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  • Writer, Sailor, Soldier, Spy

  • Ernest Hemingway's Secret Adventures, 1935-1961
  • By: Nicholas Reynolds
  • Narrated by: Fred Sanders
  • Length: 9 hrs and 14 mins
  • 4.0 out of 5 stars (15 ratings)
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Writer, Sailor, Soldier, Spy cover art

Writer, Sailor, Soldier, Spy

By: Nicholas Reynolds
Narrated by: Fred Sanders
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Summary

A former CIA officer and curator of the CIA Museum unveils the shocking, untold story of Nobel Prize-winning author Ernest Hemingway's secret life as a spy for both the Americans and the Soviets before and during World War II.

While he was the curator of the CIA Museum, Nicholas Reynolds, a longtime military intelligence expert, began to discover tantalizing clues that suggested Ernest Hemingway's involvement in the Second World War was much more complex and dangerous than has been previously understood. Writer, Sailor, Soldier, Spy brings to light for the first time this riveting secret side of Hemingway's life - when he worked closely with both the American OSS, a precursor to the CIA, and the Soviet NKVD, the USSR's forerunner to the KGB, to defeat Adolf Hitler and the Nazis.

Reynolds digs deep into Hemingway's involvement in World War II, from his recruitment by both the Americans and the Soviets - who valued Hemingway for his journalistic skills and access to sources - through his key role in gaining tactical intelligence for the Allies during the liberation of Paris to his later doubts about communist ideology and his undercover work in Cuba. As he examines the links between his work as a spy and as an author, Reynolds reveals how Hemingway's wartime experiences shook his faith in literature and contributed to the writer's block that plagued him for much of the final two decades of his life. Reynolds also illuminates how those same experiences also informed one of Hemingway's greatest works - The Old Man and the Sea - the final novel published during his lifetime.

A unique portrait as fast-paced and exciting as the best espionage thrillers, Writer, Sailor, Soldier, Spy illuminates a hidden side of a revered artist and is a thrilling addition to the annals of World War II.

©2017 Nicholas Reynolds (P)2017 HarperCollins Publishers

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Extremely interesting

This is an amazingly insightful book, I've read many Hemingway autobiographies. some broad stroke and some more focussed on a single part of his life and how it affected the whole. This slots in perfectly with those and is a fine addition to any scholar of Hemingway.

The book is also a compelling story, some sticking power is required when the narrative halts briefly to fit in the great number of names, dates and facts contained in this impressive work.

To conclude, the book is great whether you're a stone cold devourer of anything Hemingway, a Hemingway scholar, or just like real life stories of spying, danger and intrigue.

Can't recommend it enough.

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Excellent

For any lifelong Hemingway reader or reader of top drawer biographies of eminent novelists Writer, Sailor, Soldier, Spy is a perfect tome.

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Terrible

Quite simply an awful performance from the narrator. One of the strangest voices I’ve ever heard and impossible to follow or understand. Like a robotic beep. Couldn’t get past chapter 3! Appalling!

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