c. 1994.
Hardcopy. autographed!
From the dust jacket:
The first volume of Norman Sherry's fascinating biography of Graham Greene won an Edgar Allan Poe Award and accolades from all quarters. Now in Volume Two, Sherry reveals Greene as a great novelist at the height of his powers and one of the most enigmatic figures of this century. Despite his legendary reticence about his own private life, Greene entrusted his papers and recorded confidences only to Sherry, chosen by Greene to be his distinguished scholar-sleuth.
This book (volume II) covers the most creative period of Greene's life, when he wrote not only some of his best novels -- among them The Ministry of Fear, The Heart of the Matter, The End of the Affair, and The Quiet American -- but also collaborated with Carol Reed on the films The Fallen Idol and The Third Man.
The Power and the Glory is mentioned in this volume; several instances.
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Introduction/Foreword
Norman Sherry wrote this biography of Graham Greene in San Antonio. We were living in San Antonio when I found at least one of the three volumes of this biography at a Half-Price Book Store.
A nice review: "Before The War: 1904 - 1939" -- a section in the introduction that is a short biography of Graham Greene.
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Part I
War
Chapter 1: Rumours at Nightfall
After severe dysentery in Mexico, 1938, Greene returns to England in May, 1938, with vital material which enabled him to produce his brilliant travel book The Lawless Roads and his greatest novel The Power and the Glory, but it was material which reflected his dislike: "I hate this country and this people."
London: culture shock
Mexico to London; and,
eve of war
Page 17: war declared, September 3, 1939, after Germany invaded Poland on September 1, 1939, and refused to withdraw.
1938: Mexico --> The Lawless Roads and The Power and The Glory
Returned to England, his wife and two children, May, 1938.
September 14, 1938: war seemed inevitable
Chamberlain -- p. 7
6-hour flight on practice bombing maneuvers.
Chapter skimmed.
Chapter 2: Enter Dorothy
Dorothy began in 1938 or 1939, when I found it impossible to work at home because of the children. I saw an advertisement for a studio to be rented in Mecklenburgh Square. I went there where Dorothy was living with her mother. It was just a work room ... it wasn't a studio in the French sense with a bed ... It was simply a room to work in. That is how we met. And she reduced the price because she thought I looked rather poor and I was a poor struggling author.
Enter Dorothy -- day before England - Germany declared war. He had evacuated his family to the country -- It was a random meeting -- no doubt -- Dorothy Glover. His wife Vivien sensed something going on --p. 21. "Its seriousness is reflected in The End of the Affair.
Skip forward -- when love for Dorothy waning, he fell in love with a married woman, Catherine, later Lady Walston -- but that's later.
Dorothy, b. 1901 -- three years older than Graham; four years older than Vivien. She was 38 when she met Greene.
The month war declared, The Confidential Agent appeared. Was working on The Power and the Glory when called up. He says he completed The P and the G when The Confidential Agent was published and came out.
Chapter 3: The Ministry and the Glory
The first six months of the year passed with only limited military action.
p. 35 "Sin also serves." Graham didn't know this phrase and was very pleased when he heard it -- Woolf = writers are collectors of phrases -- someone said that 1st 6 months i Army: Ministry of Information; Mentions Stephen Spender, p. 35. START HERE.
Ministry of Information: set up in Bloomsbury in University College buildings in Gower Street.
See comments of a Ministry of Information: "usefulness but for its own sake." -- p, 36
"In spite of his affairs with Dorothy, Greene continued to relay on. his wife's judgment." PG waited 10 years for success. Came out one month before Hitler invaded the Low Countries.
Escape from war: popularity of Jane Austin in wartime was an unexpected phenomenon. -- p. 42.
Catholic Church and PG - p. 42 - 43. Pope Paul praised it in later years!
Vivien and children evacuated to Oxford, 140 -- feared German invasion.
Chapter 4: The Blitz
The blitz on London began on September 7, 1940.
Mr Greene and his nice wife (?) (Dorothy -- carrying on in shelter. -- p 51.
"Greene at home in the London Blitz -- he felt the world deserved it -- there is a tremenous feeling that htere were Greene's best years." -- p. 53.
Chapter 5: The Destructors
Greene's journal for April 16, 1941, records the madhouse remembered by Londoners as "The Wednesday." In a single night, 2,000 civilians died and 100,000 homes were destroyed, as central London experienced its worst raid.
Greene with Dorothy that night, p. 55.
Greene occasionally his family in Oxford.
His house at 14 North Side, Clapham Common -- destroyed -- p. 62 - 65.
Greene accepted it. Vivien felt the loss significantly -- p. 65.
Chapter 6; Trivial Comedies, Shallow Tragedies
Greene was almost single-handedly running the arts section of the Spectator in 1941, for as well as writing book and film reviews, he was going to whatever live theatre was on offer, especially reviews, both before and during the evening blitz. Greene had always been a lover of revues, he had gone to them since childhood and enjoyed them without any sense of smugness; he understood them on their own simple terms.
His play reviews in this chapter.
Part 2
Africa
Chapter 7: School for Spies
December, 1940: applying for SIS/MI6
The war -- he now realized it demanded more of him!!! Born 1904 -- 1941, he was 37 y/o.
His younger sister, Elizabeth was in Intelligence.
MI6 -- slow to accept Greene.
Eldest brother Herbert had spied for Japanese before the war.
Vetted by "Mr Smith."
Told his mom 20 Aug 1941 he was going to West Africa for the Colonial Service.
Intel training.
Chapter 8: Return to Africa
December 8, 1941: Greene arrived in Liverpool; the day the Japanese landed in Thailand and northeast Malaya, and the US declared war on Japan
On/about December 26, 1941, just after Christmas, Greene arrived in west Africa, where "he was to lose his heart a second time."
12 passengers on the unnamed Elder Dempster cargo ship. One received "red-carpet" treatment -- p. 91 -- Liverpool --> Mersey (8 Dec) --> Belfast (13 Dec) --> direction of Greenock --> latitude of Lad's End, 21 Dec --> Passing Azores, 24 dec --> Freetown 3 January 1942.
Deeply moved to return to Freetown after 7 years.
1st visit: antidote to boredom.
this visit: intelligence officer, MI6, counter-espionage against the German enemy -- p. 98.
"Greene was back For a second time, he was to lose his heart to West Africa." -- p. 99.
Chapter 9: The Soupsweet Land
Waited six days on board the ship before disembarking. He went ashore the day following his arrival, but returned to sleep on the ship for another week.
Flew to Lagos for further training. Politics, p. 103 - 104.
Offer in MI5 upset an officer in MI6 (Greene) was in MI5's territory. Greene's cover: Dept of Overseas Trade (fiction).
Kim Philby knew of the MI5 agent in Freetown.
Visited Tasso Island (upriver) and then the famous Bunce Island, an old Portugues slaver's fort.
12 Jan 42: flies as far as Gakoradi - to get overview of his area of operations. Over Monrovia he photographed the river and the Firestone Aerodrome. Flies to Lagos -- base of operations for training. His novel The Heart of the Matter covers this period.
8 Mar 42: last entry before leaving Lagos.
Chapter 10: Our Man in Freetown
Freetown, Sierra Leone.
Lagos --. Accra --> Liberia --> Freeown, Sierra Leone. Revisited Yonda in 1959, 17 years later -- the leper county (Congo); inspred Greene's novel A Burnt-Out Case.
Began his secret life as Secret Agent 59200. Cover CID -- pretty flimsy!! Decoded telegrams and replied in code.
His friend police commissioner Brodie -- "part of Brodie's gentle character was used by Greene as a model for his hero Scobie. (First mention of Scobie?) -- p. 117. But also, railroad station in in Sierra Leone called "Scobie." Scobie a scapegoat hero -- much of Greene in him -- p. 118.
Main concer while in Sierra Leone, a German battleship (Richelieu) being repaird in Dakar. Again, Kim Philby -- Greene was under Kim Philby.
Secretary for Greene: Doris Temple -- p. 129.
Chapter 11: A Mad Cook, a Suicide, and a Nest of Toads
Life at Freetown --
Remember: The Heart of the Matter.
Won the Hawthorden Prize of 1940 -- PG!! -- p 141 - 142.
[What was Capt Hook's name before he lost his hand when Peter Pan cut it off.] -- I have not idea what this was all about -- James Bertholemew?
No letters beween Dorothy and Greene while Greene was in Sierra Leone survive ----
Working on "his most brilliant thriller, set in the London blitz." p. 145 - 146 --> the Ministry of Fear. By 10 Dec 42, the Ministry of Fear was completed.
(Father) Charles Green died 7 November 42 -- Greene still in Freetown.
HM was written long after experience in Sierra Leone, p. 151.
Januar 1943 -- returns to London -- "fired" -- didn't get along with his boss.
Part 3
The Long War Ending
Chapter 12: Carving Brighton Rock
June 1942 (still in Freetown) news that Brighton Rock --> film.
Greene's reunion with Vivien failed. p. 165.
In addition, Greene had returned to his old address at 19 Gower ews, Dorothy's home!
Vivien knew she had failed! Wow -- p. 165.
Chapter 13: Agents Three: Greene, Muggeridge and Philby
Autumn, 1942 -- British defeat Rommel at El Alamein.
Helped immediately by intel.
Enigma -- Bletchley Park.
Greene posted to the HQ at St Albans -- busy beyond expectations. MI6 -- gathered enemy information and disseminated false information.
MI5: spied on "his" colleagues -- Greene hated I5 -- spying on his own countrymen.
Kim Philby's section: Section V.
Watts: Spain.
Wilson: Gibralter, Morocco, Tangier.
de Salis: Portugal
Wilson -- later in 1950s, Wilson (see above) the British consul in Hanoi, opened up Vietnam to Greene -- p. 167.
Philby and Tim Milne (nephew of A. A. Milne -- opposite at large desk
Milne: special material related to Enigma
Greene: de Salis' understudy
Philby: amateurish; set the tone, p. 118
PHilby praised Greene -- very good.
reminder: verbatim marginalia from Greene; "Poor old 24000, our man in Lisbon (probably Cecil Gledhill, head of station in Lisbon) charging like a bull in a China shop, opening up vast vistas of the obvious."
Very good writing as well as clever Section V (Philby's section) -- counter enemy intelligence activities -- p 168 -- much info via Enigma.
Muggeridge, the SIS man in Mozambique, provided evidence of the relationship between the officer in the field and Enigma - responsible to stop u-boats hitting ships in Atlantic.
Greene was probably controlling Muggeridge (though M. thought it was Philby). Though Greene was not good in the field, he was very good at the office. Norman Sherry did not know who controlled Muggeridge, Philby or Greene.
Look up relationship among Philby, Malcolm Muggeridge, Graham Greene and George Orwell, someday just for the fun of it.
1944: Muggeridge returns to London ad joins Philby and Greene.
1943: Section V moved to London, 7 Ryder Street, later offices of The Economist. See relationship with Ian Fleming's James Bond novels! -- p. 171.
Ostro, Garbo -- p 172 - 173.
"C" --> Philby --> Greene.
"C" -- Felix Cowgill, p. 181.
Greene used experiences with "C" for his novel Our Man in Havana -- a comedy -- by the end of the war, those Abwehr who were not working for us, we knew were working with completely imaginary agents and receiving pay to give to their agents, agents who did not exist." The Abwehr were wiped out in a sense.
End of 1944, Philby head of Section V -- now taking over anti-communist section as Cold War was building. Philby -- Cowgill -- "the history of espionage records few, if any, comparable masterstrokes."
Cowgill -- staunch anti-communist; Philby working for Soviet Union.
Just prior to June, 1944 -- Greene resigns from MI6 -- why? -- p. 181,
Author Norman Sherry suggests Greene suspected Philby as a Soviet spy -- p. 183.
Chapter 14: From Spy to Publisher
Begins with "the dream." Still working with MI6.
One week after D-Day -- 12 June -- first V1; over next few months, 8,000 launched against London; 2,400 fell on Kent.
As many as 20,000 houses / day were damaged; casualties were severe -- 10,000 during first week.
End of the Affair: The End of the Affair is the fourth and final of Greene's "Catholic novels" tetralogy, following Brighton Rock (1938), The Power and the Glory (1940), and The Heart of the Matter (1948). -- Graham Greene describes the V1.
14 July 1944: Greene joins Eyre and Spottiswoode as publisher -- just as he completed the Ministry of Fear.
Greene started The Century Library, intending to bring back into print, a series of forgotten classics -- p. 189.
25 Aug 44: V2's launched for first time.
Authors he liked: Mauriac (French novelist); Ford Maddox Ford, Henry James -- p. 196.
Brought Wyndham Lewis to Eyre and Spottiswoode -- p. 197.
Greene left E&S in 1948. He had great success with The Heart of the Matter. and knew he could write for a living.
Chapter 15: The Unquiet Peace
March 20, 1945: Greene recorded what must have been the last V2 to hit London.
8 May: final end of European War, VE Day).
Greene did not celebrate with Vivian.
Vivien had moved from friends at Trinity to 15 Beaumont Street.
Greene sent her a terse telegram.
Greene spent day with Dorothy -- Greene lied to his mother. Greene took Vivien on holiday to the Isle of Wight.
Post-war he was very bored -- p. 209.
"By 1946 -- he knew he now loved neither Vivien nor Dorothy ... he was ripe for an affair, but what followed refused to remain a modest adventure.
It entirely changed his life. He would know his greatest love and greatest torment: the lightness of being and the dark night of the soul" -- p. 215.
Part 4
Time of Catherine
Chapter 16: The Heart of the Matter
Postwar years: Greene's most productive and most emotionally wrenching period of his life.
Catherine Walston dominated his thoughts for over a decade. She was the source of his creativity, for The Heart of the Matter would not have been completed without her and The End of the Affair would not have been started.
Catherine: deeply religious (Catholic) but not chaste.
Catherine married for 12 years; her husband did not censure his wife's affairs.
Vivien -- remarkable equanimity about Dorothy, but Mrs Walston disturbed her deeply -- p. 224.
Vivien and Hugh (brother of Graham's) agree that Greene changed -- he was not mean. Turning point when he met Catherine. Irony: Vivient actually bought Catherine and Graham together!!! -- p. 226.
Skimmed the rest.
Chapter 17: The Thin Man and Other Friends
September 1947.
Involved with two of the greatest films of the immediate postwar era: The Fallen Idol (based on "The Basement Room") and The Third Man. Story on The Third Man begins on page 241. Still being shown daily in Vienna!! -- p. 241
Skimmed.
Chapter 18: Love as a Fever
Felt himself to be a truer Catholic with Catherine, though he had converted to win Vivien.
Catherine and Catholicism, p. 257.
T. S. Eliot's phase: "Most people are only a very little alive; it is only when they are so awakened that they are capable of real Good, but that at the same time they become first capable of Evil." p. 257.
Comment on sexual sin (p. 257).
Affair complicated by continued relationship with Dorothy and Vivien.
Greene trying to get out of relationship with Dorothy. "Vivien's passion for stately homes continued unabated ... " -- p. 271.
Greene living with Dorothy during the week; with Vivien on the weekend. Not with Catherine.
194 -- still seeing all three.
Chapter 19: Private Wars
Death of Vivien Greene's marriage.
20 Nov 47 -- "death of her marriage"
But stil the issue of Dorothy -- p. 287.
27 May 1948: The Heart of the Matter -- Greene was suddenly the most famous and most pursued writer in England -- p. 292.
Final break with Dorothy -- only Catherine now.
P. 294: Edward Sackville-West.
Chapter 20: A Vulgar Success
The Heart of the Matter, 27 May 1948 -- discussed in this chapter.
Also, The Fallen Idol, September, 1948; and, The Third Man, August 1949 -- both films.
Chapter 21: A Boston Tea Party
Emerges as a playwright, 1949, The Heart of the Matter.
To Africa to fill void when Catherine returns to her husband -- p. 308.
Skimmed.
Chapter 22: Wildly, Crazily, Hopelessly
His affair with Catherine continues -- p. 316.
Catholic though he was, Greene no longer viewed their affair as adulterous -- p. 329.
See his prayer -- p. 329.
Mentions the Kon-tiki expedition. -- p. 335.
Catherine would not marry him. He becomes very self-destructive.
Part 5
The Death Seeker
Chapter 23: War of the Running Dogs
Catherine problems; Malaya.
October, 1950 -- to Stockholm -- thought he might be selected for Nobel Prize of Literature -- p. 339.
Faulkner, Pier Langerquist, or Greene.
Trying to forget Catherine -- traveled far -- but couldn't forget her -- p. 339.
November 1950 --> Malay -- Kuala Lampur -- p. 341
War / state of emergency -- 1948 - 1960 in Malay.
Must like Hunter S. Thompson -- now is reporting for newspapers .
Still in search for trouble -- p. 357.
Saigon / Hanoi!!
Saigon -- January 1951 -- "Greene could not have known upon arrival thathis experiences in Saigon and Hanoie would reveal to him that glamour which he had told his mother the East did not possess." -- p. 358.
Chapter 24: Bonjour Saigon
Vietnam: civil war.
The early Vietnam story!
First opium den 31 Oct 1951 -- p. 368.
"As with alcohol, he used opium to control his depression." p. 369
Brothels and opium dens.
Skimmed.
October 1951 --> to Paris to see Catherine.
Chapter 25: Interlude on Elsewhere
The Elsewhere: Korda's yacht on the Aegean.
Summer, 1951.
"Ultimatum" with Catherine, pp 378 - 379.
"Greene could nto be persuaded that their sexual relationship was wrong, given the depth of their love. -- p. 380.
Browning: "Better sin the whole sin sure that God observes." -- p. 380.
"Better sin the whole sin, sure that God observes;
Then go live his life out! Life will try his nerves,
When the sky, which noticed all, makes no disclosure,
And the earth keeps up her terrible composure.
Return to Saigon, autumn, 1951.
Chapter 26: A Crown of Thorns
Questions his belief in survival after death.
"... Greene retained his curious desire for death, become a death seeker." -- p. 385.
Death wish.
Back in Saigon.
"His problems with Catherine had left Greene with a strong sens that he had no future." -- p. 387.
Went on bombing missions.
French war.
Chapter 27: A Quiet American
The Quiet American.
Journalist Larry Allen, once called "the most shot-at US foreign correspondent." -- p. 399.
Notes of Saigon / Vietnam brothels.
Skimmed.
Religious principle of Caodism -- p. 404. See wiki: Taoism.
Chapter 28: Innocence Abroad
The "Alden Pyle" character.
Skimmed.
Chapter 29: Death in rue Catinat
January 5, 1952.
France's beloved General de Lattre dies ad with his death, all hope the French could win dies, 5 Jan 1952. Much on CIA.
Skimmed.
Part 6
To America with Love
Chapter 30: Visa Not for Sale
1953
Senator Joe McCarthy's anti-communist campaign.
McCarthy had found out that Greene had been a member of the Communist Party and as a result had been denied a visa. [Did Sherry mention this before?] -- background -- interesting -- a prank at Oxford.
The McCarran Act.
Visa problems and "plastic curtain fell immediately and was not lifted again until John Kennedy was president." -- 438.
The McCarran Act automatically barred visas to anyone who had been a member of any subversive group, such as the communist or Nazi parties -- p. 439.
State Dept official intervened -- 1955 -- visa into US and Hollywood.
Charlie Chaplin's problems with visa, 1952. -- p 443.
Chapter 31: Drama and the Man
Solo stage play. His first play, The Living Room.
Skimmed
Hoax Anglo-Texan Society.
Chapter 32: Among the Mau Mau
The "Anglo-Texan Society."
Chapter 33: No Man Is Neutral
Unofficial ombudsman.
153: off to Kenya; fighting the Mau Mau.
Skimmed.
Chapter 34: The Honourable Correspondent and the Dishonourable Friend
Still Vietnam.
3 Aug 54.
French novelist Colette died. "The first French woman to be honored with a state funeral, she was denied a religious funeral at the Eglise Saint-Roch" -- p. 470.
9 October 1954: French Foreign Legion in Hanoi lowered the French flag and the defeated French slipped away. -- p 471.
Ho Chi Minh.
Country divide at 17th parallel.
SVN: Catholic Ngo Dinh Diem.
The Quiet American published; great critical support -- p. 472. considered his best to date. Pyle touched an America raw nerve. The novel is anti-American, as well as anti-British in the sense that Fowler, the tired cynic commits the greatest sin in Greene's catechism -- the fatal betrayal of a friend. -- p. 475. [Although he could betray his wife and first lover.]
American journalists on way to Vietnam took copies of The Quiet American.
Back in Vietnam.
"As honourable correspondent" = spy with a cover, p. 481.
All about spy relationships --
Philby again.
Wilson, etc.
The influence of Catholocism! -- p. 484.
French General de Lattire.
Trevo Wilson, Catholic; probably dual roles -- one as a British consul in Hanoi and the toher as "spy" for the Britisih government.
-- see chapter 13. Of course, he was a spy.
E. M. Forster -- betrayed country and a friend. My Silent War, Philby -- p. 489.
Story of Philby.
[Page 485 -- "The Catholics, an important political group in North Vietnam, were well organised: 'They have the infrastructure: the churches are ful of meeting places where you can meet clandestinely: they now how to operate: they know how to send messages securely: they are good spy potential .. and the Catholics were the true Third Force in Vietnam."]
Continue from p. 484 --
Greene supported Philby even after the latter revealed as a double spy and had fled to Russia (23 Jan 63).
1987 -- Greene visited Philby!!! In Russia.
Greene truly an enigma
atheist --> Catholic
unable to betray friends
British spy -- friend of Philby
Catholic -- philanderer -- rationalized it
Absolutely fascinating:
the literary man -- the most sought after
the lover -- the philanderer -- one wife -- two mistresses -- at the same time -- one single, one married; open marriage
the British spy
nerves of steel, Africa, spy
Page 494 -- 2nd full paragraph -- Sherry's opinion on this
"no-one" -- p. 496
Scarlet Pimpenel -- p. 496, bottom.
Skimmed.
Chapter 35: White Night in Albany
Update on Catherine. Relations strained.
Separation from Catherine --> work, travel, death wish, opium dens, brothels, "substitute" for her.
Dinner with Ingrid Bergman and Rossellini, p. 498
Truman Capote -- p. 500.
[Moved to France in 1966 -- as much for the weather as anything.]
[1955 -- The End of the Affair -- published on / about.]
Catherine started to replace Greene with Thomas Gilby, a Dominican priest.
Catherine / Greene / opium / Albany near Piccadilly Circus. "White night" of opium.
"Since his home at 14 North Side had been destroyed in the blitz, he had not had a permanent home. In the years of travel (and no man traveled more, as his diaries show) in the Far East, Greene had lost his sense of home. -- p. 507.
Decade of the 1950s -- "Manic depression reached its height in that decade."
Wow, end of this volume -- 36 more years!!!
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