Conspiracy of Silence: The Secret Life of Anthony Blunt.

PENROSE, Barrie and Simon Freeman. [Sally Soames].

$975.00

Item Number: 132704

London: Grafton Books, 1986.

First edition of Penrose and Freeman’s detailed biography of Anthony Blunt. Octavo, original cloth, illustrated. Association copy, inscribed by both authors on the front free endpaper, “November 1986. To Sally – a fine photographer and colleague. You buy my book – I’ll buy yours. Love, Simon Freeman” and “How can I beat that! Luv, Barrie Penrose xxx.” The recipient, British photojournalist Sally Soames, worked for The Sunday Times from 1968 until 2000 and was highly regarded for her exclusively black and white portraits of many of the most prominent figures of the 20th century including Menachem Begin, Margaret Atwood, Margaret Thatcher, Sean Connery, Rudolf Nureyev, Alec Guinness and Andy Warhol. Soames, who was known to be a warm and personal journalist, performed extensive research on her subjects and developed intimate rapports with them during her process, resulting in striking and revealing portraits. In addition to the several world leaders Soames came to know and photograph, she captured the unique personalities of some of the world’s most gifted authors, poets, and playwrights. She published two books of photographs during her lifetime: Manpower (1987) with text by Robin Morgan and an introduction by Harold Evans and Writers (1995) with a preface by Norman Mailer. Near fine in a near fine dust jacket.

British art historian Anthony Blunt was considered to be the "fourth man" of the Cambridge Five, a group of Cambridge-educated spies working for the Soviet Union from some time in the 1930s to at least the early 1950s. He was the fourth discovered, with John Cairncross yet to be revealed. The height of his espionage activity was during World War II, when he passed intelligence on Wehrmacht plans that the British government had decided to withhold from its ally. His confession, a closely guarded secret for years, was revealed publicly by Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in November 1979. He was stripped of his knighthood immediately thereafter. The present volume is the first detailed account of his remarkable story by two leading journalist from the New York Herald Tribune and London Standard.