Maxim Lieber
Encyclopedia
Maxim Lieber was a prominent American
literary agent
in New York City
during the 1930s and 1940s. Whittaker Chambers
named him as an accomplice in 1949, and Lieber fled first to Mexico
and then Poland
not long after Alger Hiss
's conviction in 1950.
, Poland, to a family of Jewish origin. Both parents came from Opoczno
, Poland. His family left Hamburg, Germany for New York City
aboard the S. S. Pennsylvania in 1907 and lived in the Bronx. Lieber's father served as a typesetter for the Yiddish social-democratic newspaper Forverts, suggesting that one parent (if not both) was secularist. Young Maxim attended public schools, including Townsend Harris Hall
(then part of New York City College) and Morris High School (Bronx, New York)
.
In 1918, Lieber joined joined the West Ontario Regiment of the Canadian Over-Seas Expeditionary Force
. In 1919, he enlisted in the U. S. Army Medical Corps. In 1920, he received an honorable discharge as a Sergeant. (In 1951, Lieber testified that he had served in World War I
, stationed at Camp Meade in the replacement battalion in medical service, that he received U. S. naturalization in Washington in 1919, and that he left the U.S. Army as a sergeant
in the Army Medical Corp at Walter Reed Hospital.)
In 1924, Lieber married to Irma Cohen. By 1930, they had one child and divorced. He was married briefly again and divorced in 1945. Minna Edith Zelinka was a correspondent in the second divorce; Lieber married her not long after. They had two children.
as head of publishing through 1930. At that point, Brenatano's went into involuntary bankruptcy.
In 1930 Lieber set up the Maxim Lieber Literary Agency. Over the next 20 years, he would represent some 30 clients.
According to one writer (and client), Lieber's client list included Louis Adamic, Erskine Caldwell, Katherine Anne Porter
, John Cheever, Josephine Herbst
, Albert Maltz
, John O'Hara
, Albert Halper, James Farrell
, Nathanael West, Maxim Gorky
, Theodore Dreiser
, and Langston Hughes.
Other clients included Thomas Wolfe, Allen Tate
, Saul Bellow, Carson McCullers, Claude McKay
, Otto Katz and Egon Erwin Kisch
, and Carey McWilliams
and Robert Coates.
The New York Public Library
may have the most complete list (with years represented):
A family source add these further clients: Joseph Milton Bernstein
, Whittaker Chambers, Havelock Ellis
, Albert Malkin, Lewis Mumford
, Arthur Simmons, and Richard Wright
; and possibly Maurice Halperin
, Lillian Hellman
, and Leon Trotsky
.
introduced Lieber to Whittaker Chambers in late 1934. The two became friends, and Chambers often used Lieber's apartment when visiting New York. Chambers wrote of Lieber (using his alias "Paul"):
According to Chambers in his 1952 memoir Witness, Lieber helped the underground network in New York City. Initially, Chambers secured Lieber's cooperation in setting up a branch of his agency in London, which Chambers would run under the name of "David Breen." Then, he secured Lieber's support for operations in East Asia. During the summer of 1935, the Chambers family lived with the Liebers in Smithtown, Pennsylvania. After Chambers' defection in 1938, Peters used "Paul" (Lieber) to contact him. Later, when Chambers wanted to let Peters & Co. know about his life preserver (see Pumpkin Papers, he contacted Lieber to relay his message.
While the London operation was getting under way (it would eventually fall through), Chambers asked Lieber to cooperate with fellow underground operator John Loomis Sherman (under the alias "Charles Francis Chase" and Chambers as "Lloyd Cantwell") in establishing the American Feature Writers' Syndicate. Together, these three filed a registration of trade in New York City and opened a bank account at the Chemical Bank. (Chambers also mentioned that Charles Angoff was involved, though conspiratorially or otherwise remained unclear.) Sherman was to go to Tokyo and set up a network separate from that of Richard Sorge
. According to Chambers' testimony:
, where he lived for the rest of his life. Shortly thereafter, Noel Field
(like Hiss not only as an employee of the U.S. Department of State, but one named by Chambers as part of his spy ring) fled from Switzerland
to Poland (behind the Iron Curtain
. This left House Un-American Committee (HUAC) with few people who had not yet pled the Fifth to corroborate Chambers' story. On February 27 and March 1, 1950, Sherman appeared before HUAC without counsel and pled the Fifth to nearly every question asked him.
On June 13, 1950, Lieber appeared with lawyer Milton H. Friedman before HUAC during executive session with House representatives Francis E. Walter
, Burr P. Harrison, and Morgan M. Moulder
. As with Sherman, HUAC read out excerpts from Chambers' testimony that mentioned their names or aliases. They also asked Lieber (as Sherman) whether he knew either Alger Hiss or J. Peters. (Chambers had recounted a meeting between, Lieber, himself, and Hiss on Lieber's farm: Lieber confirmed only ownership of 103-acre farm in Ferndale, Pennysylvania, in Bucks County from about 1935-1945.) They asked whether his clients included Louis Adamic
, Howard Fast
, V. J. Jerome
, or Paul Robeson
. They asked whether he knew Otto Katz (reputed to be involved in the death of Walter Krivitsky
and in Soviet attempts to seize Chambers after defection) or Katz's associate Erwin Kisch. They asked whether knew Osmond K. Fraenkel or whether he had ever contributed to a publication (probably Freies Deutschland) by Anna Seghers
in Mexico.
To all such questions, Lieber pled the Fifth on the grounds of self-incrimination. As he explained, he had also testified twice already in 1948 before the grand jury
in New York City, which then indicted Hiss on two counts of perjury. During testimony, Lieber listed three by name of some 30 clients: Erskine Caldwell, Carey McWilliams, and Robert Coates.
Lieber left the U. S. for Mexico in 1951 with his wife Minna and their two children.
After one year in Cuernavaca
, Mexico, they moved to Mexico City, where they resided another two years. Following his departure from the US, Lieber was stripped of his US citizenship. He resided in Mexico as a stateless person. The US authorities returned his citizenship in 1964.
In late 1954, on instructions from Moscow, Lieber moved with his family to Warsaw, Poland. They spent the next 14 years on Poland, after which they left for the UK. After being expelled by the British Home Office, they returned to the States. There, Lieber lived out the rest of his life quietly in East Harftord, Ct. Soon after his return to the US he was interviewed by the FBI. In the late 1970s, Lieber gave a series of interviews to historian Allen Weinstein, who then was working on his book, "Perjury: The Hiss-Chambers Case." Lieber died in East Hartford, Connecticut
on April 10, 1993.
and a former housemaid.
(In 1952, Nathaniel Weyl
would testify further about Hiss.)
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
literary agent
Literary agent
A literary agent is an agent who represents writers and their written works to publishers, theatrical producers and film producers and assists in the sale and deal negotiation of the same. Literary agents most often represent novelists, screenwriters and major non-fiction writers...
in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
during the 1930s and 1940s. Whittaker Chambers
Whittaker Chambers
Whittaker Chambers was born Jay Vivian Chambers and also known as David Whittaker Chambers , was an American writer and editor. After being a Communist Party USA member and Soviet spy, he later renounced communism and became an outspoken opponent later testifying in the perjury and espionage trial...
named him as an accomplice in 1949, and Lieber fled first to Mexico
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
and then Poland
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
not long after Alger Hiss
Alger Hiss
Alger Hiss was an American lawyer, government official, author, and lecturer. He was involved in the establishment of the United Nations both as a U.S. State Department and U.N. official...
's conviction in 1950.
Early years
Lieber was born in WarsawWarsaw
Warsaw is the capital and largest city of Poland. It is located on the Vistula River, roughly from the Baltic Sea and from the Carpathian Mountains. Its population in 2010 was estimated at 1,716,855 residents with a greater metropolitan area of 2,631,902 residents, making Warsaw the 10th most...
, Poland, to a family of Jewish origin. Both parents came from Opoczno
Opoczno
Opoczno is a town in south-central Poland, within the eastern part of Łódź Voivodeship , previously in Piotrków Trybunalski Voivodeship . Important communication routes run through the town, namely the central railway line, which connects Silesia with Warsaw, and road 12, which creates a...
, Poland. His family left Hamburg, Germany for New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
aboard the S. S. Pennsylvania in 1907 and lived in the Bronx. Lieber's father served as a typesetter for the Yiddish social-democratic newspaper Forverts, suggesting that one parent (if not both) was secularist. Young Maxim attended public schools, including Townsend Harris Hall
Townsend Harris High School
Townsend Harris High School is a public magnet high school for the humanities in the borough of Queens in New York City. Students and alumni often refer to themselves as "Harrisites." Townsend Harris consistently ranks as among the top 100 High Schools in the United States. It currently operates as...
(then part of New York City College) and Morris High School (Bronx, New York)
Morris High School (Bronx, New York)
Morris High School was a high school in the borough of the Bronx in New York City. It was built in 1897. It was the first high school built in the Bronx...
.
In 1918, Lieber joined joined the West Ontario Regiment of the Canadian Over-Seas Expeditionary Force
Canadian Forces
The Canadian Forces , officially the Canadian Armed Forces , are the unified armed forces of Canada, as constituted by the National Defence Act, which states: "The Canadian Forces are the armed forces of Her Majesty raised by Canada and consist of one Service called the Canadian Armed Forces."...
. In 1919, he enlisted in the U. S. Army Medical Corps. In 1920, he received an honorable discharge as a Sergeant. (In 1951, Lieber testified that he had served in World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
, stationed at Camp Meade in the replacement battalion in medical service, that he received U. S. naturalization in Washington in 1919, and that he left the U.S. Army as a sergeant
Sergeant
Sergeant is a rank used in some form by most militaries, police forces, and other uniformed organizations around the world. Its origins are the Latin serviens, "one who serves", through the French term Sergent....
in the Army Medical Corp at Walter Reed Hospital.)
In 1924, Lieber married to Irma Cohen. By 1930, they had one child and divorced. He was married briefly again and divorced in 1945. Minna Edith Zelinka was a correspondent in the second divorce; Lieber married her not long after. They had two children.
Literary Agency
After serving in the Army, Lieber helped set up a publishing house, Lieber & Lewis (which Albert Boni took over in 1923). He co-edited a book, published in 1925, and then traveled abroad using the advance paid him by the publisher (R. M. McBride). Returning to the States in 1926, he worked for Brentano'sBrentano's
Brentano's was an American bookstore. In addition to the numerous locations in the United States, there was a Brentano's on Avenue de l'Opéra in Paris, at the same location for 114 years....
as head of publishing through 1930. At that point, Brenatano's went into involuntary bankruptcy.
In 1930 Lieber set up the Maxim Lieber Literary Agency. Over the next 20 years, he would represent some 30 clients.
According to one writer (and client), Lieber's client list included Louis Adamic, Erskine Caldwell, Katherine Anne Porter
Katherine Anne Porter
Katherine Anne Porter was a Pulitzer Prize-winning American journalist, essayist, short story writer, novelist, and political activist. Her 1962 novel Ship of Fools was the best-selling novel in America that year, but her short stories received much more critical acclaim...
, John Cheever, Josephine Herbst
Josephine Herbst
Josephine Herbst was an American writer and journalist, active from 1923 to near the time of her death. She was a radical with communist leanings, who "incorporate[d] the philosophy of socialism into her fiction" and "aligned herself with the political Left", She wrote "proletarian novels"...
, Albert Maltz
Albert Maltz
Albert Maltz was an American author and screenwriter. He was one of the Hollywood Ten who were later blacklisted by the Hollywood movie studio bosses....
, John O'Hara
John O'Hara
John Henry O'Hara was an American writer. He initially became known for his short stories and later became a best-selling novelist whose works include Appointment in Samarra and BUtterfield 8. He was particularly known for an uncannily accurate ear for dialogue...
, Albert Halper, James Farrell
James Farrell
James Farrell or Jimmy Farrell may refer to:* James Gordon Farrell , Anglo-Irish writer of historical novels, better known as "J.G. Farrell"* James T. Farrell , American socialist novelist* James A...
, Nathanael West, Maxim Gorky
Maxim Gorky
Alexei Maximovich Peshkov , primarily known as Maxim Gorky , was a Russian and Soviet author, a founder of the Socialist Realism literary method and a political activist.-Early years:...
, Theodore Dreiser
Theodore Dreiser
Theodore Herman Albert Dreiser was an American novelist and journalist of the naturalist school. His novels often featured main characters who succeeded at their objectives despite a lack of a firm moral code, and literary situations that more closely resemble studies of nature than tales of...
, and Langston Hughes.
Other clients included Thomas Wolfe, Allen Tate
Allen Tate
John Orley Allen Tate was an American poet, essayist, social commentator, and Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress from 1943 to 1944.-Life:...
, Saul Bellow, Carson McCullers, Claude McKay
Claude McKay
Claude McKay was a Jamaican-American writer and poet. He was a seminal figure in the Harlem Renaissance and wrote three novels: Home to Harlem , a best-seller which won the Harmon Gold Award for Literature, Banjo , and Banana Bottom...
, Otto Katz and Egon Erwin Kisch
Egon Erwin Kisch
Egon Erwin Kisch was a Czechoslovak writer and journalist, who wrote in German. Known as the The raging reporter from Prague, Kisch was noted for his development of literary reportage and his opposition to Adolf Hitler's Nazi regime.- Biography :Kisch was born into a wealthy, German-speaking...
, and Carey McWilliams
Carey McWilliams (journalist)
Carey McWilliams was an American author, editor, and lawyer. He is best known for his writings about social issues in California, including the condition of migrant farm workers and the internment of Japanese Americans in concentration camps during World War II...
and Robert Coates.
The New York Public Library
New York Public Library
The New York Public Library is the largest public library in North America and is one of the United States' most significant research libraries...
may have the most complete list (with years represented):
- Louis AdamicLouis AdamicLouis Adamic was a Slovenian American author and translator.- Biography :Adamic was born at Praproče Mansion in Praproče near Grosuplje, in what is now Slovenia...
(1930–1931, 1946) - Benjamin AppelBenjamin AppelBenjamin Appel , was an American novelist specializing in detective and crime fiction, sometimes from a radical perspective....
(1933, 1935) - Nathan Ash (1934–1936, 1940–1942, 1946–1947, 1949–1950)
- Arturo BareaArturo BareaArturo Barea Ogazón was a Spanish broadcaster and writer.-Biography:Of humble origins, his father died when he was four months old. His mother, with four young children to support, worked as a laundress, washing clothes in the River Manzanares, while the family lived in a garret in the poor...
(1947, 1950) - Saul BellowSaul BellowSaul Bellow was a Canadian-born Jewish American writer. For his literary contributions, Bellow was awarded the Pulitzer Prize, the Nobel Prize for Literature, and the National Medal of Arts...
(1943) - Alvah BessieAlvah BessieAlvah Cecil Bessie was an American novelist, journalist and screenwriter who was imprisoned for ten months and blacklisted by the movie studio bosses for being one of the group known as the Hollywood Ten.-Life and career:...
(1933) - Carlos BulosanCarlos BulosanAlso known as Julius Zafra , a Filipino, an English-language novelist and poet who spent most of his life in the United States, and is best known for the semi-autobiographical America Is in the Heart.-Life and career:Carlos Bulosan was born to Ilocano parents in...
(1944) - Erskine CaldwellErskine CaldwellErskine Preston Caldwell was an American author. His writings about poverty, racism and social problems in his native South like the novels Tobacco Road and God's Little Acre won him critical acclaim, but they also made him controversial among fellow Southerners of the time who felt he was...
(1932–1943, 1947–1948) - John CheeverJohn CheeverJohn William Cheever was an American novelist and short story writer. He is sometimes called "the Chekhov of the suburbs." His fiction is mostly set in the Upper East Side of Manhattan, the Westchester suburbs, old New England villages based on various South Shore towns around Quincy,...
(1935–1941) - Robert CoatesRobert Coates (critic)Robert Myron Coates was an American writer and a long-term art critic for the New Yorker. He coined the term "abstract expressionism" in 1946 in reference to the works of Arshile Gorky, Jackson Pollock and Willem de Kooning.As a writer of fiction, he is considered a member of the Lost Generation,...
(1935–1938, 1941, 1945) - Emily HahnEmily HahnEmily Hahn was an American journalist and author. Called "a forgotten American literary treasure" by The New Yorker magazine, she was the author of 52 books and more than 180 articles and stories...
(1930–1931) - Nancy Hale (1934)
- Albert HalperAlbert Halper-Life:Born in 1904 and raised in Chicago, Halper went to live and work in New York City in 1929. His work came to the attention of Elliot E. Cohen, who published him in his magazine, the Menorah Journal...
(1935, 1937, 1942–1943, 1946–1950) - Langston HughesLangston HughesJames Mercer Langston Hughes was an American poet, social activist, novelist, playwright, and columnist. He was one of the earliest innovators of the then-new literary art form jazz poetry. Hughes is best known for his work during the Harlem Renaissance...
(1933–1945, 1949–1950) - Alfred KreymborgAlfred KreymborgAlfred Francis Kreymborg was an American poet, novelist, playwright, literary editor and anthologist.-Early life and associations:...
(1947) - Grace LumpkinGrace LumpkinGrace Lumpkin was an American writer of proletarian literature, focusing most of her works on the Depression era and the rise and fall of favor surrounding communism in the United States...
(1935) - Carson McCullersCarson McCullersCarson McCullers was an American writer. She wrote novels, short stories, and two plays, as well as essays and some poetry. Her first novel The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter explores the spiritual isolation of misfits and outcasts of the South...
(1938, 1941, 1948–1949) - Bernard MalamudBernard MalamudBernard Malamud was an author of novels and short stories. Along with Saul Bellow and Philip Roth, he was one of the great American Jewish authors of the 20th century. His baseball novel, The Natural, was adapted into a 1984 film starring Robert Redford...
(1942, 1945) - William MarchWilliam MarchWilliam March was an American author and a highly decorated US Marine. The author of six novels and four short-story collections, March was praised by critics and heralded as "the unrecognized genius of our time", without attaining popular appeal until after his death.March grew up in rural...
(W. E. Campbell) (1934, 1937–1939) - Naomi MitchisonNaomi MitchisonNaomi May Margaret Mitchison, CBE was a Scottish novelist and poet. She was appointed CBE in 1981; she was also entitled to call herself Lady Mitchison, CBE since 5 October 1964 .- Childhood and family background :Naomi Margaret Haldane was...
(1935) - Frances Park (1932–1934)
- Leo C. Rosten (1935–1938)
- Tess SlesingerTess SlesingerTess Slesinger was a Jewish-American writer and screenwriter and is credited as being a charter member of the New York intellectual scene....
(1933–1937, 1941) - Henry Anton Steig (1937–1941)
- Nathanael WestNathanael WestNathanael West was a US author, screenwriter and satirist.- Early life :...
(1933) - Thomas WolfeThomas WolfeThomas Clayton Wolfe was a major American novelist of the early 20th century.Wolfe wrote four lengthy novels, plus many short stories, dramatic works and novellas. He is known for mixing highly original, poetic, rhapsodic, and impressionistic prose with autobiographical writing...
(1934) - Leane Zugsmight (1933–1944, 1947–1949, 1951)
A family source add these further clients: Joseph Milton Bernstein
Joseph Milton Bernstein
Joseph Milton Bernstein was an American accused of spying for the Soviet Union.-Career:Bernstein allegedly recruited his fellow Communist T.A. Bisson who had stopped working at the Board of Economic Warfare and began working in the Institute of Pacific Relations and in the editorial offices of...
, Whittaker Chambers, Havelock Ellis
Havelock Ellis
Henry Havelock Ellis, known as Havelock Ellis , was a British physician and psychologist, writer, and social reformer who studied human sexuality. He was co-author of the first medical textbook in English on homosexuality in 1897, and also published works on a variety of sexual practices and...
, Albert Malkin, Lewis Mumford
Lewis Mumford
Lewis Mumford was an American historian, philosopher of technology, and influential literary critic. Particularly noted for his study of cities and urban architecture, he had a broad career as a writer...
, Arthur Simmons, and Richard Wright
Richard Wright
Richard Wright may refer to:* Richard Wright , African-American novelist, writer, poet, essayist* Richard Wright , also known as Rick Wright, English musician, founding member of Pink Floyd...
; and possibly Maurice Halperin
Maurice Halperin
Maurice Hyman Halperin was an American writer, professor, diplomat, and Soviet spy .-Biography:...
, Lillian Hellman
Lillian Hellman
Lillian Florence "Lily" Hellman was an American playwright, linked throughout her life with many left-wing causes...
, and Leon Trotsky
Leon Trotsky
Leon Trotsky , born Lev Davidovich Bronshtein, was a Russian Marxist revolutionary and theorist, Soviet politician, and the founder and first leader of the Red Army....
.
Espionage
J. PetersJ. Peters
J. Peters was the most commonly known pseudonym of a man who last went by the name "Alexander Stevens" in 1949. Peters was an ethnic Jewish journalist and political activist who was a leading figure of the Hungarian language section of the Communist Party USA in the 1920s and 1930s...
introduced Lieber to Whittaker Chambers in late 1934. The two became friends, and Chambers often used Lieber's apartment when visiting New York. Chambers wrote of Lieber (using his alias "Paul"):
After the Alger Hisses, Paul, of all the people in the underground, had been closest to me. In many ways our relationship was freer than mine with the Hisses. Paul was engaged in less hazardous activities than Hiss. He had a lively sense of humor which Hiss lacked. We shared a common intense love of music and books. And Paul knew my real name and had known and respected me as a Communist writer before either of us went underground.
According to Chambers in his 1952 memoir Witness, Lieber helped the underground network in New York City. Initially, Chambers secured Lieber's cooperation in setting up a branch of his agency in London, which Chambers would run under the name of "David Breen." Then, he secured Lieber's support for operations in East Asia. During the summer of 1935, the Chambers family lived with the Liebers in Smithtown, Pennsylvania. After Chambers' defection in 1938, Peters used "Paul" (Lieber) to contact him. Later, when Chambers wanted to let Peters & Co. know about his life preserver (see Pumpkin Papers, he contacted Lieber to relay his message.
While the London operation was getting under way (it would eventually fall through), Chambers asked Lieber to cooperate with fellow underground operator John Loomis Sherman (under the alias "Charles Francis Chase" and Chambers as "Lloyd Cantwell") in establishing the American Feature Writers' Syndicate. Together, these three filed a registration of trade in New York City and opened a bank account at the Chemical Bank. (Chambers also mentioned that Charles Angoff was involved, though conspiratorially or otherwise remained unclear.) Sherman was to go to Tokyo and set up a network separate from that of Richard Sorge
Richard Sorge
Richard Sorge was a German communist and spy who worked for the Soviet Union. He has gained great fame among espionage enthusiasts for his intelligence gathering during World War II. He worked as a journalist in both Germany and Japan, where he was imprisoned for spying and eventually hanged....
. According to Chambers' testimony:
Lieber went among various feature syndicates and various newspapers and tried to get various interests or sales… and Sherman went to work in Lieber's office, had a desk there, and his name was written on the door and I think some stationery was got out and deposits were made, I think, in the Chemical Bank in New York in the name of the syndicate. These deposits were to finance the operation in Japan. Then Peters, who was in on most of this operation, supplied a birth certificate in the name of Charles Chase [for Sherman] and, on the basis of that certificate, which was a perfectly legal document procured in the way I have described in earlier testimony, John Sherman took out a passport and on that passport he traveled to Tokyo.
Testimony, flight, and later years
In 1949, J. Peters left the United States at his own volition (ahead of near-certain deportation) for HungaryHungary
Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...
, where he lived for the rest of his life. Shortly thereafter, Noel Field
Noel Field
Noel Field , was an American citizen. While employed at the United States Department of State in the 1930s, he was a Soviet spy...
(like Hiss not only as an employee of the U.S. Department of State, but one named by Chambers as part of his spy ring) fled from Switzerland
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
to Poland (behind the Iron Curtain
Iron Curtain
The concept of the Iron Curtain symbolized the ideological fighting and physical boundary dividing Europe into two separate areas from the end of World War II in 1945 until the end of the Cold War in 1989...
. This left House Un-American Committee (HUAC) with few people who had not yet pled the Fifth to corroborate Chambers' story. On February 27 and March 1, 1950, Sherman appeared before HUAC without counsel and pled the Fifth to nearly every question asked him.
On June 13, 1950, Lieber appeared with lawyer Milton H. Friedman before HUAC during executive session with House representatives Francis E. Walter
Francis E. Walter
Francis Eugene Walter was a Democratic member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Pennsylvania.-Biography:...
, Burr P. Harrison, and Morgan M. Moulder
Morgan M. Moulder
Morgan Moore Moulder was a U.S. Representative from Missouri.Born in Linn Creek, Missouri, Moulder attended the public schools of Linn Creek and Lebanon, Missouri, and the University of Missouri....
. As with Sherman, HUAC read out excerpts from Chambers' testimony that mentioned their names or aliases. They also asked Lieber (as Sherman) whether he knew either Alger Hiss or J. Peters. (Chambers had recounted a meeting between, Lieber, himself, and Hiss on Lieber's farm: Lieber confirmed only ownership of 103-acre farm in Ferndale, Pennysylvania, in Bucks County from about 1935-1945.) They asked whether his clients included Louis Adamic
Louis Adamic
Louis Adamic was a Slovenian American author and translator.- Biography :Adamic was born at Praproče Mansion in Praproče near Grosuplje, in what is now Slovenia...
, Howard Fast
Howard Fast
Howard Melvin Fast was an American novelist and television writer. Fast also wrote under the pen names E. V. Cunningham and Walter Ericson.-Early life:Fast was born in New York City...
, V. J. Jerome
V. J. Jerome
Victor Jeremy Jerome was a Polish-American communist writer and editor. He is best remembered as a Marxist cultural essayist and as the long-time editor of the theoretical journal of the Communist Party USA.-Early years:...
, or Paul Robeson
Paul Robeson
Paul Leroy Robeson was an American concert singer , recording artist, actor, athlete, scholar who was an advocate for the Civil Rights Movement in the first half of the twentieth century...
. They asked whether he knew Otto Katz (reputed to be involved in the death of Walter Krivitsky
Walter Krivitsky
Walter Germanovich Krivitsky was a Soviet intelligence officer who revealed plans of signing Nazi-Soviet non-aggression pact before defecting weeks before the outbreak of World War II....
and in Soviet attempts to seize Chambers after defection) or Katz's associate Erwin Kisch. They asked whether knew Osmond K. Fraenkel or whether he had ever contributed to a publication (probably Freies Deutschland) by Anna Seghers
Anna Seghers
Anna Seghers was a German writer famous for depicting the moral experience of the Second World War.- Life :...
in Mexico.
To all such questions, Lieber pled the Fifth on the grounds of self-incrimination. As he explained, he had also testified twice already in 1948 before the grand jury
Grand jury
A grand jury is a type of jury that determines whether a criminal indictment will issue. Currently, only the United States retains grand juries, although some other common law jurisdictions formerly employed them, and most other jurisdictions employ some other type of preliminary hearing...
in New York City, which then indicted Hiss on two counts of perjury. During testimony, Lieber listed three by name of some 30 clients: Erskine Caldwell, Carey McWilliams, and Robert Coates.
Lieber left the U. S. for Mexico in 1951 with his wife Minna and their two children.
After one year in Cuernavaca
Cuernavaca
Cuernavaca is the capital and largest city of the state of Morelos in Mexico. It was established at the archeological site of Gualupita I by the Olmec, "the mother culture" of Mesoamerica, approximately 3200 years ago...
, Mexico, they moved to Mexico City, where they resided another two years. Following his departure from the US, Lieber was stripped of his US citizenship. He resided in Mexico as a stateless person. The US authorities returned his citizenship in 1964.
In late 1954, on instructions from Moscow, Lieber moved with his family to Warsaw, Poland. They spent the next 14 years on Poland, after which they left for the UK. After being expelled by the British Home Office, they returned to the States. There, Lieber lived out the rest of his life quietly in East Harftord, Ct. Soon after his return to the US he was interviewed by the FBI. In the late 1970s, Lieber gave a series of interviews to historian Allen Weinstein, who then was working on his book, "Perjury: The Hiss-Chambers Case." Lieber died in East Hartford, Connecticut
East Hartford, Connecticut
East Hartford is a town in Hartford County, Connecticut, United States. The population was 51,252 at the 2010 census.-Geography:...
on April 10, 1993.
Impact on McCarthy era
Lieber's flight abroad in 1951, following Peters, Field, and others, left the U. S. Government with few witnesses to corroborate Chambers' testimony about Hiss. A second trial had found Hiss guilty of two counts of perjury a few months earlier, in January 1950. Witnesses included Hede MassingHede Massing
Hede Massing, née "Hedwig Tune" was an Austrian actress in Vienna and Berlin, communist, and Soviet intelligence operative in Europe and the United States during the 1930s and 1940s. After the World War II, she defected from the Soviet underground...
and a former housemaid.
(In 1952, Nathaniel Weyl
Nathaniel Weyl
Nathaniel Weyl was an American economist and author who wrote on a variety of social issues. A member of the Communist Party of the United States from 1933 until 1939, after leaving the party he became a conservative and avowed anti-communist...
would testify further about Hiss.)
Publications
Lieber told HUAC, "Prior to that I had edited a book, an anthology of short stories, which I am happy to say is in the Library of Congress. "- Great short stories of the world; an anthology selected from the literatures of all periods and countries, edited by Barrett H. Clark and Maxim Lieber (New York: R. M. McBride & Company, 1925)
Clients
- Louis AdamicLouis AdamicLouis Adamic was a Slovenian American author and translator.- Biography :Adamic was born at Praproče Mansion in Praproče near Grosuplje, in what is now Slovenia...
- Erskine CaldwellErskine CaldwellErskine Preston Caldwell was an American author. His writings about poverty, racism and social problems in his native South like the novels Tobacco Road and God's Little Acre won him critical acclaim, but they also made him controversial among fellow Southerners of the time who felt he was...
- Katherine Anne PorterKatherine Anne PorterKatherine Anne Porter was a Pulitzer Prize-winning American journalist, essayist, short story writer, novelist, and political activist. Her 1962 novel Ship of Fools was the best-selling novel in America that year, but her short stories received much more critical acclaim...
- John CheeverJohn CheeverJohn William Cheever was an American novelist and short story writer. He is sometimes called "the Chekhov of the suburbs." His fiction is mostly set in the Upper East Side of Manhattan, the Westchester suburbs, old New England villages based on various South Shore towns around Quincy,...
- Josephine HerbstJosephine HerbstJosephine Herbst was an American writer and journalist, active from 1923 to near the time of her death. She was a radical with communist leanings, who "incorporate[d] the philosophy of socialism into her fiction" and "aligned herself with the political Left", She wrote "proletarian novels"...
- Albert MaltzAlbert MaltzAlbert Maltz was an American author and screenwriter. He was one of the Hollywood Ten who were later blacklisted by the Hollywood movie studio bosses....
- John O'HaraJohn O'HaraJohn Henry O'Hara was an American writer. He initially became known for his short stories and later became a best-selling novelist whose works include Appointment in Samarra and BUtterfield 8. He was particularly known for an uncannily accurate ear for dialogue...
- Albert HalperAlbert Halper-Life:Born in 1904 and raised in Chicago, Halper went to live and work in New York City in 1929. His work came to the attention of Elliot E. Cohen, who published him in his magazine, the Menorah Journal...
- James FarrellJames FarrellJames Farrell or Jimmy Farrell may refer to:* James Gordon Farrell , Anglo-Irish writer of historical novels, better known as "J.G. Farrell"* James T. Farrell , American socialist novelist* James A...
- Nathanael WestNathanael WestNathanael West was a US author, screenwriter and satirist.- Early life :...
- Maxim GorkyMaxim GorkyAlexei Maximovich Peshkov , primarily known as Maxim Gorky , was a Russian and Soviet author, a founder of the Socialist Realism literary method and a political activist.-Early years:...
- Theodore DreiserTheodore DreiserTheodore Herman Albert Dreiser was an American novelist and journalist of the naturalist school. His novels often featured main characters who succeeded at their objectives despite a lack of a firm moral code, and literary situations that more closely resemble studies of nature than tales of...
- Langston HughesLangston HughesJames Mercer Langston Hughes was an American poet, social activist, novelist, playwright, and columnist. He was one of the earliest innovators of the then-new literary art form jazz poetry. Hughes is best known for his work during the Harlem Renaissance...
Espionage
- Whittaker ChambersWhittaker ChambersWhittaker Chambers was born Jay Vivian Chambers and also known as David Whittaker Chambers , was an American writer and editor. After being a Communist Party USA member and Soviet spy, he later renounced communism and became an outspoken opponent later testifying in the perjury and espionage trial...
- Alger HissAlger HissAlger Hiss was an American lawyer, government official, author, and lecturer. He was involved in the establishment of the United Nations both as a U.S. State Department and U.N. official...
- J. PetersJ. PetersJ. Peters was the most commonly known pseudonym of a man who last went by the name "Alexander Stevens" in 1949. Peters was an ethnic Jewish journalist and political activist who was a leading figure of the Hungarian language section of the Communist Party USA in the 1920s and 1930s...
- Noel FieldNoel FieldNoel Field , was an American citizen. While employed at the United States Department of State in the 1930s, he was a Soviet spy...
- Hede MassingHede MassingHede Massing, née "Hedwig Tune" was an Austrian actress in Vienna and Berlin, communist, and Soviet intelligence operative in Europe and the United States during the 1930s and 1940s. After the World War II, she defected from the Soviet underground...
- Nathaniel WeylNathaniel WeylNathaniel Weyl was an American economist and author who wrote on a variety of social issues. A member of the Communist Party of the United States from 1933 until 1939, after leaving the party he became a conservative and avowed anti-communist...
- espionageEspionageEspionage or spying involves an individual obtaining information that is considered secret or confidential without the permission of the holder of the information. Espionage is inherently clandestine, lest the legitimate holder of the information change plans or take other countermeasures once it...
- CommunismCommunismCommunism is a social, political and economic ideology that aims at the establishment of a classless, moneyless, revolutionary and stateless socialist society structured upon common ownership of the means of production...
- HUAC