Editing Alger Hiss (section)

==Early life and education==
Born in [[Baltimore]], Maryland, on November 11, 1904, Alger Hiss was one of five children of Mary "Minnie" Lavinia (née Hughes) and Charles Alger Hiss. Both parents came from substantial Baltimore families who could trace their roots to the middle of the 18th century. Hiss's paternal great-great-grandfather had emigrated from [[Germany]] in 1729, and changed his surname from "Hesse" to "Hiss."<ref name= tissue256>{{cite book| first1= Morton| last1= Levitt| first2= Michael| last2= Levitt| title= A Tissue Of Lies: Nixon vs. Hiss| url= https://archive.org/details/tissueofliesnixo00levi| url-access= registration| place= New York| publisher= McGraw Hill| year= 1979| pages= [https://archive.org/details/tissueofliesnixo00levi/page/255 255]–56| isbn= 9780070373976}}</ref>

Minnie Hughes attended teacher's college and was active in Baltimore society. Shortly after his marriage at age 24, Charles Hiss entered the business world and joined the [[dry goods]] importing firm Daniel Miller and Co., where he became an executive and shareholder.

When Charles' brother John died suddenly at the age of 33, Charles assumed financial and emotional responsibility for his brother's widow and six children in addition to his own expanding family.<ref name= tissue256 /> Charles also helped his wife's favorite brother, Albert Hughes, find work at Daniel Miller. Hughes at first distinguished himself and was promoted to treasurer of the firm, but then he became involved in a complicated business deal and was unable to meet the financial obligation that was part of a joint agreement.<ref name= tissue256 />

In 1907, the year of [[Panic of 1907|great financial panic]], Charles Hiss felt compelled to sell all his stocks to make good his brother-in-law's debts and to resign from the firm. After unsuccessful attempts by relatives to find him a job, Charles fell into a [[Major depressive disorder|serious depression]] and committed [[suicide]], cutting his throat with a razor. Minnie, who had made the most of her former prosperity and social position, was then forced to rely on her inheritance and financial assistance from family members.{{citation needed|date=July 2020}}

Alger Hiss was two years old when his father died. As was customary in those days, he was not told of the circumstances of Charles Hiss's death. When Alger learned of it inadvertently years later from neighbors, he angrily confronted his older brother Bosley, who then told him the truth. Shocked, Hiss resolved to devote the rest of his life to restoring the family's "good name."<ref name= tissue256 />

Although shadowed by melancholy, Hiss's early childhood, spent in rough-and-tumble games with his siblings and cousins who lived close by, was not unhappy. Their Baltimore neighborhood was described by columnist [[Murray Kempton]] as one of "shabby gentility."<ref>{{Cite book
  | last = Kempton
  | first = Murray
  | title = Part of Our Time: Some Ruins and Monuments of the Thirties
  | publisher = New York Review of Books
  | page = 17
  | year = 2012
  | isbn = 978-1590175446
  | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=GMFS5ww8v98C
  | access-date = January 26, 2015}}</ref> Hiss portrayed the economic circumstances of his childhood as "modest," but "not particularly shabby."<ref name= LGlass4>{{Cite book
  | last = White
  | first = G. Edward
  | title = Alger Hiss's Looking-Glass Wars: The Covert Life of a Soviet Spy
  | publisher = Oxford University Press
  | pages = 3–4
  | year = 2004
  | isbn = 978-0195348408
  | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=T6S7htTSBqQC
  | access-date = June 13, 2017}}</ref> Two further tragedies occurred when Hiss was in his twenties: his elder brother Bosley died of [[Bright's disease]] and his sister Mary Ann committed suicide.<ref name= LGlass4 />

Hiss learned to compartmentalize and to seek out paternal surrogates. At school, he was popular and high performing. He attended high school at [[Baltimore City College]] and college at [[Johns Hopkins University]], where he was voted "most popular student" by his classmates, and graduated [[Phi Beta Kappa]]. In 1929, he received his law degree from [[Harvard Law School]], where he was a protégé of [[Felix Frankfurter]], the future [[Supreme Court of the United States|US Supreme Court]] justice. During his time at Harvard, the famous murder trial of anarchists [[Sacco and Vanzetti|Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti]] took place, ending in their conviction and execution. Like Frankfurter, who wrote a book about the case, and like many prominent liberals of the day, Hiss maintained that Sacco and Vanzetti were convicted unjustly.{{citation needed|date=July 2020}}

Hiss served for a year as [[Law clerk of the Supreme Court of the United States|clerk]] to Supreme Court Justice [[Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.]], before joining [[Choate, Hall & Stewart]], a [[Boston]] law firm, and later the [[New York City]] law firm then known as [[Cahill, Gordon & Reindel|Cotton, Franklin, Wright & Gordon]].{{citation needed|date=February 2020}}