British writers and MI5 surveillance, 1930-1960
By: James Smith
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Published: 2012
Place of publication: Cambridge; New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 206
ISBN-13: 9781107030824
Subjects: Intelligence service in literature; Great Britain. MI5; English literature; Politics and literature; British Espionage; Right and left (Political science) in literature; History and criticism; Great Britain; LITERARY CRITICISM / European / English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh; History
Description: "The book explores records that MI5, Britain's domestic intelligence agency, maintained on influential left-wing writers from 1930 to 1960"--

"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"--
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: 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.