The Icelandic Canadian - 01.12.2008, Síða 14

12
THE ICELANDIC CANADIAN
Vol. 62 #1
garden of an early spring morning or prun-
ing his fruit trees in an October afternoon.”
He was described as living in “a quiet two-
story wooden house.”
The New York Times could have
saved its venom. By 1955 Halldor Laxness
did not have a literary career with English
speaking readers. J. Edgar Hoover, infa-
mous Director of the FBI, had personally
directed an investigation of Laxness that
included surveillance in Iceland by the
Icelandic embassy. The concern was that
the monies Laxness received from the sale
of Independent People were funding
Communist Party activities in Iceland.
In a recently declassified, top secret
memo dated Sept 19 1947 with the subject
line “Halldor Kiljan Laxness, Special
Inquiry, State Department.” Hoover
instructs the Special Agent In Charge of the
New York Office to “endeavor to discreet-
ly ascertain the amount of money Laxness
has received from the sale of his book in
this country through the Book-of-the
Month club. This information should be
HALLDdR LAXNESS
viaait if rat itcii atut ta uma'ilf
INDEPENDENT
PEOPLE
Mi*«m i twtf s t*«t 4p«a«{ wf
?» MNftWMhHk (Vivh*t• v-» #* ♦*»•
furnished to the Bureau promptly.” The
New York Bureau worked quickly and in a
memo to Hoover dated September 25 1947,
details were given about the financial
arrangements made between the Book-of-
the-Month club and Alfred A. Knopf
Publishers. The director of operations of
the Book-of-the-Month club provided the
bureau with the details.
Initially the bureau did not approach
the officials of Alfred A. Knopf Publishers
because Hoover had explicitly used the
word “discreet.” The September 25 memo
states that “since Knopf is the publisher of
the work of Philip J. Jaffe, subject of
Bureau case entitled “Philip J. Jaffe, et al,
Espionage. In the course of this investiga-
tion it was noted that Jaffe was on extreme-
ly friendly terms with officials of the
Alfred Knopf Company.” Jaffe was key
player in the Amerasia spy case in which he
was accused of obtaining over 1,700 top
secret documents from a State Department
employee. Not only were Knopf officials
deemed untrustworthy but it was felt that
even the Treasury Department of the
United States could not be trusted to act
discreetly in this top secret operation. The
memo states “it was not deemed advisable
to direct a letter to the Treasury
Department for the above information in
view of the apparent discreetness of the
investigation requested by the State
Department.” Of course word was out that
Halldor Laxness was being investigated by
the FBI and was a known communist.
Laxness’ publisher did not reissue or trans-
late any of Laxness’ previous works to fol-
low the success of Independent People.
In order to assure that future novels
written by Laxness had no chance of publi-
cation in the United States, the Icelandic
Embassy fanned the fire and sent a
“Confidential” or top secret telegram on
Feb 22, 1948 to the Secretary of State of the
United States warning that the Laxness’
novel The Atom Station was set for release.
“Legation informed it is bitterly anti-
American in tone and advances thesis that
ICE faces destructions in aggressive war
U.S. now planning . . .” Lest there was any
doubt as to the motive of those who sought
information, the memo further states