Martha Dodd - Alfred Stern Cordially Invite You To Their Housewarming On Saturday December Twentieth From Five To Eight 115 Central Park West New York Please Reply. (Invitation With Original Caricature Of Alfred Stern, Jr. In Pencil, By The Recipient, William Gropper)

New York City Ny: Martha Dodd & Alfred Stern, 1938. Original Document . No Binding. Near Fine. Original Pencil Caricature. Invitation Decorated With Christmas Poinsettia. Original Pencil Drawing On Reverse, A Caricature Of Alfred Sloan, Jr. By Social Artist William Gropper. Martha Eccles Dodd (1908 -1990) Was An American Journalist And Novelist Who Studied At The University Of Chicago And Also For A Time In Washington, D.C., And Paris. Martha And Her Brother, William E. Dodd, Jr., Accompanied Their Parents To Berlin When Her Father Took Up The Post Of U.S. Ambassador In 1933. She Later Wrote That She "Became Temporarily An Ardent Defender Of Everything Going On". She Made A Number Of Friends In High Circles, Including Ernst Hanfstaengl, Sometime Lover And An Aide To Adolf Hitler. She Had Numerous Relationships While In Berlin, Including With Ernst Udet And With French Diplomat Armand Berard, Later France's Ambassador To The United Nations. Other Lovers Included Nobelist Max Delbrück And Rudolf Diels, Head Of The German Gestapo 1933-1934. Following The Night Of The Long Knives, Dodd Changed Her Views On The Nazis. People In Her Social Circle Were Begging The Americans For Help And The Dodd Family Found Its Phones Tapped And Their Servants Enlisted As Spies. In March 1934, Nkvd Ordered Intelligence Officer Boris Vinogradov (Under Diplomatic Cover In Berlin As Press Attache), To Recruit His Lover, Dodd, As An Agent. [Ok This Is Better Than A Movie, But Too Complicated For Hollywood]. Vinogradov And Dodd Began A Romantic Relationship That Lasted For Years, Even After He Left Berlin; In 1936 They Asked Joseph Stalin For Permission To Marry. Dodd Agreed To Spy For The Soviet Union. Other Case Officers Soon Replaced Vinogradov And Dodd Worked With Each Of Them While Hoping To Reconnect With Vinogradov. (Vinogradov Was Executed In Approximately 1938, During The Great Purge.) Dodd Informed The Soviets Of Secret Embassy And State Department Business And Provided Details Of Her Father's Reports To The State Department. As Part Of Her Cover, She Maintained A Romantic Relationship With Louis Ferdinand. After The Dodds Left Germany In December, 1937, Iskhak Akhmerov, Nkvd Rezident In New York City, Managed Her Espionage Work. In Summer 1938, While Still Romantically Involved With The Filmmaker Sidney Kaufman, With Whom She Lived For Several Months,] Martha Married New York Millionaire Alfred K. Stern Jr. According To Dodd, Stern Was Prepared To Contribute $50,000 To The Democratic Party To Secure An Ambassadorship. The Soviets Viewed Dodd As A Valuable But Uncertain Asset. In A February 5, 1942, Letter, Dodd Told Her Soviet Contacts That Her Husband Should Be Brought Into Their Network. With Their Approval, She Approached Her Husband And Reported That He Responded With Enthusiasm: "He Wanted To Do Something Immediately. Stern Established A Music Publishing House That Served As A Cover For Routing Information To The Soviet Union. Dodd And Stern Proved Of Little Value To The Soviets Beyond Providing The Publishing House Cover And Occasionally Recommending Someone As A Potential Agent. As Part Of The Soble Spy Ring, Miss Dodd (Code Named Liza) Recommended Jane Foster To Infiltrate The Oss. In 1939, Dodd Published A Memoir Of Her Years In Berlin, Through Embassy Eyes. It Included Extravagant Praise Of The Soviet Union Based In Her Travels There.] With Her Brother As Co-Editor, She Published Her Father's Berlin Diaries, Ambassador Dodd's Diary, 1933-1938. Her 1945 Novel, Sowing The Wind, Described The Moral Deterioration Of Decent Germans Under Hitler. It Was "Not Much Esteemed As A Work Of Fiction But Became A Best-Seller In Translation In The Russian Sector Of Berlin In 1949. The Fbi Had Dodd Under Surveillance By 1948. Contacts Between Dodd And Stern And Nkgb Lapsed In 1949. In 1955, Dodd Published The Searching Light, A Defense Of Academic Freedom That Told The Story Of A Professor Under Pressure To Sign A Loyalty Oath. In July 1956, Subpoenaed To Testify In Several Espionage Cases, Dodd And Stern Fled To Prague Via Mexico With Their Nine-Year-Old Adopted Son.