Research Catalog

Alien ink : the FBI's war on freedom of expression

Title: Alien ink : the FBI's war on freedom of expression / Natalie Robins.
Author: Robins, Natalie S.
Publication: New York : W. Morrow, ©1992.

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Status	Format	Access	Call Number	Item Location
Request for On-site Use Request Scan Not available - Please for assistance.	Text	Use in library	PS129 .R63 1992	Off-site

Details

Description

495 pages : illustrations; 25 cm

Summary

Alien Ink is the most comprehensive book yet written on how the Federal Bureau of Investigation waged war against American writers and readers from the early years of this century. As Natalie Robins reveals for the first time, this assault on freedom of expression began long before iron-fisted J. Edgar Hoover joined the Justice Department and made his name synonymous with that of the FBI for over forty years. The war carried over into the 1980s, when librarians, as part.
Of a Library Awareness Program, were recruited to spy on readers. Drawing on nearly 150 files released to the author under the Freedom of Information Act, Natalie Robins's absorbing narrative offers compelling new documentary evidence about the hounding and intimidation of writers ranging from John Reed to Allen Ginsberg, from Edna St. Vincent Millay to James Baldwin, and from Walter Winchell to Robert Lowell--a virtual Who's Who of American letters. Alien Ink is the.
Story of hidden agendas and hidden powers, and contains many surprises--among them, that Hoover, known for his right-wing sympathies, not only inhibited left-wing expression, but harassed right-wingers as well. Robins shows how the Bureau combed newspapers, books, plays, films, and radio broadcasts for "alien ink"--Anything "anti-American" or "anti-FBI"--and describes how those incriminated endured phone taps, mail searches, and character assassinations. She reveals the.
Pressure tactics FBI agents employed to make them toe the line, as well as the astounding criminal lengths (including extortion and entrapment) that the Bureau went to in order to "get something" on those writers who wouldn't capitulate. And she explains the FBI's attitude toward the group of writers it considered the most threatening of all: journalists. Confirming Robins's findings are dozens of interviews--dramatic dialogues--with living writers and others of all.
Ideological persuasions, who bear witness to the FBI's investigative crusade. They include Norman Mailer, William F. Buckley, Jr., Murray Kempton, Arthur Miller, Kay Boyle, Jessica Mitford, and Howard Fast. Here, as well, are the testimonies of former and present FBI employees (including a current special agent who speaks on the condition of anonymity, and Cartha D. DeLoach, Hoover's third in command) and an interview with the controversial Roy Cohn, who spoke from his.
Deathbed. Unequaled in its scope and depth, Alien Ink provides a crucial understanding of the FBI's covert war on writers and the First Amendment. It traces America's shifting cultural obsessions from the teens to the nineties, so that patterns and connections come into focus as never before. Make no mistake, the FBI tried to control opinion in America, and this provocative and penetrating work of investigative reporting tells how and why.

Subject

Genre/Form

Criticism, interpretation, etc.
History
History.

Bibliography (note)

Includes bibliographical references (p. 470-477) and index.

Contents

Prologue -- The files -- The formal witnesses -- pt. I. The Russian Revolution and World War I. Before Hoover ; The arrival of Hoover -- pt. II. The 1920S: undeclared wars, the rise of fascism, and the Sacco-Vanzetti case. The arrival of new aliens: 1920-1929 -- pt. III. The Spanish Civil War. Images in their minds ; The search for new aliens--the 1930s ; "A little bit in awe of them" ; The "friendlies" ; The "friendlies," continued ; The "unfriendlies" ; The "unfriendlies," continued -- pt. IV. World War II and the Cold War. A broader net ; Pound, Boyle, Hecht, and Stein ; Hemingway, Wilder, Sherwood, MacLeish, and Cowley ; Rukeyser, Herbst, Porter, and Fast ; Wouk, Cozzens, Mitford, Parker, Hammett, Hellman, and Lowell -- pt. V. McCarthy's war and the Korean War. Sinister influences ; Matthiessen, Untermeyer, Hughes, and Wright ; Adams, Shapiro, and Williams ; Trilling, Agee, Capote, Gardner, and Miller -- pt. VI. The continuing Cold War and Vietnam War. The 1960s aliens ; Mailer, Ginsberg, and Frank ; Baldwin, Baraka, Schwartz, Roethke, Stout, Williams, Paley, and Doctorow -- pt. VII. After Hoover. A broader outlook: 1970-present ; Spies in the stacks -- pt. VIII. Preparing for 2000s: is the past past? "Most of damage was invisible" -- Appendix A. Writers, editors, agents, and publishers indexed by the FBI because they signed civil rights and/or antiwar protests during the 1960s -- Appendix B. Additional files -- Appendix C. An epilogue.

ISBN

0688068855
9780688068851

LCCN

91025559

OCLC

ocm24068995
24068995
SCSB-1951000

Owning Institutions

Princeton University Library