Yesterday I finished reading Book and Dagger by Elyse Graham. It is, as the subtitle says, about "How Scholars and Librarians Became the Unlikely Spies of World War II".
I really, really enjoyed it. I like books about spies anyway, especially nonfiction. I like knowing how the world of spies really works, and while I like spy movies, it's not really that way in real life. Throw in librarians and university professors, and I'm in my happy place!
Basically, they needed people who can read large amounts of less-than-thrilling materials (and often enjoy it), do piles of research, and put all the ideas together in a way that makes sense and helps with strategic planning. It was just the job for scholars who like to do that anyway.
And no one suspects a librarian or scholar; they're too boring and too academically-minded to be any good at spying or warfare. They're just around to look at some books, right? Not to use those books to figure out how the enemy thinks, or where to sabotage a factory to do the most damage, or what type of ink the enemy uses on their paperwork so the forgeries look extra legit. Move along, nothing to see here.
They're also incredibly easy to overlook. One gentleman was so forgettable that he ended up basically running one branch of they spy agency in Istanbul, the one place where it was assumed that everyone was spying on everyone else, and no one suspected a thing. He was just that guy who sometimes came by to purchase rare books.
The book was interesting and entertaining and a good lesson on the importance of librarians and scholars in the world of espionage.
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