W. Allyn Rickett (October 26, 1921 – April 18, 2020) was an American historian, and a

professor emeritus ''Emeritus'' (; female: ''emerita'') is an adjective used to designate a retired chair, professor, pastor, bishop, pope, director, president, prime minister, rabbi, emperor, or other person who has been "permitted to retain as an honorary title ...

Chinese Chinese can refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation ** List of ethnic groups in China, people of va ...

and

Asian Asian may refer to: * Items from or related to the continent of Asia: ** Asian people, people in or descending from Asia ** Asian culture, the culture of the people from Asia ** Asian cuisine, food based on the style of food of the people from Asi ...

and

Middle Eastern studies Middle Eastern studies (sometimes referred to as Near Eastern studies) is a name given to a number of academic programs associated with the study of the history, culture, politics, economies, and geography of the Middle East, an area that is gene ...

at the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...

. He was also a published author. Rickett was an intelligence officer of the

Office of Naval Intelligence The Office of Naval Intelligence (ONI) is the military intelligence agency of the United States Navy. Established in 1882 primarily to advance the Navy's modernization efforts, it is the oldest member of the U.S. Intelligence Community and serves ...

at the end of World War II. Later, from 1948 he and his wife, Adele studied and gathered intelligence in Beijing until they were arrested by the Communists. They spent four years in prison in China and later published a book about their experiences under the title ''Prisoners of Liberation'' in 1957. The book was translated into many languages and republished several times during the years. He translated various Chinese classics including the Guanzi. Rickett died April 18, 2020, aged 98.

References

1921 births 2020 deaths University of Pennsylvania faculty 21st-century American historians 21st-century American male writers American spies American sinologists American male non-fiction writers United States Navy personnel of World War II {{US-historian-stub