SPYWRITER: Richard Krebs’ Astonishing Journey from German Communist Conspirator to American Combat Veteran

by Roger J. Mattson

SPYWRITER is the story of the life and times of Richard Krebs, aka Jan Valtin, a German seaman who joined the Communist Party in 1923 at age 18, sailed the world on secret missions for the Comintern, fought the Nazis, abandoned communism, escaped to America, lost his wife to Hitler's persecution and his son to obscurity, gained fame as a best-selling author, remarried, fathered two American sons, endured prosecution as an illegal alien, served with honors in the Pacific Theatre of World War II, found his lost son, gained U.S. citizenship, wrote more books, and returned to espionage for American intelligence interests at the start of the Cold War.

448 pages, Paperback

Published February 1, 2021

About the author

Roger published “SPYWRITER: Richard Krebs' Astonishing Journey from German Communist Conspirator to American Combat Veteran” in early 2021. It is a biography of the German communist spy, Richard Krebs, alias Jan Valtin, who saw the light, abandoned his position in the Comintern, came to America as an illegal alien, wrote the best selling non-fiction book of 1941 “Out of the Night,” was awarded a Bronze Star in the battle for the Philippines, earned his American citizenship, and collaborated with elements of America’s Cold War intelligence apparatus.

Roger’s first literary work was “Stealing the Atom Bomb: How Denial and Deception Armed Israel,” published in 2016. Response to the book from nuclear cognoscenti and the general public has been good, as shown in the reviews found here and on Goodreads.com. Readers can learn a bit more about the Israeli bomb and the Apollo/NUMEC affair by going to the website of the National Security Archive where the most important source documents for this book are posted.

Mattson was born in Nebraska a month before the attack on Pearl Harbor. In the year of Sputnik 1, inspired by a math teacher, he opted for a career in engineering and earned a Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Michigan. He has worked in the nuclear safety field for more than 50 years.