Cedric Belfrage
Cedric H. Belfrage | |
---|---|
Born | Cedric Henning Belfrage 8 November 1904 Marylebone, London |
Died | 21 June 1990 Cuernavaca, Mexico | (aged 85)
Occupation | Film critic, journalist, writer, political activist |
Nationality | British |
Alma mater | Corpus Christi College, Cambridge |
Spouse | Molly Castle
(m. 1936; div. 1953)Mary Bernick (m. 1960) |
Partner | Anne-Marie Hertz |
Children | Sally Belfrage, Nicolas Belfrage; Anne Hertz (Zribi) |
Relatives | Sydney Henning Belfrage (father) Bruce Belfrage (brother) Bryan Powley (uncle) |
Cedric Henning Belfrage (8 November 1904 – 21 June 1990) was an English film critic, journalist, writer and political activist.[1] He is best remembered as a co-founder of the radical US weekly National Guardian.[1] Later Belfrage was referenced as a Soviet agent in the US intelligence Venona project, although it appears he had been working for British Security Co-ordination as a double agent.[2]
Early years
Cedric Henning Belfrage was born in Marylebone, London, on 8 November 1904, the son of Sydney Henning Belfrage and Frances Grace (née Powley).[3] He was educated at Gresham's School,[4] before entering Corpus Christi College, Cambridge. There he had the same room as Christopher Marlowe had in the 16th century.[5]
While still a Cambridge student, Belfrage began a writing career as a film critic, with a first article in Kinematograph Weekly in 1924.
Belfrage joined the Communist Party USA in 1937, but withdrew his membership a few months later.[7] Thereafter, he maintained a friendly but critical relationship as a so-called "fellow traveler" outside party membership and discipline, recalling in his 1978 memoir that for "temperamentally argumentative" adherents of socialism such as himself, such status as a "non-Communist, non-anti-Communist... suited us better."[11] Despite his non-membership in the American Communist Party, Belfrage remained a believer that it functioned as "the core of the radical movement."[11]
Second World War
During the
It was while Belfrage was in Frankfurt working to establish the Frankfurter Rundschau – a new daily – that he met James Aronson, a veteran newspaper reporter and editor from Boston who shared Belfrage's radical politics.[14] Aronson was attached to Belfrage and together the pair helped to establish new newspapers in Heidelberg, Kassel, Stuttgart, and Bremen, developing a friendship and forging vague plans to launch a new radical newspaper in the United States following the end of the war.[14]
Belfrage was soon discharged from the Army and returned to the United States, however, and nothing immediately came of the pair's plans. Aronson returned to a job with the then-liberal New York Post in April 1946, moving later that year to a new job with The New York Times.[15]
National Guardian
In 1948, Belfrage co-founded, together with James Aronson and John T. McManus, a radical weekly newspaper called the National Guardian.[16] He would remain affiliated with the publication – renamed The Guardian in 1967 – until late in the 1960s.[16]
Later years
At the height of
Belfrage returned to the US for the first time in 1973, touring around the country with to promote his new book, The American Inquisition.[21] He later debuted as a Spanish-English translator, notably for the Latin American author Eduardo Galeano. He was commissioned by Monthly Review Press to translate Galeano's Open Veins of Latin America.[22] Belfrage continued to write extensively until his last years.[23]
Intelligence allegations
According to FBI files, Belfrage was questioned by the
In 1995, intercepts decrypted by
The 1948 Gorsky Memo, found in Soviet Archives, identifies Belfrage as having a covert relationship with Soviet intelligence as a member of the "Sound" and "Myrna" groups. Seven Venona decrypts reference UNC/9 in passing conversations between Belfrage's bureau chief and Winston Churchill on to the
Personal life
He and his wife, Molly Castle, had two children; Sally and Nicolas.[27] He also had a child, Anne Hertz (Zribi), with partner Anne-Marie Hertz.[28] Cedric was the younger brother of actor and BBC newsreader Bruce Belfrage (1900–1974).[29] Cedric's uncle was Bryan Powley, the actor who began his career in the era of Silent film.[29]
Death
Cedric Belfrage died on 21 June 1990 in Mexico, aged 85.[1]
Present-day allegations
In August 2015,
On 17 September 2015 a BBC Radio Four documentary "The Hollywood Spy"[32] examined Christopher Andrew's allegations, but also put forward information by historian John Simkin that Belfrage was working for British Security Co-ordination as a double-agent, which would explain why he handed information to the Soviets.[33]
Works
- Away From It All: An Escapologist's Notebook. Gollancz, London, 1937; Simon and Schuster, 1937; Literary Guild, 1937 Penguin (Britain)[34]
- Promised Land: Notes For a History. Gollancz, London, 1937; Left Book Club, London, 1937; Republished by Garland, New York, Classics of Film Literature series, 1983[35]
- Let My People Go. Gollancz, London, 1937[36]
- South of God. Left Book Club, 1938[37]
- A Faith to Free the People. Modern Age, New York, 1942; Dryden Press, New York, 1944; Book Find Club, 1944[38]
- They All Hold Swords. Modern Age, New York, 1941[39]
- Abide With Me. Sloane Associates, New York, 1948; Secker and Warburg, London, 1948[40]
- Seeds of destruction; the truth about the U.S. occupation of Germany Cameron and Kahn, New York, 1954.
- The Frightened Giant. Secker and Warburg, London, 1956[41]
- My Master Columbus. Secker and Warburg, 1961; Doubleday, New York, 1962; Editiones Contemporaneous, Mexico, (in Spanish)[42]
- The Man at the Door With the Gun. Monthly Review, New York, 1963[43]
- The American Inquisition. Indianapolis, IN: Bobbs-Merrill, 1973[44]
- Something to Guard: The Stormy Life of the National Guardian, 1948-1967. With James Aronson. New York: Columbia University Press, 1978[45]
References
- ^ a b c Fowler, Glenn (22 June 1990). "Cedric Belfrage, 85, Target of Communist Inquiry". The New York Times. Retrieved 21 June 2019.
- ^ The Financial Times, Cedric Belfrage - sixth man Soviet spy who hid in plain sight. By Sam Jones, Defence and Security Editor, 21 August 2015.
- ^ Cedric Belfrage and James Aronson, Something to Guard: The Stormy Life of the National Guardian, 1948–1967. New York: Columbia University Press, 1978, p. 4.
- ^ "Media – Gresham's School – Old Greshamians – Media". Gresham's School. Retrieved 21 June 2019.
- ^ "BBC Radio 4 – The Report, The Hollywood Spy". BBC. Retrieved 21 June 2019.
- ^ "Cedric Belfrage". Spartacus Educational. Retrieved 21 June 2019.
- ^ a b c Corera, Gordon (21 August 2015). "UK 'embarrassed to pursue WW2 spy'". BBC News. Retrieved 21 June 2019.
- ^ Adams, Sam (25 August 2015). "British Film Critic Was a Soviet Spy". Retrieved 21 June 2019.
- ^ "Guide to the Cedric Belfrage Papers TAM.143". dlib.nyu.edu. Retrieved 21 June 2019.
- ^ Belfrage and Aronson, p. 7.
- ^ a b Belfrage and Aronson, p. 8.
- ISBN 978-1-57181-159-2. Retrieved 21 June 2019 – via Google Books.
- ^ Belfrage and Aronson, pp. 1–2.
- ^ a b Belfrage and Aronson, Something to Guard, pg. 4.
- ^ Belfrage and Aronson, p. 9.
- ^ ISBN 978-1-107-18805-1. Retrieved 21 June 2019 – via Google Books.
- ISBN 978-0-307-23866-5. Retrieved 21 June 2019 – via Google Books.
- ^ ISBN 978-1-316-99288-3. Retrieved 21 June 2019 – via Google Books.
- ^ Activities, United States Congress House Committee on Un-American (21 June 1965). "Violations of State Department Travel Regulations and Pro-Castro Propaganda Activities in the United States: Hearings". U.S. Government Printing Office. Retrieved 21 June 2019 – via Google Books.
- ISBN 978-1-4668-4150-5. Retrieved 21 June 2019 – via Google Books.
- ^ "THE AMERICAN INQUISITION, 1945-1960 by Cedric Belfrage - Kirkus Reviews". Retrieved 21 June 2019 – via www.kirkusreviews.com.
- S2CID 144821821.
- ^ "Results for 'cedric belfrage' [WorldCat.org]". www.worldcat.org. Retrieved 21 June 2019.
- ^ a b John Earl Haynes and Harvey Klehr, Venona: Decoding Soviet Espionage in America. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2009; pp. 109–111, 312. See also John Earl Haynes, Harvey Klehr, and Alexander Vassiliev, Spies: The Rise and Fall of the KGB in America. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2009; pp. 191 and 581, footnote 89.
- ^ Bentley, Elizabeth (1951). Out of Bondage: The Story of Elizabeth Bentley. Devin-Adair. pp. 201–202. Retrieved 19 August 2018.
- ^ Harvey Klehr, John Earl Haynes, and Fredrikh I. Firsov, The Secret World of American Communism, New Haven: Yale University Press, 1995, p. 233.
- ^ "Statement from Nicolas Belfrage" (PDF). bbc.co.uk.
- ^ "Guide to the Cedric Belfrage Papers TAM.143". dlib.nyu.edu. Retrieved 21 June 2019.
- ^ OCLC 7897336.
- ^ Corera, Gordon (21 August 2015). "Cedric Belfrage, the WW2 spy Britain was embarrassed to pursue". BBC News. London.
- ^ Jones, Sam (21 August 2015). "Cedric Belfrage – 'sixth man' Soviet spy who hid in plain sight". Financial Times. London. Archived from the original on 11 December 2022.
- ^ Corera, Gordon (17 September 2015). "The Hollywood Spy". BBC Radio Four. London.
- ^ Simkin, John (17 September 2015). "The problems of appearing in a BBC documentary". Spartacus Blog.
- OCLC 220988412.
- OCLC 2983258.
- OCLC 483832109.
- OCLC 1515986.
- OCLC 1180750.
- ^ Belfrage, Cedric (21 June 2019). "They all hold swords". Modern age Books. Retrieved 21 June 2019 – via Open WorldCat.
- OCLC 557798752.
- OCLC 248294173.
- OCLC 750991088.
- OCLC 479542351.
- ISBN 978-0-672-51643-6. Retrieved 21 June 2019 – via Open WorldCat.
- OCLC 906261686.
Further reading
- Cedric Belfrage interview, 8 June 1947, FBI Silvermaster file, serial 2522, pgs. 47–49 (pgs. 446, 447, 448 in original).
- Cedric Belfrage statement, 3 June 1947, FBI Silvermaster file, serial 2583, pgs. 50–56 (pgs. 318–324 in original).
- Bentley, Elizabeth (1951). Out of Bondage: The Story of Elizabeth Bentley. New York: Devin-Adair.
- Haynes, John Earl; Klehr, Harvey (1999). Venona: Decoding Soviet Espionage in America. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
- Vassiliev, Alexander (2003). "Alexander Vassiliev's Notes on Anatoly Gorsky's December 1948 Memo on Compromised American Sources and Networks". Wilson Center, Princeton University.
External links
- Guide to the Cedric Belfrage Papers, Tamiment Library and Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives, Elmer Holmes Bobst Library, New York University.
- Guide to the Sally Belfrage Papers, Tamiment Library and Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives, Elmer Holmes Bobst Library, New York University.
- Cedric Belfrage, Spartacus Educational.