Robins, Natalie

New York. 1992. Morrow. 1st Printing. Very Good in Dustjacket . 0688068855. 496 pages. hardcover. Jacket design by Lawrence Ratzkin. keywords: FBI Politics Espionage. FROM THE PUBLISHER - Alien Ink is the most comprehensive book yet written on how the Federal Bureau of Investigation waged war against American writers and readers from the early years of this century. As Natalie Robins reveals for the first time, this assault on freedom of expression began long before iron-fisted J. Edgar Hoover joined the Justice Department and made his name synonymous with that of the FBI for over forty years. The war carried over into the 1980s, when librarians, as part of a Library Awareness Program, were recruited to spy on readers. Drawing on nearly 150 files released to the author under the Freedom of Information Act, Natalie Robins's absorbing narrative offers compelling new documentary evidence about the hounding and intimidation of writers ranging from John Reed to Allen Ginsberg, from Edna St. Vincent Millay to James Baldwin, and from Walter Winchell to Robert Lowell - a virtual Who's Who of American letters. Alien Ink is the story of hidden agendas and hidden powers, and contains many surprises - among them, that Hoover, known for his right-wing sympathies, not only inhibited left-wing expression, but harassed right-wingers as well. Robins shows how the Bureau combed newspapers, books, plays, films, and radio broadcasts for ‘alien ink' - anything ‘anti-American' or ‘anti-FBI' - and describes how those incriminated endured phone taps, mail searches, and character assassinations. She reveals the pressure tactics FBI agents employed to make them toe the line, as well as the astounding criminal lengths (including extortion and entrapment) that the Bureau went to in order to ‘get something' on those writers who wouldn't capitulate. inventory #16899 ISBN: 0688068855.