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A review by socraticgadfly
Finks: How the CIA Tricked the World's Best Writers by Joel Whitney
5.0
A great book on how the CIA was running Paris Review (in part via third-party funding) and other "culture" magazines like Encounter, most of them more directly, as a string of polo ponies to push forward the idea of American culture as a counterweight to Soviet culture (and the Soviets pointing out things such as racism).
Those on the take, as far as individuals included George Plimpton (known today by a fair number) and Peter Matthiessen (known by fewer). Whitney shows just how defensive Matthiessen was about this, claiming the CIA wasn't that bad back then, and citing his later support for American Indians as exculpation.
Beyond that, the CIA's "if you're not for us, you're against us" was applied to non-communist socialist writers like Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Mario Vargas Llosa. And, used to hound and spy on Papa Hemingway.
Must read, with the additional irony that Whitley has had poetry published in Paris Review!
Those on the take, as far as individuals included George Plimpton (known today by a fair number) and Peter Matthiessen (known by fewer). Whitney shows just how defensive Matthiessen was about this, claiming the CIA wasn't that bad back then, and citing his later support for American Indians as exculpation.
Beyond that, the CIA's "if you're not for us, you're against us" was applied to non-communist socialist writers like Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Mario Vargas Llosa. And, used to hound and spy on Papa Hemingway.
Must read, with the additional irony that Whitley has had poetry published in Paris Review!