Tag Archives: James Fenimore Cooper

the secret agent: aesthetic of violence

…It was the Second World War that gave the secret agent one of his most significant new traits since James Fenimore Cooper’s day when he wrote The Spy: the James Bond look, the look of violence and all its various … Continue reading

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secret agent: great game ethos

The cult of the secret agent. Despit the bling and action, the secret agent poses a menace to the open society… …The Great Game ethos of the professionals was reflected in the spy novels and a little later in the … Continue reading

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spy catchers and butterfly nets

…Whether the Great Game spirit filtered from the colonies into the metropolitan headquarters of the major European spy services, or whether it had roots at home as well, it became a dominant trait of the secret service mind in the … Continue reading

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secret agent cult: balzac undercover

…It was Balzac finally, who put his unerring finger on one of the basic motivations of the secret agent in every age, one of the essential sources of his imaginative appeal: “The trade of a spy is a very fine … Continue reading

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the spy: harvey birch

James Fenimore Cooper’s The Spy with his protagonist Harvey Birch was the authentic ancestor of the modern espionage novel. Cooper drew no veil over the sordid aspects of espionage work. … …It is because Harvey Birch’s heroism has to be … Continue reading

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spy figures:the harvey birch society

The cult of the secret agent… …And it once again was an American writer, James Fenimore Cooper, who first endowed the spy figure with an intriguing aura of romance… Cooper’s novel, The Spy, published in 1821, and said to have … Continue reading

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cult of the spy: aura of romance

…Spies and secret agents have, of course, been used throughout history, and individual spies have sometimes been ennobled or otherwise honored for their work. But the spy’s profession has almost always and everywhere been regarded with contempt. “Espionage is never … Continue reading

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tradition of the quest

The atmosphere conjured up by J.D. Salinger inevitably recalls the era of nineteenth-century romanticism; then, too, the promise of utopia disappeared in blood, leaving the younger generation disillusioned and ready to escape into the personal search for truth and beauty. … Continue reading

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kicking a rusty can down the road

Rusty. Shopworn. Used. There is something powerful in the American psyche that seeks to create the idea of a bygone time when life moved slower. Relive the Oregon Trail and be an ocular witness to the Last of the Mohicans. … Continue reading

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A NORTHERN WIZARD: Writing For Love, Money & “The Great Unknowns”

Like Dickens and Balzac, he wrote because he could not help writing, but he did not think that the chief business of life was to be put into literature; and much as he appreciated his contemporary fame, he does not appear to have cared … Continue reading

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