Editing Charles McCarry

{{Short description|American writer (1930–2019)}}
{{Infobox writer <!-- for more information see [[:Template:Infobox writer/doc]] -->
| name        = Charles McCarry
| birth_date  = {{birth date|1930|6|14}}
| birth_place = [[Pittsfield, Massachusetts]], U.S.
| death_date =  {{death date and age|2019|2|26 |1930|6|14}}
| death_place = [[Fairfax County, Virginia]], U.S.
| occupation  = Author
| genre       = [[Spy fiction]]
| period      = 1961–2019
}}

'''Charles McCarry''' (June 14, 1930 – February 26, 2019)<ref name=":0">{{cite web |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/mar/05/charles-mccarry-obituary |title=Charles McCarry obituary |last=Carlson |first=Michael |date=2019-03-05 |website=[[The Guardian]] |language=en-GB |access-date=2019-03-19}}</ref> was an American writer, primarily of [[spy fiction]], and a former [[espionage|undercover operative]] for the [[Central Intelligence Agency]].<ref name=WaPo_Obit>{{cite news |url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-met-charles-mccarry-obit-20190324-story.html |title=Charles McCarry, CIA officer who became a pre-eminent spy novelist, dies at 88 |newspaper=[[The Washington Post]] |date=March 2, 2019 |access-date=June 11, 2019 |author=Matt Schudel |via=[[Chicago Tribune]]}}</ref>

==Biography==
McCarry's family came from [[The Berkshires]] area of western [[Massachusetts]]. He was born in [[Pittsfield]], and lived in Virginia.<ref name=":0"/><ref name="morning news">{{cite web |url=https://themorningnews.org/article/birnbaum-v.-charles-mccarry |date=2004 |title=Interview: Birnbaum v. Charles McCarry |author=Birnbaum, Robert |work=[[The Morning News (online magazine) |The Morning News]] |access-date=June 9, 2010}}</ref> He graduated from Dalton High School.<ref name="hitch2">[https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/532075851/ "Sgt. McCarry Ends Army Hitch"], ''The Berkshire County Eagle'', Pittsfield, Massachusetts, volume 162, number 30, August 8, 1951, page 6.</ref>

McCarry began his writing career in the [[United States Army]] as a correspondent for ''[[Stars and Stripes (newspaper)|Stars and Stripes]]''. He served from 1948 to 1951 and achieved the rank of sergeant.<ref name="hitch2"/> He received initial training at [[Fort Benning]], Georgia, and was stationed in Germany for almost two years and at [[Fort Pickett|Camp Pickett]], Virginia for about a year.<ref name="hitch2"/>

After his army service, he was a speechwriter in the early Administration of [[Dwight D. Eisenhower|President Dwight D. Eisenhower]].<ref>''Agents of Treachery'', pages xii–xiii</ref> In 1958, at the invitation of [[Cord Meyer]],<ref>{{cite book |last=Saunders |first=Frances Stonor |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DnYRBAAAQBAJ&pg=PA207 |title=The Cultural Cold War: The CIA and the World of Arts and Letters |date=2013 |publisher=The New Press |isbn=9781595589149 |page=207 |chapter=Ransom's Boys |access-date=January 12, 2021}}</ref> he accepted a post with the CIA, for whom he traveled the globe as a deep cover operative.<ref>''Agents of Treachery'', page xii.</ref> He took a leave of absence to work for the [[1960 United States presidential election|1960 Nixon campaign]], writing for vice-presidential candidate [[Henry Cabot Lodge Jr.|Henry Cabot Lodge]].<ref name="WaPo_Obit"/><ref>{{cite news |last=Conroy |first=Sarah Booth |date=1988-05-15 |title=The McCarry Dossier |language=en-US |newspaper=Washington Post |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1988/05/15/the-mccarry-dossier/7ee692de-e881-4912-8147-afaa5a6a445e/ |access-date=2022-02-11 |issn=0190-8286}}</ref> He left the CIA for the last time in 1967, becoming a writer of spy novels.<ref>{{cite news |author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.--> |date=March 13, 2014 |title=Nathan McCarry, Founder, President & CEO at Pluribus International |work=Executive Leaders Radio |location=executiveleadersradio.com |url=http://www.executiveleadersradio.com/mccarry-nathan-4238.aspx |access-date=June 7, 2017}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.--> |title=Authors: Charles McCarry |work=[[Mysterious Press]] |location=mysteriouspress.com |url=https://mysteriouspress.com/authors/charles-mccarry/ |access-date=June 7, 2017}}</ref>

McCarry was also an editor-at-large for ''[[National Geographic (magazine)|National Geographic]]'' and contributed pieces to ''[[The New York Times]]'', ''[[The Wall Street Journal]]'', ''[[The Washington Post]]'', the ''[[Saturday Evening Post]]'', and other national publications.<ref name=":0"/>

==Approach to writing==
McCarry believed that "the best novels are about ordinary things: love, betrayal, death, trust, loneliness, marriage, fatherhood."<ref name=Strip>McCarry, Charles, "A Strip of Exposed Film, " in ''='Paths of Resistance'', page 69.</ref> In 1988 McCarry described the themes of his novels to date as "ordinary things – love, death, betrayal and the American dream."<ref name="How to Write Spy Novels">McCarry, Charles, "How to Write Spy Novels; the Best Books are Collaborations Between the Writer and Reader", June 19, 1988.</ref>

McCarry wrote that: "After I resigned [from the CIA], intending to spend the rest of my life writing fiction and knowing what tricks the mind can play when the gates are thrown wide open, as they are by the act of writing, between the imagination and that part of the brain in which information is stored, I took the precaution of writing a closely remembered narrative of my clandestine experiences. After correcting the manuscript, I burned it. What I kept for my own use was the atmosphere of secret life: How it worked on the five senses and what it did to the heart and mind. All the rest went up in flames, setting me free henceforth to make it all up. In all important matters, such as the creation of characters and the invention of plots, with rare and minor exceptions, that is what I have done. And, as might be expected, when I have been weak enough to use something that really happened as an episode in a novel, it is that piece of scrap, buried in a landfill of the imaginary, readers invariably refuse to believe."<ref name="Charles McCarry 1994">McCarry, Charles, "Between the Real and the Believable", ''Washington Post'', December 11, 1994.</ref>

McCarry was an admirer of the work of [[Eric Ambler]]<ref name=":0"/> and [[W. Somerset Maugham]], especially the latter's [[Ashenden: Or the British Agent|Ashenden]] stories. He was also an admirer of [[Richard Condon]], author of ''[[The Manchurian Candidate]]'' (1959).<ref name="morning news"/>

==Paul Christopher series==
Ten of McCarry's novels involve the life story of a fictional character named Paul Christopher, who grew up in pre-Nazi Germany, and later served in the [[United States Marine|Marines]] and became an operative for a U.S. government entity known as "the Outfit", meant to represent the Central Intelligence Agency.

These books are, in order of publication:
#''[[The Miernik Dossier]]'' (1973): Christopher investigates a possible Soviet spy in Geneva
#''[[The Tears of Autumn]]'' (1974): Christopher investigates the [[Kennedy Assassination]]
#''[[The Secret Lovers (novel)|The Secret Lovers]]'' (1977): Christopher discovers a secret plot within the CIA
#''[[The Better Angels]]'' (1979): Christopher's cousins steal a Presidential election
#''[[The Last Supper (novel)|The Last Supper]]'' (1983): introduction to Christopher's parents in pre-World War II Germany; Christopher is imprisoned in China
#''The Bride of the Wilderness'' (1988): historical novel concerning 17th-century Christopher ancestors
#''Second Sight'' (1991): released from a Chinese prison, Christopher meets a daughter he did not know he had
#''Shelley's Heart'' (1995): sequel to ''The Better Angels'': Christopher's cousins cause a Presidential impeachment
#''Old Boys'' (2004): Christopher's old associates discover a plot involving terrorists and the fate of Christopher's mother
#''Christopher's Ghosts'' (2007): the story of Christopher's first love in pre-World War II Germany

Alternately, in chronological order of events depicted:
#''Bride of the Wilderness'' (Christopher's ancestors)
#''Last Supper'' [in part] (Christopher's parents)
#''Christopher's Ghosts'' 
#''The Miernik Dossier''
#''Secret Lovers''
#''The Tears of Autumn''
#''Last Supper'' [in part] 
#''The Better Angels''
#''Second Sight'' (Christopher is a peripheral character)
#''Shelley's Heart''
#''Old Boys'' (Christopher is a peripheral character)

==Reception==
''[[The Wall Street Journal]]'' described McCarry in 2013 as "the dean of American spy writers".<ref name="HW">{{cite news |last=Trachtenberg |first=Jeffrey |date=May 9, 2013 |title=An Ex-CIA Agent's Novel Take on Spying in China |work=[[The Wall Street Journal]] |url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/BL-SEB-74675 |access-date=June 7, 2017}}</ref> ''[[The New Republic]]'' magazine called him "poet laureate of the CIA";<ref>August 4, 1979, pp. 42–43.</ref> and Otto Penzler described him as "the greatest espionage writer that America has ever produced."<ref name="WaPo_Obit"/> [[Jonathan Yardley]], Pulitzer Prize-winning critic for the ''Washington Post'', calls him a "'serious' novelist" whose work may include "the best novel ever written about life in high-stakes Washington, D.C."<ref>"The Powers that Be", ''Washington Post'', June 4, 1995.</ref> In 2004 [[P. J. O'Rourke]] called him "the best modern writer on the subject of intrigue."<ref>P.J. O'Rourke, [https://web.archive.org/web/20180919024844/https://www.weeklystandard.com/pj-orourke/no-country-for-old-men "No Country for Old Men"], ''[[The Weekly Standard]], ''September 13, 2004.</ref>

==Adaptations==
The film ''[[Wrong is Right]]'' (1982), starring [[Sean Connery]], was loosely based on McCarry's novel, ''The Better Angels'' (1979).<ref>{{cite news |last1=Skinner |first1=David |title=Spymaster Charles McCarry may be the best novelist of his kind. |work=The Weekly Standard |volume=015 |issue=3 |publisher=Clarity |date=26 September 2009 |location=Washington DC |url=https://www.weeklystandard.com/Check.asp?idArticle=17000&r=mqcjf |access-date=29 July 2022 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090927164410/https://www.weeklystandard.com/Check.asp?idArticle=17000&r=mqcjf |archive-date=27 September 2009}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0084920/ |title=Wrong Is Right |date=14 May 1982 |via=imdb.com}}</ref>

==Other books and publications==

===Non-Paul Christopher novels===
*''Lucky Bastard'' (1999). A comic novel in which a likeable but amoral, devious, and oversexed politician (thought by many to evoke [[Bill Clinton]], when in fact McCarry himself said he was thinking about John F Kennedy.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Kakutani |first1=Michiko |title=The Modern Political Novel as a Mirror of the Bizarre |url=https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/books/99/01/10/daily/facetime-book-review.html |access-date=15 June 2018 |newspaper=New York Times |date=January 12, 1999}}</ref>) is controlled by a female eastern-bloc subversive.
*''Ark'' (2011). Earth's wealthiest man attempts to save humanity from a coming apocalypse.
*''The Shanghai Factor'' (2013).<ref>{{cite news |work=Grove Atlantic |url=https://groveatlantic.com/?title=The+Shanghai+Factor |title=The Shanghai Factor}}</ref> A rookie spy in China is drawn into the lonely, compartmentalized world of counterintelligence, and misunderstands everything that he and those around him are doing.
*''The Mulberry Bush'' (2015). Explores the world of South America's elites and militant revolutionaries, and the role of lifelong personal passions and agendas in their work and that of intelligence operatives.

===Non-fiction===
*''Citizen [[Ralph Nader|Nader]]'' (1972)
*''Double Eagle: [[Ben Abruzzo]], [[Maxie Anderson]], [[Larry Newman (aviator)|Larry Newman]]'' (1979)
*''The Great Southwest'' (1980)
*''Isles of the Caribbean'' ([[National Geographic Society]], Washington, DC, 1980, co-author)
*''For the Record: From Wall Street to Washington'' (1988, by [[Donald Regan]] with Charles McCarry)
*''Paths of Resistance: The Art and Craft of the Political Novel'' (1989, with [[Isabel Allende]], [[Marge Piercy]], [[Robert Stone (novelist)|Robert Stone]] and [[Gore Vidal]])
*''Inner Circles: How America Changed the World: a Memoir'' (1992, by [[Alexander Haig]] with Charles McCarry)
*''Caveat: Realism, Reagan, and Foreign Policy'' (1984, by Alexander Haig with Charles McCarry). Stories include: In March 1981, shortly after taking office, Ronald Reagan was shot; Secretary of State Haig appeared in the White House press room and announced, "I am in charge here!"<ref>pages 141–166.</ref>
*''From the Field: A Collection of Writings from National Geographic'' (1997, editor)

===Collections including McCarry's work===
*[[Harlan Coben]], ed. ''The Best American Mystery Stories: 2011'' − includes "The End of the String."<ref>Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.</ref>
*[[Alan Furst]], editor ''The Book of Spies −'' includes excerpt from ''The Tears of Autumn''.<ref>N.Y: The Modern Library, 2003.</ref>
[[Otto Penzler]], editor:
* ''Agents of Treachery'' − includes "The End of the Sting."
*''The 50 Greatest Mysteries of All Time'' − includes "The Hand of Carlos"
*''The Big Book of Espionage'' − includes "The Hand of Carlos"

===Short stories (fiction)===
*"The Saint Who Said No", ''Saturday Evening Post'', December 9, 1961
*"The Hand of Carlos", ''Armchair Detective'' (1992)
*"The End of the String"

===Magazine articles (non-fiction)===
*"A ... Week on the Road With Ralph Nader", ''Life'' magazine, January 21, 1972
*"John Rennon’s Excrusive Gloupie: On the load to briss with the Yoko nobody Onos", ''Esquire'' magazine, December 1, 1970<ref>{{cite web |last=McCarry |first=Charles |title=John Rennon's Excrusive Gloupie {{!}} Esquire {{!}} DECEMBER 1970 |url=https://classic.esquire.com/article/1970/12/1/john-rennons-excrusive-gloupie |access-date=2021-12-09 |website=Esquire {{!}} The Complete Archive |language=en-US}}</ref>

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Further reading==
*{{cite news |last=Bernhard |first=Brendan |title=The Great American Spy Novel |work=[[L.A. Weekly]] |url=https://www.laweekly.com/the-great-american-spy-novel/ |access-date=2007-03-11}}
*{{cite news |url=https://www.nationalreview.com/podcasts/the-bookmonger/charles-mccarry-ark/ |work=[[National Review]] |title=Charles McCarry on Ark (Audio interview with Charles McCarry) with John J. Miller}}
*{{cite news |url=http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/004/570mubbw.asp  |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040911004313/http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/004/570mubbw.asp  |url-status=dead  |archive-date=September 11, 2004  |title=A review essay |author=O'Rourke, P. J. |work=[[Weekly Standard]]}}
*Snyder, Robert Lance. "Charles McCarry's Recursive Late Fiction." ''Clues: A Journal of Detection'' 36.2 (Fall 2018): 71–81.
*Snyder, Robert Lance. (Fall 2020). "Suspicion's Abysmal Logic: Charles McCarry's ''The Miernik Dossier.''" ''South Atlantic Review'' 85(3), 171–84. {{Gale|A635785943}}

==External links==
*{{IMDb name|565010}}
*{{ISFDB name|Charles McCarry}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:McCarry, Charles}}
[[Category:American columnists]]
[[Category:American male non-fiction writers]]
[[Category:American male novelists]]
[[Category:American spy fiction writers]]
[[Category:Military personnel from Massachusetts]]
[[Category:Novelists from Massachusetts]]
[[Category:United States Army non-commissioned officers]]
[[Category:Writers from Pittsfield, Massachusetts]]
[[Category:1930 births]]
[[Category:2019 deaths]]
[[Category:20th-century American male writers]]
[[Category:20th-century American non-fiction writers]]
[[Category:20th-century American novelists]]
[[Category:21st-century American male writers]]
[[Category:21st-century American non-fiction writers]]
[[Category:21st-century American novelists]]