Alan Furst

Alan Furst (born February 20, 1941) is an American author of historical spy novels set just prior to and during the Second World War.

Biography

Born in New York City, and raised on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, Furst received a B.A. from Oberlin College in 1962 and an M.A. from Penn State in 1967. Furst's papers reside at the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center at The University of Texas at Austin, include "a 1963 letter from Furst's grandfather Max Stockman in which his grandson is urged to be a teacher and 'write as a sideline' in his spare time."

Furst did not follow this advice. While attending general studies courses at Columbia University, he became acquainted with Margaret Mead, for whom he later worked. Before becoming a full-time novelist, Furst worked in advertising and as a magazine article writer (not, according to Furst himself, as a "journalist," as has often been reported), most notably for "Esquire", and as a columnist for the "International Herald Tribune".

The Ransom collection includes early articles on a wide variety of topics, published in many magazines for which no common denominator can be found: "Architectural Digest", "Elle", "Esquire", "50 Plus", "International Herald Tribune", "Islands", "New Choices", "New York", "The New York Times", "Pursuits", "Salon", and "Seattle Weekly"." Furst seems to have been taking whatever jobs he was offered.

This broad education, however, can be linked to the often-remarked accuracy of how it feels for his spies to live by their wits, with nothing to rely on but intelligence and luck. It also no doubt enriched his descriptions of minor characters in a great variety of professions. The Ransom collection, probably prepared with Furst's approval, remarks: "Of note is the April 1984 "Esquire" article, 'The Danube Blues,' which sparked Furst's interest in writing espionage novels. Numerous slides of his 1983 Danube trip are also available. Unproduced screenplays include 'Heroes of the Last War' (1984), and 'Warsaw' (1992)."

His early novels in the 1970s achieved limited success. The Ransom collection includes the manuscripts for something called "One Smart Cookie" (with Debbi Fields, 1987), which seems to be a commissioned biography of the owner of the Mrs. Fields Cookies company.

The next year, the 1988 publication of "Night Soldiers" — inspired by a trip to Eastern Europe on assignment for "Esquire" — revitalised both his career and, it could be argued, the entire genre of the spy novel.

Often compared to the works of such writers as Graham Greene and Eric Ambler, Furst's novels — which he calls "historical espionage" — have a literary quality that sets them apart from most thrillers. In addition to Greene and Ambler, Furst cites Joseph Roth, Joseph Conrad, and John le Carré as important influences. Furst has been particularly successful in evoking the cities and characters of Eastern Europe during the period from 1933 to 1944. While all his historical espionage novels are loosely connected (protagonists in one book might appear as minor characters in another), only "The World at Night" and "Red Gold" are linked together as prequel and sequel.

Furst lives in Sag Harbor, Long Island, but he considers himself a European by sensibility. Awarded a Fulbright teaching fellowship in 1969, Furst moved to Montpellier, France. He later lived for many years in Paris, a city that he calls "the heart of civilization" and that figures significantly in all his novels.

Furst has long had a devoted popular and critical following in the UK, and his readership in North America has grown sharply since 2001.

Works

Stand-alone novels

*"Your Day in the Barrel" (1976)
*"The Paris Drop" (1980)
*"The Caribbean Account" (1981)
*"Shadow Trade" (1983)

"Night Soldiers" novels

*"Night Soldiers" (1988)
*"Dark Star" (1991)
*"The Polish Officer" (1995)
*"The World at Night" (1996)
*"Red Gold" (1999)
*"Kingdom of Shadows" (2000)
*"Blood of Victory" (2003)
*"Dark Voyage" (2004)
*"The Foreign Correspondent" (2006)
* [http://books.google.com/books?id=jd96HwAACAAJ "Spies of Warsaw"] (2008)

External links

* [http://www.alanfurst.net/ Alan Furst.net]
*cite web | url=http://www.nysun.com/pf.php?id=2389 | title=Our Best Thriller Writer | author=Brendan Bernhard | publisher="New York Sun" Newspaper | date=September 29, 2004
* [http://research.hrc.utexas.edu:8080/hrcxtf/view?docId=ead/00393.xml&query=furst&query-join=and Inventory of Alan Furst Papers 1961-2005] at the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center at the University of Texas at Austin.
* [http://tls.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,25361-2652139,00.html Times Literary Supplement review of "The Spies of Warsaw", by Paul Owen]