Charles McCarry (June 14, 1930 – February 26, 2019)
was an American writer, primarily of
spy fiction, and a former
undercover operative for the
Central Intelligence Agency
The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gathering, processing, ...
.
Biography
McCarry's family came from
The Berkshires
The Berkshires () are a highland geologic region located in the western parts of Massachusetts and northwest Connecticut. The term "Berkshires" is normally used by locals in reference to the portion of the Vermont-based Green Mountains that ex ...
area of western
Massachusetts
Massachusetts (Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut Massachusett_writing_systems.html" ;"title="nowiki/> məhswatʃəwiːsət.html" ;"title="Massachusett writing systems">məhswatʃəwiːsət">Massachusett writing systems">məhswatʃəwiːsət'' En ...
. He was born in
Pittsfield
Pittsfield is the largest city and the county seat of Berkshire County, Massachusetts, United States. It is the principal city of the Pittsfield, Massachusetts Metropolitan Statistical Area which encompasses all of Berkshire County. Pittsfield ...
, and lived in Virginia.
He graduated from Dalton High School.
["Sgt. McCarry Ends Army Hitch"](_blank)
''The Berkshire County Eagle'', Pittsfield, Massachusetts, volume 162, number 30, August 8, 1951, page 6.
McCarry began his writing career in the
United States Army
The United States Army (USA) is the land warfare, land military branch, service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight Uniformed services of the United States, U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army o ...
as a correspondent for ''
Stars and Stripes''. He served from 1948 to 1951 and achieved the rank of sergeant.
He received initial training at
Fort Benning, Georgia, and was stationed in Germany for almost two years and at
Camp Pickett, Virginia for about a year.
After his army service, he was a speechwriter in the early Administration of
President Dwight D. Eisenhower. In 1958, at the invitation of
Cord Meyer
Cord Meyer Jr. (; November 10, 1920 – March 13, 2001) was a US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) official. After serving in World War II as a Marine officer in the Pacific War, where he was both injured and decorated, he led the United World Fe ...
, he accepted a post with the CIA, for whom he traveled the globe as a deep cover operative. He took a leave of absence to work for the
1960 Nixon campaign, writing for vice-presidential candidate
Henry Cabot Lodge
Henry Cabot Lodge (May 12, 1850 November 9, 1924) was an American Republican politician, historian, and statesman from Massachusetts. He served in the United States Senate from 1893 to 1924 and is best known for his positions on foreign policy. ...
.
He left the CIA for the last time in 1967, becoming a writer of spy novels.
McCarry was also an editor-at-large for ''
National Geographic'' and contributed pieces to ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...
'', ''
The Wall Street Journal
''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...
'', ''
The Washington Post
''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...
'', the ''
Saturday Evening Post'', and other national publications.
Approach to writing
McCarry believed that "the best novels are about ordinary things: love, betrayal, death, trust, loneliness, marriage, fatherhood."
[McCarry, Charles, "A Strip of Exposed Film, " in ''='Paths of Resistance'', page 69.] In 1988 McCarry described the themes of his novels to date as "ordinary things – love, death, betrayal and the American dream."
[McCarry, Charles, "How to Write Spy Novels; the Best Books are Collaborations Between the Writer and Reader", June 19, 1988.]
McCarry wrote that: "After I resigned
rom the CIA intending to spend the rest of my life writing fiction and knowing what tricks the mind can play when the gates are thrown wide open, as they are by the act of writing, between the imagination and that part of the brain in which information is stored, I took the precaution of writing a closely remembered narrative of my clandestine experiences. After correcting the manuscript, I burned it. What I kept for my own use was the atmosphere of secret life: How it worked on the five senses and what it did to the heart and mind. All the rest went up in flames, setting me free henceforth to make it all up. In all important matters, such as the creation of characters and the invention of plots, with rare and minor exceptions, that is what I have done. And, as might be expected, when I have been weak enough to use something that really happened as an episode in a novel, it is that piece of scrap, buried in a landfill of the imaginary, readers invariably refuse to believe."
[McCarry, Charles, "Between the Real and the Believable", ''Washington Post'', December 11, 1994.]
McCarry was an admirer of the work of
Eric Ambler
Eric Clifford Ambler OBE (28 June 1909 – 22 October 1998) was an English author of thrillers, in particular spy novels, who introduced a new realism to the genre. Also working as a screenwriter, Ambler used the pseudonym Eliot Reed for book ...
and
W. Somerset Maugham
William Somerset Maugham ( ; 25 January 1874 – 16 December 1965) was an English writer, known for his plays, novels and short stories. Born in Paris, where he spent his first ten years, Maugham was schooled in England and went to a German un ...
, especially the latter's
Ashenden stories. He was also an admirer of
Richard Condon
Richard Thomas Condon (March 18, 1915 – April 9, 1996) was an American political novelist. Though his works were satire, they were generally transformed into thrillers or semi-thrillers in other media, such as cinema. All 26 books were writte ...
, author of ''
The Manchurian Candidate
''The Manchurian Candidate'' is a novel by Richard Condon, first published in 1959. It is a political thriller about the son of a prominent U.S. political family who is brainwashed into being an unwitting assassin for a Communist conspiracy.
Th ...
'' (1959).
Paul Christopher series
Ten of McCarry's novels involve the life story of a fictional character named Paul Christopher, who grew up in pre-Nazi Germany, and later served in the
Marines
Marines, or naval infantry, are typically a military force trained to operate in littoral zones in support of naval operations. Historically, tasks undertaken by marines have included helping maintain discipline and order aboard the ship (refle ...
and became an operative for a U.S. government entity known as "the Outfit", meant to represent the Central Intelligence Agency.
These books are, in order of publication:
*''
The Miernik Dossier
The Miernik Dossier, published by the Saturday Review Press in 1973, was the first of seven novels by the American novelist Charles McCarry featuring an American intelligence agent named Paul Christopher. Set in 1959 in Europe and Africa during ...
'' (1973): Christopher investigates a possible Soviet spy in Geneva
*''
The Tears of Autumn'' (1974): Christopher investigates the
Kennedy Assassination
John F. Kennedy, the 35th president of the United States, was assassinated on Friday, November 22, 1963, at 12:30 p.m. CST in Dallas, Texas, while riding in a presidential motorcade through Dealey Plaza. Kennedy was in the vehicle with ...
*''
The Secret Lovers
''The Secret Lovers'' (; lit. "Secrets Between a Man and a Woman"), also known as ''A Man and a Woman'', is a 2005 South Korean television series starring Han Ji-hye, Kim Suk-hoon, Song Seon-mi and Kwon Oh-joong. It aired on MBC from August 29 t ...
'' (1977): Christopher discovers a secret plot within the CIA
*''
The Better Angels'' (1979): Christopher's cousins steal a Presidential election
*''
The Last Supper
Image:The Last Supper - Leonardo Da Vinci - High Resolution 32x16.jpg, 400px, alt=''The Last Supper'' by Leonardo da Vinci - Clickable Image, Depictions of the Last Supper in Christian art have been undertaken by artistic masters for centuries, ...
'' (1983): introduction to Christopher's parents in pre-World War II Germany; Christopher is imprisoned in China
*''The Bride of the Wilderness'' (1988): historical novel concerning 17th-century Christopher ancestors
*''Second Sight'' (1991): released from a Chinese prison, Christopher meets a daughter he did not know he had
*''Shelley's Heart'' (1995): sequel to ''The Better Angels'': Christopher's cousins cause a Presidential impeachment
*''Old Boys'' (2004): Christopher's old associates discover a plot involving terrorists and the fate of Christopher's mother
*''Christopher's Ghosts'' (2007): the story of Christopher's first love in pre-World War II Germany
Alternately, in chronological order of events depicted:
*''Bride of the Wilderness'' (Christopher's ancestors)
*''Last Supper''
n part
N, or n, is the fourteenth letter in the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''en'' (pronounced ), plural ''ens''.
History
...
(Christopher's parents)
*''Christopher's Ghosts''
*''The Miernik Dossier''
*''Secret Lovers''
*''The Tears of Autumn''
*''Last Supper''
n part
N, or n, is the fourteenth letter in the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''en'' (pronounced ), plural ''ens''.
History
...
*''The Better Angels''
*''Shelley's Heart''
*''Second Sight'' (Christopher is a peripheral character)
*''Old Boys'' (Christopher is a peripheral character)
Reception
''
The Wall Street Journal
''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...
'' described McCarry in 2013 as "the dean of American spy writers".
''
The New Republic
''The New Republic'' is an American magazine of commentary on politics, contemporary culture, and the arts. Founded in 1914 by several leaders of the progressive movement, it attempted to find a balance between "a liberalism centered in hu ...
'' magazine called him "poet laureate of the CIA"; and Otto Penzler described him as "the greatest espionage writer that America has ever produced."
Jonathan Yardley
Jonathan Yardley (born October 27, 1939) was the book critic at ''The Washington Post'' from 1981 to December 2014, and held the same post from 1978 to 1981 at the ''Washington Star''. In 1981, he received the Pulitzer Prize for Criticism.
Bac ...
, Pulitzer Prize-winning critic for the ''Washington Post'', calls him a "'serious' novelist" whose work may include "the best novel ever written about life in high-stakes Washington, D.C." In 2004
P. J. O'Rourke called him "the best modern writer on the subject of intrigue."
Adaptations
The film ''
Wrong is Right'' (1982), starring
Sean Connery, was loosely based on McCarry's novel, ''The Better Angels'' (1979).
Other books and publications
Non-Paul Christopher novels
*''Lucky Bastard'' (1999). A comic novel in which a likeable but amoral, devious, and oversexed politician (meant to evoke
Bill Clinton
William Jefferson Clinton ( né Blythe III; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. He previously served as governor of Arkansas from 1979 to 1981 and agai ...
) is controlled by a female eastern-bloc subversive.
*''Ark'' (2011). Earth's wealthiest man attempts to save humanity from a coming apocalypse.
*''The Shanghai Factor'' (2013). A rookie spy in China is drawn into the lonely, compartmentalized world of counterintelligence, and misunderstands everything that he and those around him are doing.
*''The Mulberry Bush'' (2015). Explores the world of South America's elites and militant revolutionaries, and the role of lifelong personal passions and agendas in their work and that of intelligence operatives.
Non-fiction
*''Citizen
Nader
Nader is a masculine given name and surname of Arabic origin ( ''Nādir'', meaning "rare", "unique") and may refer to:
Persons Given name
* Nader Shah, former Shah of Iran (Persia)
* Nader Ahmadi (born 1986), Iranian football player
* Nader ...
'' (1972)
*''Double Eagle:
Ben Abruzzo
Benjamin L. "Ben" Abruzzo (June 9, 1930 – February 11, 1985) was an American balloonist and businessman who helped make Albuquerque, New Mexico, into an international ballooning center. He was part of the balloon crews that made the first ...
,
Maxie Anderson
Maxie Anderson (September 10, 1934 – June 27, 1983) was an American hot air balloonist and Congressional Gold Medal recipient He was part of the balloon crews that made the first Atlantic ocean crossing by balloon in the Double Eagle II a ...
,
Larry Newman'' (1979)
*''The Great Southwest'' (1980)
*''Isles of the Caribbean'' (
National Geographic Society
The National Geographic Society (NGS), headquartered in Washington, D.C., United States, is one of the largest non-profit scientific and educational organizations in the world.
Founded in 1888, its interests include geography, archaeology, an ...
, Washington, DC, 1980, co-author)
*''For the Record: From Wall Street to Washington'' (1988, by
Donald Regan
Donald Thomas Regan (December 21, 1918 – June 10, 2003) was the 66th United States Secretary of the Treasury from 1981 to 1985 and the White House Chief of Staff from 1985 to 1987 under Ronald Reagan. In the Reagan administration, he advocat ...
with Charles McCarry)
*''Paths of Resistance: The Art and Craft of the Political Novel'' (1989, with
Isabel Allende
Isabel Angélica Allende Llona (; born in Lima, 2 August 1942) is a Chilean writer. Allende, whose works sometimes contain aspects of the genre magical realism, is known for novels such as ''The House of the Spirits'' (''La casa de los espír ...
,
Marge Piercy
Marge Piercy (born March 31, 1936) is an American progressive activist and writer. Her work includes '' Woman on the Edge of Time''; '' He, She and It'', which won the 1993 Arthur C. Clarke Award; and ''Gone to Soldiers'', a New York Times Best ...
,
Robert Stone and
Gore Vidal
Eugene Luther Gore Vidal (; born Eugene Louis Vidal, October 3, 1925 – July 31, 2012) was an American writer and public intellectual known for his epigrammatic wit, erudition, and patrician manner. Vidal was bisexual, and in his novels and e ...
)
*''Inner Circles: How America Changed the World: a Memoir'' (1992, by
Alexander Haig
Alexander Meigs Haig Jr. (; December 2, 1924February 20, 2010) was United States Secretary of State under President Ronald Reagan and White House Chief of Staff under Presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford. Prior to and in between these ...
with Charles McCarry)
*''Caveat: Realism, Reagan, and Foreign Policy'' (1984, by Alexander Haig with Charles McCarry). Stories include: In March 1981, shortly after taking office, Ronald Reagan was shot; Secretary of State Haig appeared in the White House press room and announced, "I am in charge here!"
*''From the Field: A Collection of Writings from National Geographic'' (1997, editor)
Collections including McCarry's work
*
Harlan Coben, ed. ''The Best American Mystery Stories: 2011'' − includes "The End of the String."
*
Alan Furst
Alan Furst (; born 1941) is a Jewish-American author of historical spy novels. Furst has been called "an heir to the tradition of Eric Ambler and Graham Greene," whom he cites along with Joseph Roth and Arthur Koestler as important influences. M ...
, editor ''The Book of Spies −'' includes excerpt from ''The Tears of Autumn''.
Otto Penzler
Otto Penzler (born July 8, 1942) is a German-born American editor of mystery fiction, and proprietor of The Mysterious Bookshop in New York City.
Biography
Born in Germany to a German-American mother and a German father, Penzler moved to The ...
, editor:
* ''Agents of Treachery'' − includes "The End of the Sting."
*''The 50 Greatest Mysteries of All Time'' − includes "The Hand of Carlos"
*''The Big Book of Espionage'' − includes "The Hand of Carlos"
Short stories (fiction)
*"The Saint Who Said No", ''Saturday Evening Post'', December 9, 1961
*"The Hand of Carlos", ''Armchair Detective'' (1992)
*"The End of the String"
Magazine articles (non-fiction)
*"A ... Week on the Road With Ralph Nader", ''Life'' magazine, January 21, 1972
*"John Rennon’s Excrusive Gloupie: On the load to briss with the Yoko nobody Onos", ''Esquire'' magazine, December 1, 1970
References
Further reading
*
*
*
*Snyder, Robert Lance. "Charles McCarry's Recursive Late Fiction." ''Clues: A Journal of Detection'' 36.2 (Fall 2018): 71–81.
*Snyder, Robert Lance. (Fall 2020). "Suspicion's Abysmal Logic: Charles McCarry's ''The Miernik Dossier.''" ''South Atlantic Review'' 85(3), 171–84.
External links
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:McCarry, Charles
American columnists
American male non-fiction writers
American male novelists
American spy fiction writers
Military personnel from Massachusetts
Novelists from Massachusetts
United States Army non-commissioned officers
Writers from Pittsfield, Massachusetts
1930 births
2019 deaths
20th-century American male writers
20th-century American non-fiction writers
20th-century American novelists
21st-century American male writers
21st-century American non-fiction writers
21st-century American novelists