Writers under
surveillance
By Sarah Mangiola
In the height of J. Edgar
Hoover’s FBI, men and women armed with a pen were sending shockwaves down the
government agency’s spine. Accused of spreading ideals that supported communism
and anti-war efforts—among other “dangerous thoughts” of the time—the FBI
started surveying certain authors they considered to be a threat.
Included in this list were
literary giants like James Baldwin, Ernest Hemingway, Ray Bradbury, Susan
Sontag, and more. Some, like Baldwin, knew they were being surveyed—while
others had no idea. MuckRock obtained the files through a Freedom of
Information Act request, giving the public access to the pages and pages of
surveillance the FBI did on these authors. The new book, Writers Under
Surveillance: The FBI Files, collects the files of 16 authors—spanning from
writers in the early 1900s to those still active today. The following four
writers were targeted by the Bureau for everything from potentially writing an
exposé to visiting enemy territory during a war.
Baldwin was a novelist and
playwright, known for his social criticism. His first novel, Go Tell It on the
Mountain (1953), is one of his most popular stories, as is Giovanni’s Room
(1956)—which was met with much controversy at the time of its publication due
to its explicit sexual content involving two men.
In a 1964 interview with
Playbill, following his Broadway run of Blues for Mister Charlie, Baldwin
mentioned that he was planning to write a book on the FBI. The thought of a
potential exposé terrified the Bureau, spurring their own investigation into
the author. Accused of being a communist, the FBI went on to collect thousands
of pages on Baldwin before dropping the case a decade later.
Arguably best known for his
science fiction story Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury started being surveyed by
the FBI when they suspected him of being a communist sympathizer. Though you’d
think his commentary on censorship in Fahrenheit 451 would draw interest from
the FBI, Bradbury wasn’t on the Bureau’s radar until 1956—three years after the
publication of his popular book—when he was named as a literary figure possibly
involved in the Cultural Congress of Havana in Cuba.
Though the FBI could not find
proof of his membership to the Communist Party, they scrutinized his
writing—looking for hidden messages. Using a comment Bradbury once made about
the ridiculousness of making members of the Screen Writers Guild swear they
were not members of the Communist Party, informant Martin Berkley twisted
Bradbury's words and actions to make it seem like the author used his own
science fiction stories to instill fear in Americans.
Susan Sontag was a writer and
social critic, flagged by the FBI for her anti-Vietnam War efforts. Her file
begins in 1968 after she was arrested for “disorderly conduct” following a
protest. Even more, the FBI was tipped off that Sontag travelled to Northern
Vietnam after receiving an invitation from their government, which was a
violation of her passport at the time. Though they initially lacked evidence,
the trip was essentially confirmed when an Esquire feature was
published—depicting her trip to Hanoi and her conversation with Prime Minister
Pham Van Dong.
The investigation stretched on
for two years after that, until a final report—dated in March 1972—stated that
Sontag was more of a nuisance than a credible threat, and speaking to her might
cause embarrassment for the Bureau since she was writer.
In contrast to the other writers
on this list, Hemingway actually acted as an FBI informant while living in
Cuba. Moving to the island after finishing For Whom the Bell Tolls, published
in 1940, Hemingway began working for the American Embassy in Havana after
forming a relationship with Ambassador Spruille Braden. He recruited barmen,
waiters, and others for the low-budget program, which was unimpressive to the
Bureau. At one point, Hemingway referred to a government official as a member
of the Gestapo, and also constantly showed his contempt for the Bureau. Even J.
Edgar Hoover stated that it would be the last time they would use someone like
Hemingway as an informant., Hemingway was still doing work for the Navy, before
going on to publish The Old Man and the Sea and win the Nobel Prize in
Literature.