I am blessed by the friendship of Graham Carleton Greene, who is now my literary agent; and am grateful to Dan Franklin, dedicated, sharp and intelligent publishing director at Jonathan Cape, Tony Colwell, a genius where photographs are concerned and indeed in all matters of publishing, and Liz Cowen, my editor, who made splendid and necessary changes to the final text and showed an uncanny ability to know what I intended to say even before I wrote it. My thanks to Leigh Priest, the admirable indexer, and to Joanne Hill, most competent of proof-readers; both of whom worked on Volume One. I would also like to thank Jenny Cottom, managing editorial director at Jonathan Cape, who again held the many strings together and saw the book through its final stages.
Catherine Walston’s family have been helpful without exception: first among them her younger sister Dr Belinda Straight, whose razor-sharp mind she sometimes disguises so as not to make man afraid; also her older sister Bonte Durán, an outspoken intelligence; their brother David Crompton, soft-spoken but, like all the family, aware of the world; and Catherine Walston herself, whom I was only able to interview once in 1976, then crippled but with warm, understanding eyes. The Walstons’ children – Susan, now in Australia, and Bill in Cambridge (twins who both spoke with a refreshing directness and honesty), Oliver, the eldest, farmer, traveller and successful radio broadcaster, and James – all have that directness of spirit which characterised Catherine Walston.
Dr Ronald Calgaard, president of Trinity University, San Antonio, Texas, continued to be a strong supporter and in strenuous months during the last year of writing enabled me to hire a much-needed researcher. The dean, William Walker, and Vice-President Ed Roy have shown a strong interest in the biography, and Harold Herndon, senior trustee of the university has always been a good friend to the book. Nor can I leave unrecorded the friendship of Bernard Lifshutz to the book and the author. Auberon Waugh kindly allowed me to quote from his father’s letters.
I must thank Georgetown University and the many senior personnel there who assisted me: the Reverend Royden B. Davis, S.J., the past dean of Georgetown College and the Reverend Robert B. Lawton, S.J., the present dean (men of sterling character); Dr Claire Z. Carey (no dean in this sublunary world ever had a worthier assistant dean); and in the Department of English the friendly John Hirsh suggested people I should meet to prosecute my research. At the Georgetown University Library I must also thank Dr Susan K. Martin, the thoughtful, intelligent librarian; George M. Barringer, the only man who could decipher on the run Greene’s sometimes impossible script; Nicholas B. Scheetz, whose off-the-cuff remarks on Greene are worthy of publication in themselves and who is always ready to assist visitors in ‘his’ Special Collections; and Lisette C. Matano, Michael J. North and Jon K. Reynolds. We all owe Joseph E. Jeffs thanks – his friendship with Greene enabled Georgetown to develop its unrivalled collection of Greene’s material. My thanks also to Charles Stuart Kennedy; the knowledgeable one-time Consul-General Dr Cleveland C. Cram, to whom I owe more than I can ever express; also his friend E. J. Applewhite, a thinker walking his own road; and John Cairncross, Greene’s friend of many years’ standing. Those who were in Vietnam when Greene made his yearly visits gave me valuable background information for the period 1951–5 when very few Americans were there. In particular I want to thank William Colby, Tom Peck, David Whipple, John Caswell, Charles and Nancy Baker, Paul and Jean Springer, Ambassador John Getz and his wife Libby, Ambassador Edmund Gullion, Seymour and Audrey Topping, and Bill Igoe – a friend of Greene’s, and of mine from when we first met in 1974, whose exciting comments will appear in the final volume. Gracious thanks also to Lucien Bodard for his distinguished account of Vietnam, and in particular his account of de Lattre in L’Express.
I offer my gratitude to the following: Dr Paul F. Betz; Mr and Mrs Eugene Quinn III; George and Nannette Herrick (who both read the typescript, Nannette waiting impatiently for her husband to pass her the next chapter); Charles de Salis; and Jacques Barzun, who recalled with his natural clarity Greene’s visit to his American publishers in the 1950s. Anthony Cave Brown, Phillip Knightley and Stanley S. Bedington all educated me in the ways of espionage. I am enormously indebted to the late Kim Philby, who wrote to me from Moscow about his friend Graham Greene. John E. Taylor assisted me at the National Archives in Washington, DC. I was fortunate that my research led me to secret American legation documents sent from Saigon to the State Department. Numerous people were generous during my stay in Washington: Jackie Quillen, who offered accommodation whenever needed; John S. Monagan and his wife Rosemary, who both epitomised kindness in their actions; Robert and Brenda Hopkins; the Reverend J. Thomas Dugan, an eternal friend; Simon and Nicole Pinniger; Norma Smith, wife of Harry J. Smith, one of three friends to whom this book is dedicated; and Anthony V. Dresden, who introduced me to Mrs Hochstetter, wife of Leo Hochstetter the original Quiet American. I must thank too Katherine Henderson, who assisted me while studying the Greene archives at the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center at the University of Texas, Austin.
I would like to thank Methuen London and Routledge in New York for permission to reprint ‘The Ballad of Graham Greene’ from Noël Coward – Collected Verse, Methuen, 1984; the unpublished poem here (copyright © 1994 the Estate of Noël Coward) is published by arrangement with the Estate of Noël Coward and Michael Imison Playwrights Ltd. Every effort has been made to trace relevant copyright holders and the publishers express their apologies if inadvertently any have been omitted.
As with the first book, I owe a great deal to Russ Newell’s continued friendship, and of course the book will always owe much to Sylvia Sherry’s good sense and intelligence. Once again I need to thank Neil Brennan, Greene’s long-standing and outstanding bibliographer, who began working with the late Alan Redway (himself a distinguished bibliographer of Greene), and also Helen Redway, Alan’s wife. Ronnie Challoner, honorary consul at Nice, has always offered assistance promptly and treated me with great kindness. My thanks also to Selina Hastings, future biographer of Evelyn Waugh and distinguished journalist.
After working all day on Greene, I used to retire to Martin’s Tavern in Georgetown and so would like to pay due respect to the philosophers there: Herbie Angel, Ron Gittings, Nasirul Islam, Billie Martin, Jr, Bruce Sullivan, Keith Koffler, and especially the Socrates among them, Jay Flenner. Back in San Antonio I spent much time at the Seashore Restaurant. Thanks to the owners Majid Hashemi and Feridoon Amini, I was allowed to drink free coffee late in the afternoon as I corrected endless chapters. Thanks also to Ted C. Cooper, Jim Fogarty and Rey Leal, who entertained me with his scissor wit.
Throughout the last five years, while completing Volume Two, I have had a number of dedicated secretaries, students and a research assistant. Lucy Kilmer saw the beginning of the book, followed by Eleanor Kamataris, who always put in extra hours without pay. Edward Chism stayed over a year after graduating and committed himself strenuously to the book. Matt Hofer checked the proofs. Carol Wright Smith, my research assistant who collaborated with Tom Greene in drafting ‘Before the War’, taking over from Mr Chism, set a new standard in what dedication means.
A number of distinguished scholars and others helped to read the manuscript, in particular Peter Balbert, sterling supporter of the biography with his sharp, scintillating and unrivalled judgment; Robert ter Horst, whose eagle eye can spot an error in flight; Frank Kersnowski, who spent long hours reading the typescript, as did Cedric Watts, the leading Conrad scholar, who also read the proofs; Edwin Thumboo; the late John Kwan-Terry; the Distinguished Professor John Stoessinger, a friend to the book and the biographer; Professor George Leith, who dipped into selected chapters; Dr Bates Hoffer, whose passion for Greene has never wavered and who helped to bring me to Trinity University in the first instance; Professor John Carey, who was always willing to assist when needed; and Dr Ram Singh, a friend when I began writing this biography in 1976 and still a friend in 1994. My dear brother Alan Sherry patiently read my work with a willingness based on th
e fact that we are identical twins and continued to meet me at seaports and airports when I returned home. My thanks to Ian Carr, a man of great verbal fluency. Professor William Samuelson read the typescript and gave selflessly his support and encouragement. Carmen Flores worked incessantly on the book, checking the typescript from the first sentence to the last. I am ever in her debt. Dr Robert Still continued to look lovingly after my health. H. R. Gaines – better known as Illgotten, the northern recluse whose friendship with me has lasted many years (he speaks to no other apart from Ian Carr) – made interesting suggestions about the nature of non-possessive love as this is revealed in the biography. My thanks also to my friend Vinod Kumar.
I am conscious that I may have failed to recall all those who, in the long years of research, have assisted me. I ask their forgiveness. However, I can record my indebtedness to the following: Walter Allen, Dr William Breit, George Bull, Carmen Capalbo, the Reverend Philip Caraman, Ambassador Henry Catto, Bryan Cox, M.D., Mario Currelli, Nicholas Elliott, Philip French, Peter Glenville, Professor Samuel Hynes, Margarete Kleiber, Peter Levring, Nigel Lloyd, C. J. Mabey, Major J. McGregor Cheers, William David Mclnnis, M.D., Lady Melchett, Michael Meyer, Tim Milne, George Neal, Richard Gordan Newhauser, Rigel and Edwin Newman, Hoang Ngoc, my guide and translator in Vietnam, Erik Nielsen, Ian Ogilvie, Charles Orsinger, Jeffrey Richards, William Scanlan, Robert Shivers, Fay, William and Richard Sinkin, Banks Smith, Mario Soldati, John and Gillian Sutro, Peter Turnbull, the Reverend Vincent Turner, Hoang Tuy, distinguished scholar and researcher, the Honourable Mrs Elizabeth Varley, Florence M. Weinberg; also the Reverend Leopoldo Duran, Trevor Wilson and Michael Richey – friends of Graham Greene and believers in this biographer, and Barbara Wall, a lady of fine intelligence, who met Greene during the early part of the Second World War and always made my visits to her home an uplifting experience.
Norman Sherry
Trinity University
San Antonio, Texas
1994
Index
The page references in this index correspond to the printed edition from which this ebook was created. To find a specific word or phrase from the index, please use the search feature of your ebook reader.
Acheson, Dean 360, 390
Achill 164, 230, 232–3; Catherine’s cottage 231; Greene tells Vivien about 274
Acton, Sir Harold 248
Adelphi Hotel, Liverpool 91
Admiral Graf Spee 33
Agadir 291
Aguirre, José Antonio 312
Albania 488, 492
Aldrich, Winthrop 459
Allen, Larry: Granger in The Quiet American 398–402
Allen, Walter 14, 33–4, 214
Allison, John 342
Anacapri 307, 317, 503; Greene acquires villa 246–7
Anglo-Texas Society 457–60
Animal Farm (Orwell) 210–11
Anthony Sant (Greene, unpublished) xviii
Antibes 334, 507–8
Arrow of Time (Conrad) 196
Attenborough, Richard 162, 164
Auden, W.H. 55
Authors’ Club 200
Babbling April (Greene) xviii
Bacon, Francis 3
Baddeley, Hermione 162, 163
Baker, Charles 430, 434
Baker, Nancy 420, 421, 433–4
Bank of England 304–5
Bao Dai, Emperor 360, 422
Barchester Towers (Trollope) 134
Barrie, J.M. 77, 184; Dear Brutus 72; Peter Pan 142
Bartlett, Vernon 36
Barzun, Jacques 449
‘The Basement Room’ (Greene) 211, 239
Bates, H.E.: The Flying Goat 18
Baudelaire, Charles: ‘Invitation du Voyage’ 369, 371
Bazin (head of French Sûreté) 367–8
Beauclerk, Charles 251
Behrman, S.N.: No Time for Comedy 69
Belfast 93
Bell, Neil 197
Belloc Lowndes, Mrs Marie
Bentley, Phyllis 39
Berkhamsted School xvi, 112
Berval, René 409–10, 441
Betjeman, John 204
Bevin, Ernest 90
Binh Xuan 360
Bjorg, Anita 508
Black Vanities 70–1
Blakelock, Denys 297
Blancke, Wendell 362, 363, 391–2
Blithe Spirit (Coward) 76–8
the Blitz 46–55; Wednesday, 16 April 1941, 55–9; destruction of Clapham house 62–6; theatre productions 159, 161; peacetime seems flat after 209
Blum, Robert 419, 421–2
Blundell, Michael 461, 462
Bodard, Lucien 476–8
Bollen, Doug 488
Booth, John S.B. 221
Bowen, Elizabeth 245, 294
Bowlby, Cuthbert 83
Boyle, Kay 198
Brewer, Eleanor 489
Briggs, General Sir Harold 343
Brighton Rock (Greene) xx-xxi, 3, 10, 148, 212; play 8–9, 13, 159–64; unsuccessful sales 15; film 199; offends Brighton 456
Britain see also British Intelligence.: Munich agreement with Hitler 7; love for Africa 153; post-war austerity 209, 304–5
British American Tobacco Company xviii
British Broadcasting Corporation 78–9, 343
British Council 245, 246
British Dramatists (Greene) 94
British Intelligence: Greene’s youthful adventures xvii; Greene becomes a spy 83–9; spy training 85–8; MI6 andMI5 124–5, 127, 167; interrogation and search 124–7; St Albans Iberian section 154, 166–70; codebreaking 166; SIS and the amateurs 168, 170; ‘C’/Sir Stuart Menzies 171–2; Ryder Street 171–2; Greene and Abwehrintelligence 172–4; SIS in Vietnam 485; approach Greene via Korda 487–8; security pranks 490–1
Brodie, Police Commissioner 117–18, 129
Bromfield, Louis 210
Brook, Peter 500
The Brothers Karamazov (Dostoevsky) 264
Broughton, Rhoda: A Wolfs Progress 190
Brown, Bishop 297
Brown, Major Yeats 189
Browne, Sir Thomas 113
Brownrigg, Ronald 297
Bruce, David 397
Brunt, S.W. 385
Burgess, Guy 495
Burns, Tom 30–1
A Burnt-Out Case (Greene) 265
Byng, Douglas 18
Byron, Lord (George Gordon): Don Juan 134
Cairncross, John 247, 497
Calder, Angus 20
Campbell, Thomas 412
Campini, Consul-General 169
Canaris, Admiral 175, 177
Candler (of Kenya) 468, 469
Cannes International Film Festival 241
Cao Dai 402–5, 423; bicycle bombs 425–6
Capote, Truman 500–1
Caraman, Philip 483–4, 503
Carrapiet, Superintendent 352–3
Carter, Lionel xvi, 67, 183, 350
Cartmell, Canon Joseph 295–6, 299
Castro, Fidel 508
Catholic Herald 296–7
de Caussade, Jean-Pierre: Self-abandonment to Divine Providence 329
Cavalcanti, Alberto 89–90, 164, 165
Cecil, Algernon 189
Cecil, Robert 171, 181
Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) 88, 423–32, 490
Cerio, Count and Countess 247
Chamberlain, Neville 6, 7, 17, 33–4
Champion Road (Tilsley) 189
Chanson, General 367
Chaplin, Charlie 443–6
Chapman, F. Spencer 339
Cheers, Major McGregor 354–7
Chin Kuen 344
Chin Peng 242
China 359
Christian, Ian 342
Chu Chin Chow 24
Churchill, Winston S.: impressed by H.V. Morton 36; on Dunkirk 38; defeat not disgrace 166; announces end of war 206; post-war defeat 214
Cicero 33
Clapham Common 17; war looms 4–5, 10; Greene house bombed 62–6
Cloetta, Yvonne 508<
br />
Clurman, Robert 474
Cockburn, Claud xvii
Cohan, George M. 398
Coleridge, Sarah 133
Colette (Sidonie-Gabrielle) 470–1
Collier’s 37
The Comedians (Greene): Professor Whittmore as model 91–2
communism see also Vietnam.: African agents 119–20; War of the Running Dogs in Malaya 341–4; Asian people 422; McCarthy and 437–41, 442–3; Philby’s betrayal for 488–97
The Complaisant Lover (Greene) 192
The Confidential Agent (Greene) 13–16; film version 16; publication 29, 30; Blitz experiences 59
Connolly, Cyril 139, 214
Conrad, Joseph 248, 437; Arrow of Time 196; influence on Greene 196
Cooper, Diana 66
Cooper, Duff 38, 335
Copenhagen 339–40
Cottrell, Geoffrey: Then a Soldier 189
Coward, Noël 163, 304; Greene attacks 72–8; ‘The Ballad of Graham Greene’ 73–6; Blithe Spirit 77
Cowgill, Felix 181
Cox, Richard 123, 134
Cripps, Sir Stafford 304–5
Crompton, David 258
Cronin, Vincent 456
Crosthwaite-Eyre, Sir Oliver 202, 203–4
Crowborough 16, 20, 44; Blitz 59; V-bombs 185
A Crowd is Not Company (Kee) 198
Cuba 508
Currey, Cecil 416–17
Czechoslovakia 6, 7
Dakar 308–9
Damien, Father Joseph 31, 508
David Copperfield (Dickens) 42
Davis, Kennard 180–1
de Salis, Charles 167–8
Dean, Basil 90, 304; work on script for The Heart of the Matter 305, 307; difficulties with play 312, 313–15; rewrites The Heart of the Matter 324
Dear Brutus (Barrie) 72
Delafield, E.M. 36
Denmark 40
Dennys, Elisabeth see Greene, Elisabeth.
Dennys, Rodney 84, 130, 384; engagement to Elisabeth Greene 145
‘The Destructors’ (Greene) 66–8
Dickens, Charles 210; David Copperfield 42
Diem, Ngo Dinh 422–3, 472
Dinh, Tran Van 434
Dostoevsky, Fyodor: The Brothers Karamazov 264
Douglas, Norman 247–8, 341; South Wind 247
Dryden, John 39
Durán, Bonte 221, 222, 223, 325
The Life of Graham Greene (1939-1955) Page 70
