Publisher:
Cambridge University Press, Cambridge [u.a.]
Britain's domestic intelligence agencies maintained secret records on many left-wing writers after the First World War. Drawing on recently declassified material from 1930 to 1960, this revealing study examines how leading figures in Britain's...
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Universitätsbibliothek der Eberhard Karls Universität
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Britain's domestic intelligence agencies maintained secret records on many left-wing writers after the First World War. Drawing on recently declassified material from 1930 to 1960, this revealing study examines how leading figures in Britain's literary scene fell under MI5 and Special Branch surveillance, and the surprising extent to which writers became willing participants in the world of covert intelligence and propaganda. Chapters devoted to W. H. Auden and his associates, theatre pioneers Ewan MacColl and Joan Littlewood, George Orwell and others describe methods used by MI5 to gather information through and about the cultural world. The book also investigates how these covert agencies assessed the political influence of such writers, providing scholars and students of twentieth-century British literature with an unprecedented account of clandestine operations in popular culture Intellectual and intelligence contexts, 1930-1960 -- The Auden circle -- Ewan MacColl, Joan Littlewood, and Theatre Workshop -- George Orwell and Arthur Koestler
Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 05 Oct 2015)
Cover; cover_blank.pdf; British Writers and MI5 Surveillance, 1930-1960; Title; Copyright; Contents; Preface; Abbreviations; Chapter 1 Intellectual and Intelligence Contexts, 1930-1960; Writers and Spies; An Anatomy of the British Secret State; The Communist Threat in British Culture; Communists of the 'Intellectual Type'; Writers, the Secret State, and the Second World War; The Thirties Writers and the Cold War; Chapter 2 The Auden Circle; Day-Lewis Comes to Attention; Spender and the Soviet Embassy; Auden, Isherwood, and the Radical Networks of the 1930s
The Spanish Civil War and 'Comintern-Controlled' OrganisationsBreaking with the Left; Day-Lewis and Spender in the Second World War; Continued Surveillance; The Cambridge Spies and the Auden Circle; Spender and the Cultural Cold War; Chapter 3 Ewan MacColl, Joan Littlewood, and Theatre Workshop; Early Surveillance of MacColl: Rambling, Street Theatre, and Radio; MacColl, Littlewood, and the Second World War; MacColl and Littlewood in the Cold War; MI5's Surveillance of Theatre Workshop; A Communist Controlled Theatre Company?; Chapter 4 George Orwell and Arthur Koestler
Early Surveillance of OrwellTrodden on by a Very Dirty Boot?: Orwell in the Second World War; MI5's Surveillance of Koestler; Orwell and Koestler as Cold Warriors; Epilogue; Notes; Index;
Publisher:
Cambridge University Press, Cambridge ;
"Britain's domestic intelligence agencies maintained secret records on many left-wing writers after the First World War. Drawing on recently declassified material from 1930 to 1960, this revealing study examines how leading figures in Britain's...
more
"Britain's domestic intelligence agencies maintained secret records on many left-wing writers after the First World War. Drawing on recently declassified material from 1930 to 1960, this revealing study examines how leading figures in Britain's literary scene fell under MI5 and Special Branch surveillance, and the surprising extent to which writers became willing participants in the world of covert intelligence and propaganda. Chapters devoted to W. H. Auden and his associates, theatre pioneers Ewan MacColl and Joan Littlewood, George Orwell, and others describe methods used by MI5 to gather information through and about the cultural world. The book also investigates how these covert agencies assessed the political influence of such writers, providing scholars and students of twentieth-century British literature an unprecedented account of clandestine operations in popular culture"-- Machine generated contents note: Abbreviations; Preface; 1. Intellectual and intelligence contexts, 1930-60; 2. The Auden circle; 3. Ewan MacColl, Joan Littlewood, and Theatre Workshop; 4. Arthur Koestler and George Orwell; Epilogue; Notes.
