Editing Graham Greene (section)

=== Travel and espionage ===

Throughout his life, Greene travelled to what he called the world's wild and remote places. In 1941, the travels led to his being recruited into [[Secret Intelligence Service|MI6]] by his sister, Elisabeth, who worked for the agency. Accordingly, he was posted to [[Sierra Leone]] during the Second World War.<ref>Christopher Hawtree. [https://www.theguardian.com/news/1999/feb/10/guardianobituaries "A Muse on the tides of history: Elisabeth Dennys"]. ''The Guardian'', 10 February 1999. Retrieved 16 April 2011.</ref> [[Kim Philby]], who would later be revealed as a Soviet agent, was Greene's supervisor and friend at MI6.<ref>{{cite web|author=Robert Royal |url=http://www.firstthings.com/article.php3?id_article=3226 |title=The (Mis)Guided Dream of Graham Greene |work=First Things |date=November 1999 |access-date=2 June 2010}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcfour/documentaries/features/graham-greene.shtml |title=BBC—BBC Four Documentaries—Arena: Graham Greene |work=BBC News |date=3 October 2004 |access-date=2 June 2010}}</ref> Greene resigned from MI6 in 1944.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Brennan|first=Michael G.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VRkdCgAAQBAJ|title=Graham Greene: Fictions, Faith and Authorship|date=18 March 2010|publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing|isbn=978-1-4411-3742-5|language=en}}</ref> He later wrote an introduction to Philby's 1968 memoir, ''My Silent War''.<ref>Greene's introduction to the Philby book is mentioned in Christopher Hitchens' introduction to ''Our Man in Havana'' (pg xx of the Penguin Classics edition)</ref> 
Greene also corresponded with  intelligence officer and spy, [[John Cairncross]], for forty years and that correspondence is held by the John J. Burns Library, at [[Boston College]].<ref>"[https://newspapers.bc.edu/?a=d&d=bcchronicle19991014-01.2.10 The Spy Who Wrote Me Burns Lands Graham Greene Correspondence With Soviet Agent]." ''Boston College Chronicle'', Volume 8, Number 4, 14 October 1999.</ref>

Part of Greene's reputation as a novelist is for weaving the characters he met and the places where he lived into the fabric of his novels.<ref>{{cite news|title=Graham Greene, 86, Dies; Novelist of the Soul|newspaper=[[The New York Times]]|access-date=16 May 2024|date=4 April 1991|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1991/04/04/obituaries/graham-greene-86-dies-novelist-of-the-soul.html}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Our Man in the Stacks |author=Sunil Iyengar |work=[[Los Angeles Review of Books]] |url=https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/our-man-in-the-stacks/ |date=13 January 2021 |access-date=15 May 2024}}</ref>

Greene first left Europe at 30 years of age in 1935 on a trip to [[Liberia]] that produced the travel book ''[[Journey Without Maps]]''.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.historytoday.com/tim-butcher/graham-greene-our-man-liberia|title=Graham Greene: Our Man in Liberia|last=Butcher|first=Tim|year=2010|work=History Today Volume: 60 Issue: 10|access-date=20 March 2012|quote=insisted this trip, his first to Africa and his first outside Europe}}</ref> His 1938 trip to [[Mexico]] to see the effects of the government's campaign of forced anti-Catholic [[secularisation]] was paid for by the publishing company [[Longman]], thanks to his friendship with [[Tom Burns (publisher)|Tom Burns]].<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20110615070843/http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/the_tls/tls_selections/commentary/article2305784.ece Graham Greene, Uneasy Catholic] ''[[Times Literary Supplement]]'', 22 August 2006.</ref> That voyage produced two books, the nonfiction ''[[The Lawless Roads]]'' (published as ''Another Mexico'' in the US) and the novel ''[[The Power and the Glory]]''. In 1953, the [[Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith|Holy Office]] informed Greene that ''The Power and the Glory'' was damaging to the reputation of the priesthood; but later, in a private audience with Greene, [[Pope Paul VI]] told him that, although parts of his novels would offend some Catholics, he should ignore the criticism.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/1005484.stm |title=EUROPE &#124; Vatican's bid to censure Graham Greene |work=BBC News |date=3 November 2000 |access-date=2 June 2010}}</ref>

In 1954, Greene travelled to [[Haiti]],<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lmD7JS7jw3MC&pg=PR5|title=Introduction to The Comedians
|author=Paul Theroux |page=v|publisher=Random House|date= 1 January 2004|isbn=9780099478379
}}</ref> where ''[[The Comedians (novel)|The Comedians]]'' (1966) is set,<ref>{{cite book|first=Bernard |last=Diederich|author-link=Bernard Diederich|date= 2012|title=Seeds of Fiction: Graham Greene's Adventures in Haiti and Central America 1954–1983|publisher= Peter Owen}}</ref> and which was then under the rule of dictator [[François Duvalier]], known as "Papa Doc", frequently staying at the [[Hotel Oloffson]] in [[Port-au-Prince]].<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2005/dec/17/grahamgreene|title=Drinking, dancing and death|author=Duncan Campbell|date=17 December 2005|newspaper=The Guardian}}</ref> He visited Haiti again in the late 1950s. As inspiration for his novel ''[[A Burnt-Out Case]]'' (1960), Greene spent time travelling around Africa visiting a number of [[leper colony|leper colonies]] in the [[Congo Basin]] and in what were then the [[British Cameroons]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Greene |first=Graham |date=1961 |title=A Burnt-Out Case |url=https://archive.org/details/burntoutcase00gree|url-access=registration |location=New York (Amer. ed.) |publisher=The Viking Press |page=vii–viii }}</ref> During this trip in late February and early March 1959, Greene met several times with [[Andrée de Jongh]], a leader in the Belgian resistance during WWII, who famously established an escape route to Gibraltar through the Pyrenees for downed allied airmen.<ref>{{cite book |last=Neave |first=Airey |author-link=Airey Neave |year=1970 |title=The Escape Room |location=[[Garden City, New York]] |publisher=[[Doubleday (publisher)|Doubleday]] |pages=126–127 }}</ref>

In 1957, just months after [[Fidel Castro]] began his final revolutionary assault on the [[Fulgencio Batista|Batista regime]] in [[Cuba]], Greene played a small role in helping the revolutionaries, as a secret courier transporting warm clothing for Castro's rebels hiding in the hills during the Cuban winter.<ref name="WashPost041491">{{cite news |last=Miller |first=Tom |date=14 April 1991 |title=Sex, Spies and Literature; Graham Greene's Cuba: Helping Fidel Was the Heart of the Matter |newspaper=Washington Post |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/opinions/1991/04/14/sex-spies-and-literature/77b162a4-2d48-4d5c-8dc6-3c44e9ebebd0/ }}</ref> Castro, like [[Daniel Ortega]] and [[Omar Torrijos]], was one of several Latin American leaders Greene's friendship with whom has led some commentators to question his commitment to democracy.<ref>{{Cite news |date=4 April 1991 |title=Obituary: Graham Greene |first=Norman |last=Sherry |author-link=Norman Sherry |work=[[The Independent]] |issue=1394 |page=3}}</ref><ref name="oxforddnb.com" /> After one visit Castro gave Greene a painting he had done, which hung in the living room of the French house where the author spent the last years of his life.<ref name="WashPost041491" /> Greene did later voice doubts about Castro, telling a French interviewer in 1983, "I admire him for his courage and his efficiency, but I question his authoritarianism," adding: "All successful revolutions, however idealistic, probably betray themselves in time."<ref name="WashPost041491" />