Alan Furst
Encyclopedia
Alan Furst is an American
author of historical spy novels set just prior to and during the Second World War.
, and raised on the Upper West Side of Manhattan
, Furst received a B.A. from Oberlin College
in 1962 and an M.A. from Penn State in 1967. Furst's papers reside at the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center
at The University of Texas at Austin and include "a 1963 letter from Furst's grandfather Max Stockman in which his grandson is urged to be a teacher and 'write as a sideline' in his spare time."
Furst did not follow this advice. While attending general studies courses at Columbia University
, he became acquainted with Margaret Mead
, for whom he later worked. Before becoming a full-time novelist, Furst worked in advertising and wrote magazine articles, most notably for Esquire
, and as a columnist for the International Herald Tribune
. Although Furst has been labelled a former "journalist," he denies it.
The Ransom collection includes early articles on a wide variety of topics, published in many magazines for which no common denominator can be found: "Architectural Digest
, Elle
, Esquire, 50 Plus, International Herald Tribune, Islands, New Choices, New York
, The New York Times
, Pursuits, Salon
, and Seattle Weekly
." Furst seems to have been taking whatever jobs he was offered.
The Ransom collection, probably prepared with Furst's approval, remarks: "Of note is the April 1984 Esquire article, 'The Danube Blues,' which sparked Furst's interest in writing espionage novels. Numerous slides of his 1983 Danube trip are also available. Unproduced screenplay
s include 'Heroes of the Last War' (1984), and 'Warsaw' (1992)."
His early novels (1976–1983) achieved limited success. The Ransom collection includes the manuscript for something called "One Smart Cookie" (with Debbi Fields
, 1987), which seems to be a commissioned biography of the owner of the Mrs. Fields Cookies
company.
The next year, the 1988 publication of Night Soldiers — inspired by a 1984 trip to Eastern Europe
on assignment for Esquire — revitalised his career.
In addition to Graham Greene
and Eric Ambler
, Furst cites Joseph Roth
, Joseph Conrad
, and John le Carré
as important influences. Furst is especially noted for his successful evocations of Eastern Europe
peoples and places during the period from 1933 to 1944. While all his historical espionage novels are loosely connected (protagonists in one book might appear as minor characters in another), only The World at Night and Red Gold share a common plot.
A resident of Sag Harbor, Long Island
, Furst considers himself a Europe
an by sensibility. Awarded a Fulbright teaching fellowship
in 1969, Furst moved to Sommières
, France
, outside of Montpellier
, and taught at the University of Montpellier
. He later lived for many years in Paris
, a city that he calls "the heart of civilization" and that figures significantly in all his novels.
In 2011, the Tulsa Library Trust
in Tulsa
, Oklahoma
selected Furst to receive its Helmerich Award
, a literary prize given annually to honor a distinguished author's body of work.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
author of historical spy novels set just prior to and during the Second World War.
Biography
Born in New York CityNew York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, and raised on the Upper West Side of Manhattan
Manhattan
Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...
, Furst received a B.A. from Oberlin College
Oberlin College
Oberlin College is a private liberal arts college in Oberlin, Ohio, noteworthy for having been the first American institution of higher learning to regularly admit female and black students. Connected to the college is the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, the oldest continuously operating...
in 1962 and an M.A. from Penn State in 1967. Furst's papers reside at the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center
Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center
The Harry Ransom Center is a library and archive at the University of Texas at Austin, specializing in the collection of literary and cultural artifacts from the United States and Europe. The Ransom Center houses 36 million literary manuscripts, 1 million rare books, 5 million photographs, and more...
at The University of Texas at Austin and include "a 1963 letter from Furst's grandfather Max Stockman in which his grandson is urged to be a teacher and 'write as a sideline' in his spare time."
Furst did not follow this advice. While attending general studies courses at Columbia University
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
, he became acquainted with Margaret Mead
Margaret Mead
Margaret Mead was an American cultural anthropologist, who was frequently a featured writer and speaker in the mass media throughout the 1960s and 1970s....
, for whom he later worked. Before becoming a full-time novelist, Furst worked in advertising and wrote magazine articles, most notably for Esquire
Esquire (magazine)
Esquire is a men's magazine, published in the U.S. by the Hearst Corporation. Founded in 1932, it flourished during the Great Depression under the guidance of founder and editor Arnold Gingrich.-History:...
, and as a columnist for the International Herald Tribune
International Herald Tribune
The International Herald Tribune is a widely read English language international newspaper. It combines the resources of its own correspondents with those of The New York Times and is printed at 38 sites throughout the world, for sale in more than 160 countries and territories...
. Although Furst has been labelled a former "journalist," he denies it.
The Ransom collection includes early articles on a wide variety of topics, published in many magazines for which no common denominator can be found: "Architectural Digest
Architectural Digest
Architectural Digest is an American monthly magazine. Its principal subject is interior design, not — as the name of the magazine might suggest — architecture more generally. The magazine is published by Condé Nast Publications and was founded in 1920, by the Knapp family, who sold it in 1993...
, Elle
Elle
Elle may refer to:*Elle, Central African Republic*Elle , a fashion publication*Ellé, a river in France*Elle , a female given name*Elle , a Sri Lankan game similar to baseball*Ælle of Sussex, a Saxon king...
, Esquire, 50 Plus, International Herald Tribune, Islands, New Choices, New York
New York (magazine)
New York is a weekly magazine principally concerned with the life, culture, politics, and style of New York City. Founded by Milton Glaser and Clay Felker in 1968 as a competitor to The New Yorker, it was brasher and less polite than that magazine, and established itself as a cradle of New...
, The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
, Pursuits, Salon
Salon.com
Salon.com, part of Salon Media Group , often just called Salon, is an online liberal magazine, with content updated each weekday. Salon was founded by David Talbot and launched on November 20, 1995. It was the internet's first online-only commercial publication. The magazine focuses on U.S...
, and Seattle Weekly
Seattle Weekly
Seattle Weekly is a freely distributed newspaper in Seattle, Washington, United States. It was founded by Darrell Oldham and David Brewster as The Weekly...
." Furst seems to have been taking whatever jobs he was offered.
The Ransom collection, probably prepared with Furst's approval, remarks: "Of note is the April 1984 Esquire article, 'The Danube Blues,' which sparked Furst's interest in writing espionage novels. Numerous slides of his 1983 Danube trip are also available. Unproduced screenplay
Screenplay
A screenplay or script is a written work that is made especially for a film or television program. Screenplays can be original works or adaptations from existing pieces of writing. In them, the movement, actions, expression, and dialogues of the characters are also narrated...
s include 'Heroes of the Last War' (1984), and 'Warsaw' (1992)."
His early novels (1976–1983) achieved limited success. The Ransom collection includes the manuscript for something called "One Smart Cookie" (with Debbi Fields
Debbi Fields
Debbi Fields is the founder and current spokesperson of Mrs. Fields Bakeries. Additionally, she has written several cookbooks. She currently lives in Memphis, Tennessee, with her husband, former Holiday Inn and Harrah's CEO, Michael Rose...
, 1987), which seems to be a commissioned biography of the owner of the Mrs. Fields Cookies
Mrs. Fields
Mrs. Fields Famous Brands is a franchisor in the snack food industry, with Mrs. Fields and TCBY as its core brands. Through its franchisees’ retail stores, it is one of the largest retailers of freshly baked, on-premises specialty cookies and brownies in the US and the largest retailer of...
company.
The next year, the 1988 publication of Night Soldiers — inspired by a 1984 trip to Eastern Europe
Eastern Europe
Eastern Europe is the eastern part of Europe. The term has widely disparate geopolitical, geographical, cultural and socioeconomic readings, which makes it highly context-dependent and even volatile, and there are "almost as many definitions of Eastern Europe as there are scholars of the region"...
on assignment for Esquire — revitalised his career.
In addition to Graham Greene
Graham Greene
Henry Graham Greene, OM, CH was an English author, playwright and literary critic. His works explore the ambivalent moral and political issues of the modern world...
and Eric Ambler
Eric Ambler
Eric Clifford Ambler OBE was an influential British author of spy novels who introduced a new realism to the genre. Ambler also used the pseudonym Eliot Reed for books co-written with Charles Rodda.-Life:...
, Furst cites Joseph Roth
Joseph Roth
Joseph Roth, born Moses Joseph Roth , was an Austrian journalist and novelist, best known for his family saga Radetzky March about the decline and fall of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and for his novel of Jewish life, Job as well as the seminal essay 'Juden auf Wanderschaft' translated in...
, Joseph Conrad
Joseph Conrad
Joseph Conrad was a Polish-born English novelist.Conrad is regarded as one of the great novelists in English, although he did not speak the language fluently until he was in his twenties...
, and John le Carré
John le Carré
David John Moore Cornwell , who writes under the name John le Carré, is an author of espionage novels. During the 1950s and the 1960s, Cornwell worked for MI5 and MI6, and began writing novels under the pseudonym "John le Carré"...
as important influences. Furst is especially noted for his successful evocations of Eastern Europe
Eastern Europe
Eastern Europe is the eastern part of Europe. The term has widely disparate geopolitical, geographical, cultural and socioeconomic readings, which makes it highly context-dependent and even volatile, and there are "almost as many definitions of Eastern Europe as there are scholars of the region"...
peoples and places during the period from 1933 to 1944. While all his historical espionage novels are loosely connected (protagonists in one book might appear as minor characters in another), only The World at Night and Red Gold share a common plot.
A resident of Sag Harbor, Long Island
Long Island
Long Island is an island located in the southeast part of the U.S. state of New York, just east of Manhattan. Stretching northeast into the Atlantic Ocean, Long Island contains four counties, two of which are boroughs of New York City , and two of which are mainly suburban...
, Furst considers himself a Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
an by sensibility. Awarded a Fulbright teaching fellowship
Fulbright Program
The Fulbright Program, including the Fulbright-Hays Program, is a program of competitive, merit-based grants for international educational exchange for students, scholars, teachers, professionals, scientists and artists, founded by United States Senator J. William Fulbright in 1946. Under the...
in 1969, Furst moved to Sommières
Sommières
Sommières is a commune in the Gard department in southern France.It lies from Nîmes, from Montpellier.-Geography:Sommières is to the south of the garrigues and on the edge of the Vaunage, a wine growing region. It straddles the River Vidourle.-History:...
, France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
, outside of Montpellier
Montpellier
-Neighbourhoods:Since 2001, Montpellier has been divided into seven official neighbourhoods, themselves divided into sub-neighbourhoods. Each of them possesses a neighbourhood council....
, and taught at the University of Montpellier
University of Montpellier
The University of Montpellier was a French university in Montpellier in the Languedoc-Roussillon région of the south of France. Its present-day successor universities are the University of Montpellier 1, Montpellier 2 University and Paul Valéry University, Montpellier III.-History:The university...
. He later lived for many years in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
, a city that he calls "the heart of civilization" and that figures significantly in all his novels.
In 2011, the Tulsa Library Trust
Tulsa City-County Library
The Tulsa City-County Library is the major public library system in Tulsa County, Oklahoma.-Overview:The library system serves those who live, work, go to school in, own land in, or pay property taxes on land in Tulsa County. There are 25 branches in the system: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,...
in Tulsa
Tulsa, Oklahoma
Tulsa is the second-largest city in the state of Oklahoma and 46th-largest city in the United States. With a population of 391,906 as of the 2010 census, it is the principal municipality of the Tulsa Metropolitan Area, a region with 937,478 residents in the MSA and 988,454 in the CSA. Tulsa's...
, Oklahoma
Oklahoma
Oklahoma is a state located in the South Central region of the United States of America. With an estimated 3,751,351 residents as of the 2010 census and a land area of 68,667 square miles , Oklahoma is the 28th most populous and 20th-largest state...
selected Furst to receive its Helmerich Award
Helmerich Award
The Peggy V. Helmerich Distinguished Author Award is an American literary prize awarded by the Tulsa Library Trust in Tulsa, Oklahoma. It is bestowed annually upon an "internationally acclaimed" author who has "written a distinguished body of work and made a major contribution to the field of...
, a literary prize given annually to honor a distinguished author's body of work.
Stand-alone novels
- Your Day in the Barrel (1976)
- The Paris Drop (1980)
- The Caribbean Account (1981)
- Shadow Trade (1983)
Night Soldiers novels
- Night Soldiers (1988)
- Dark Star (1991)
- The Polish Officer (1995)
- The World at NightThe World at NightThe World at Night is a novel by Alan Furst.-Plot summary:The story takes place in and around Paris between May 1940 and June 1941. Jean Casson is a French motion-picture producer who specializes in gangster films and who possesses no political views to speak of...
(1996) - Red Gold (1999)
- Kingdom of ShadowsKingdom of ShadowsKingdom of Shadows is a novel by Alan Furst. It won the 2001 Hammett Prize.-Plot summary:The story is set in Europe between April 1938 and July 1939, a time of ever-increasing fear and apprehension throughout the continent. Nicholas Morath is an expatriate Hungarian in his forties and the...
(2000) - Blood of Victory (2003)
- Dark Voyage (2004)
- The Foreign Correspondent (2006)
- The Spies of Warsaw (2008)
- Spies of the Balkans (2010)
Crossover characters
Secondary characters who appear in more than one Furst novel include:- Ilya Goldman, NKVD (Night Soldiers, Dark Star, Kingdom of Shadows, The Foreign Correspondent)
- Colonel Vassily Antipin (Night Soldiers, Red Gold)
- General Bloch, GRU (Night Soldiers, Dark Star)
- Renate Braun, Comintern foreign specialist (Night Soldiers, Dark Star)
- Maltsaev, NKVD (Night Soldiers, Dark Star)
- Voyschinkowsky, The Lion of the Bourse (Night Soldiers, Dark Star, The Polish Officer)
- Colonel Anton Vyborg, Polish military intelligence (The Polish Officer, Dark Star, The Spies of Warsaw)
- Count Janos Polanyi (Kingdom of Shadows, Blood of Victory, Dark Star, The Foreign Correspondent)
- S. Kolb, British agent (Dark Voyage, The Foreign Correspondent, Spies of the Balkans)
- Dr. Lapp, GRU (Kingdom of Shadows, The Spies of Warsaw; mentioned in Blood of Victory)
- Boris Balki, Russian emigre bartender in Paris (Kingdom of Shadows, Blood of Victory)
- Mark Shublin, Polish painter (Kingdom of Shadows, The Spies of Warsaw)
- British intelligence operatives in Europe (mainly Paris), such as
- Lady Angela Hope (appears in Night Soldiers and Dark Star; mentioned in Red Gold, The Foreign Correspondent, Kingdom of Shadows, Blood of Victory)
- Roddy Fitzware (Night Soldiers, Dark Star)
- Mr. Brown (Night Soldiers, Blood of Victory, Dark Voyage, The Foreign Correspondent)
- Brasserie Heiniger, Paris restaurant (every book)
External links
- Alan Furst.net
- Inventory of Alan Furst Papers 1961-2005 at the Harry Ransom Humanities Research CenterHarry Ransom Humanities Research CenterThe Harry Ransom Center is a library and archive at the University of Texas at Austin, specializing in the collection of literary and cultural artifacts from the United States and Europe. The Ransom Center houses 36 million literary manuscripts, 1 million rare books, 5 million photographs, and more...
at the University of Texas at AustinUniversity of Texas at AustinThe University of Texas at Austin is a state research university located in Austin, Texas, USA, and is the flagship institution of the The University of Texas System. Founded in 1883, its campus is located approximately from the Texas State Capitol in Austin...
. - Times Literary Supplement review of The Spies of Warsaw, by Paul Owen
- Writers Reflect with Alan Furst at the Harry Ransom Center
- Audio interview July 16, 2010 with Kurt Andersen of Studio 360 in which Furst discusses his fiction.
- Audio essay for Bookpod in which Furst discusses The Spies of Warsaw.