. Utilizing information from Steinbeck’s FBI file, John’s own correspondence, and interviews with John’s son Thomas Steinbeck, playwright Edward Albee, a former CIA intelligence officer, and others, Steinbeck: Citizen Spy uncovers the secret life of American cultural icon and Nobel Prize–winner, John Steinbeck.
•Did Steinbeck actively gather information for the intelligence community during his 1947 and 1963 trips to the Soviet Union?
•Why was the controversial author of The Grapes of Wrath never called before the House Select Committee on Un-American Activities, despite alleged ties to Communist organizations?
•Did the CIA influence Steinbeck to produce Cold War propaganda as part of Operation MOCKINGBIRD?
•Why did the CIA admit to the Church Committee in 1975 that Steinbeck was a subject of their illegal mail-opening program known as HTLINGUAL?
These and a host of other resources leave little doubt that there are depths yet unplumbed in the life of one of America’s most treasured authors. Just how heavily was Steinbeck involved in CIA operations? What did he know? And how much did he sacrifice for his country? Steinbeck: Citizen Spy brings us one step closer to the truth.
This text includes a note in the introduction from Thomas Steinbeck.
After languishing in the CIA’s archives for 60 years, a letter is uncovered in John Steinbeck’s own hand that shatters everything history tells us about the author’s life. Written in 1952, to CIA Director Walter Bedell Smith, Steinbeck makes an offer to become an asset for the Agency during a trip to Europe later that year. More shocking than Steinbeck’s letter is Smith’s reply accepting John’s proposal.
Discovered by author Brian Kannard, these letters create the tantalizing proposal that John Steinbeck was, in fact, a CIA spy. Utilizing information from Steinbeck’s FBI file, John’s own correspondence, and interviews with John’s son Thomas Steinbeck, playwright Edward Albee, a former CIA intelligence officer, and others, Steinbeck: Citizen Spy uncovers the secret life of American cultural icon and Nobel Prize–winner, John Steinbeck.
•Did Steinbeck actively gather information for the intelligence community during his 1947 and 1963 trips to the Soviet Union?
•Why was the controversial author of The Grapes of Wrath never called before the House Select Committee on Un-American Activities, despite alleged ties to Communist organizations?
•Did the CIA influence Steinbeck to produce Cold War propaganda as part of Operation MOCKINGBIRD?
•Why did the CIA admit to the Church Committee in 1975 that Steinbeck was a subject of their illegal mail-opening program known as HTLINGUAL?
These and a host of other resources leave little doubt that there are depths yet unplumbed in the life of one of America’s most treasured authors. Just how heavily was Steinbeck involved in CIA operations? What did he know? And how much did he sacrifice for his country? Steinbeck: Citizen Spy brings us one step closer to the truth.
This text includes a note in the introduction from Thomas Steinbeck.
354 pages, Paperback
First published September 10, 2013
3 people are currently reading
20 people want to read
About the author
Brian Kannard
14 books13 followersBrian Kannard managed startup businesses and corporate concerns for twenty years before entering the publishing industry. Brian took a bootstraps approach to breaking into the publishing industry by developing a skillset to self-publish his first book. In the last decade, Brian has parlayed the successes and refined the opportunities from that text into a career spanning over 1000 book projects. Print and eBook layout, ghostwriting, editorial reviews, research, and independent author consulting have all been part of Brian’s resume. Brian has worked with a diverse group of authors and publishers, including New York Times bestselling author Henry Lincoln; former Tennessee Titans player Tim Shaw; world-renowned Dead Sea Scrolls scholar Professor Robert Eisenman; and World Net Daily Press. In recent years, Brian’s focus has turned to ghostwriting, and he has written thirty-one books.
Feeling that everyone has a story to tell, Brian’s goal is to provide an author’s unique voice to every project. His personal and professional experiences have coalesced into an ability to stitch together complex story elements into previously undiscovered narratives. This ability was exemplified in his second book, Steinbeck: Citizen Spy. Brian found correspondence between John Steinbeck, author of The Grapes of Wrath, and the CIA suggesting that one of America’s most celebrated authors was an intelligence asset.
In 2024, Brian became a partner in Taylor Street Art and Books in Nashville's historic Marathon Village. When in the store, Brian speaks with readers and understands what they love about the books they're reading.
Feeling that everyone has a story to tell, Brian’s goal is to provide an author’s unique voice to every project. His personal and professional experiences have coalesced into an ability to stitch together complex story elements into previously undiscovered narratives. This ability was exemplified in his second book, Steinbeck: Citizen Spy. Brian found correspondence between John Steinbeck, author of The Grapes of Wrath, and the CIA suggesting that one of America’s most celebrated authors was an intelligence asset.
In 2024, Brian became a partner in Taylor Street Art and Books in Nashville's historic Marathon Village. When in the store, Brian speaks with readers and understands what they love about the books they're reading.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
February 2, 2014
"Absolutely Plausible". Meshes well with what knowledge I have of Steinbeck, and the CIA, and will pleasantly enrich my appreciation of the author. Diligently researched, well presented, it is a very well written analysis of what may have slipped beyond our notice. Regardless of any political bias by the reader, viewing an author as a true believer using his talents as a propagandist to actively shape and control his world causes me, with great delight, to visualize Steinbeck as a SUPERHERO! Where it comes to impacting the world you are born into, Steinbeck was a beast!
September 17, 2013
We all know John Steinbeck, don't we? The author of The Grapes of Wrath, Of Mice and Men, Cannery Row; member of communist organizations in the 1930's; lifelong associate of prominent leftists--we know him, right? He was a prewar liberal who flirted with communism, and made multiple tours of the Soviet Union during the Cold War.
Except maybe we don't know him at all. There have always been curiosities in the customary story of Steinbeck's life--most notably, perhaps, the way he completely dodged the Red Scare that did so much damage to so many of his artistic colleagues in the 1950s. Wikipedia tells us that the FBI "could find no basis for prosecuting Steinbeck," but plenty of people found themselves hauled before a Congressional committee to have their lives turned inside out and their livelihoods destroyed without ever committing a prosecuteable crime. Not so Steinbeck.
That's the sort of oddity that started Brian Kannard on a long period of detective work. His conjecture: that John Steinbeck had been left alone by the goons of the House Un-American Activities Committee because he was working for the intelligence services of the United States. If not exactly a "spy," he was an asset, making observations and doing little jobs for the CIA all through the Cold War.
A crazy idea, right? Until finally, one more in an endless stream of Freedom of Information Act requests produced a 1952 letter, in Steinbeck's own hand, to the Director of Central Intelligence, offering his services to the Agency. And another letter from the DCI accepting them (Steinbeck's letter can be seen on the cover of the book; it is of course reproduced inside). So those things are facts, and by themselves they are worth the price of admission. Just those two letters will change the way we understand a great American author's life. But there is much more here--using Steinbeck's life as a guideline, Kannard takes us through a history of espionage in the 20th Century: front organizations, psychological warfare operations, assassinations, propaganda campaigns. Again and again, Steinbeck turns up in the thick of things, and those 1952 letters force us to scratch our heads and wonder...
There is a lot in this book, and the thread can be a bit hard to follow at times. But it's a heck of a ride, intriguing and even quite thrilling as we read along and find ourselves in possession of that incredible letter.
A great read for literati, historians, and espionage geeks. This is a book that is bound to have an impact, and oblige us to reconsider a man we all thought we knew. Who knows what further discoveries may come of it?
Except maybe we don't know him at all. There have always been curiosities in the customary story of Steinbeck's life--most notably, perhaps, the way he completely dodged the Red Scare that did so much damage to so many of his artistic colleagues in the 1950s. Wikipedia tells us that the FBI "could find no basis for prosecuting Steinbeck," but plenty of people found themselves hauled before a Congressional committee to have their lives turned inside out and their livelihoods destroyed without ever committing a prosecuteable crime. Not so Steinbeck.
That's the sort of oddity that started Brian Kannard on a long period of detective work. His conjecture: that John Steinbeck had been left alone by the goons of the House Un-American Activities Committee because he was working for the intelligence services of the United States. If not exactly a "spy," he was an asset, making observations and doing little jobs for the CIA all through the Cold War.
A crazy idea, right? Until finally, one more in an endless stream of Freedom of Information Act requests produced a 1952 letter, in Steinbeck's own hand, to the Director of Central Intelligence, offering his services to the Agency. And another letter from the DCI accepting them (Steinbeck's letter can be seen on the cover of the book; it is of course reproduced inside). So those things are facts, and by themselves they are worth the price of admission. Just those two letters will change the way we understand a great American author's life. But there is much more here--using Steinbeck's life as a guideline, Kannard takes us through a history of espionage in the 20th Century: front organizations, psychological warfare operations, assassinations, propaganda campaigns. Again and again, Steinbeck turns up in the thick of things, and those 1952 letters force us to scratch our heads and wonder...
There is a lot in this book, and the thread can be a bit hard to follow at times. But it's a heck of a ride, intriguing and even quite thrilling as we read along and find ourselves in possession of that incredible letter.
A great read for literati, historians, and espionage geeks. This is a book that is bound to have an impact, and oblige us to reconsider a man we all thought we knew. Who knows what further discoveries may come of it?
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews