AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A SPY

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP91-00901R000500110006-8
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 19, 2016
• Document Release Date: December 9, 2005
• Sequence Number: 6
• Publication Date: August 21, 1983
• Content Type: NSPR

STATINTL
3Rtpproved For Relea 1ffi,
,~glAI PYj,PjW1R0005001
ARTICLE AppF 20
ON PAGE_/ 21 August 1983
AUTOF,JC 2AFM tobiography of a Spy"does have
OF A SPY - historical value. As a liaison be-
By Mary Bancroft. tween the German resistance
Illustrated 300 pp. New York: and United States intelligence,
William Morrow & Co. x15.9. Miss Bancroft learned the de-
tails of the unsuccessful assassi-
By BARBARA SHULGASSER nation attempt against Adolf
Hitler. The story gains women-
For years Mary Bancroft tum here, but even her spying
tried to be a model housewife,- has a plodding air.
but finally she surrendered to perhaps the daring agents of
{ her intrepid nature and became fiction have spoiled us for the
a spy. Her matter-of-fact story: drudgery of real world espip-
"Autobiography of a Spy," has-. nage, but Miss Bancroft made a
the4doubtful virtue of beginniugv particularly domestic sort of--
at the beginning, and not befoie= spy; . she worked out of her
midvolume does.. she'-. dislodge'' house,The work included help-]
the narrative from tepid talesof-- : ing'IS Iles prepare his nightly
a Cambridge, Mass., childhood;'; telephone reports to the United -
a dull sojourn at a sugar miu-in States on wires tapped by
Cuba with her first husband and enemy eavesdroppers and mak-
life with a second husband in Ing contact with journalists and
Switzerland, his - homeland,^ others sympathetic to the Allied
where her World War II work cause. After a night's work, she
for the Office of Strategic Serv- and Dulles routinely engaged in
ices finally began.--- a, bit of dalliance." In real
Only then comes her affair- ' :- -evidently, duty comes
with Allen Dulles, who beaded. before romance.
O.S.S. operations in Switzer.
land, and her friendship with -
Carl Gustav Jung, who cured-.
her of sneezing fits. She says
that Dulles decided almost im-
mediately on meeting her that
she would work for him and be-'
come his laver. The sudden
onset of strong feeling is .a pre-,
vailing tendency in this mem-
oir. On first encountering her
second husband on shipboard,
Miss Bancroft was instantly
taken with "his worldliness, his
facility with languages, and his
extensive knowledge of gourmet
food and wines."
Though the characterizations
are not memorably drawn, "Au-
Approved For Release 2006/01/03 : CIA-RDP91-00901 R000500110006-8