Today (July 9, 2011) marks the 50th anniversary of the death of Whittaker Chambers. His autobiographical "Witness" is one of the greatest of modern times ("The Education of Henry Adams" is often cited here, "Witness" has the edge in actually being an autobiography).
I noted the upcoming date a while ago and meant to prepare a post on one of my favorite subjects but am happily beaten to the punch by David Chambers,
his grandson, writing at WhittakerChambers.org.
David Mamet has claimed Whittaker Chambers as an influence in his "conversion" to the conservative side (though Chambers refused that designation claiming to be a "man of the right.") His own memoir, "The Secret Knowledge," does poorly in the comparison to Witness, though I suspect he didn't mean to offer a challenge and it's an unfair comparison.
(I have previously posted on WC's sense of humor here)
No comments:
Post a Comment