Friendship & Fratricide: An Analysis of Whittaker Chambers and Alger Hiss

New York: The Viking Press, 1967. First Edition. Hardcover. Very Good/Good. First Edition. Hardcover. The Alger Hiss case is one of the best known stories from the anti-Communist era of the 1940-1950s in the United States. Hiss, a highly-educated government official, attended the Yalta Conference of Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin; served as Secretary-General for the UN conference that created the UN Charter; and was the President of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. In 1948, he was accused of being a Soviet spy. Whittaker Chambers, and editor of Time magazine, testified against Hiss before the House Unamerican Activities Committee, claiming that he and Hiss had been members of the Communist Party in the 1930s and has participated in espionage. The statute of limitations had passed on the espionage charge, but Hiss was convicted of perjury. The quality of the evidence related to Hiss' activities continues to be debated to this day. Meyer Zeligs, MD, was a psychoanalyst who attempted to create pyschoanalytical profiles of the two protagonists, both from Maryland with intertwined lives, but with completely different in personalities, as a way to understand the case. He examined the separate published works of Hiss and Chambers about the incident, as well as everything else known about their backgrounds. This is a very unusual approach to the Hiss case and provides insights that add depth to the important episode in American history. Octavo. Light blue cloth-covered boards with gilt title in black box on spine. Minor rubbing to boards and one faded spots in lower corner of front cover. Black, white, and blue dust jacket with title in blue/brown to front panel and black/brown to spine panel. Jacket has small closed tears in several places and one taped piece at lower corner of front panel. Pages are slightly yellowed, but clean. 476 pages, including index. COMM/1213.