Josephine Herbst: The Story Could Never Tell, by Elinor Langer, published by Little, Brown and Company, 1984

Who remembers Josephine Herbst? It was this very question that possessed Elinor Langer to spend years researching the life of an author whose talent never hit the big time. Why? Why weren't her depression-era novels, including Nothing is Sacred, Money for Love, and Pity is Not Enough not more generously received by the critics and the public? Was it possibly because she was a woman? Captivated by this feminist question, the author commenced an exhaustive study of Josephine Herbst, including a comprehensive review of her personal letters and unpublished manuscripts, only to find that the "rest of the story" was entangled in political subplots that even Josephine could not fully grasp, let alone document. But Elinor Langer could, and did, in a biography that unveils a surprise ending.

Josephine, or Josie as her friends called her, was born in Sioux City, Iowa in 1897. Sioux City didn't work for Josie and she migrated to Berkeley and then New York City where she mingled with the literary set. She visited Germany in 1921, and a few years later, in Paris, met Ernest Hemingway with whom she remained in contact for decades. She married her husband, John Herrmann, a communist writer, in 1925. In the years following the Wall Street crash, Josie, and her husband, became increasingly involved in promoting radicalism. In 1930, Josie attended the Second World Conference of the International Union of Revolutionary Writers in Kharkov. In 1935, she visited Cuba as a journalist and then went to Germany to report on Hitler. In 1937 she traveled to Spain to report on the Spanish Civil War.

After Pearl Harbor, Josie went to Washington and, using her connections, landed a job with the Office of the Coordinator of Information which was the forerunner of the Office of Strategic Services. A few months later, Josie was abruptly terminated. She professed not to know why. Research conducted decades later by the author, relying upon the Freedom of Information Act, determined that a key confidential informant, not further identified, had identified Josephine Herbst as a "Stalinist." And that was just the tip of the iceberg.

What's fascinating is that the author, possessing intimate knowledge of Josie's friends, easily identified the confidential informant. It was someone who Josie had been friends with for years; someone who was intimately familiar with her writing and her personal life; someone who was also a struggling female writer and who would someday achieve the international fame and fortune as a writer that eluded Josie. You ready for this? The author, in her opinion, believes that the informant was Katherine Anne Porter, author of the 1962 bestseller, Ship of Fools.

Finishing up her research, the author decides to interview the second wife of John Herrmann. John and Josie had divorced in 1940 and he had then married Ruth Tate. John died in 1959. Ruth, as it turns out, had a lot on her mind. She told the author that John Herrmann had been active in the Communist underground and had worked with the man known as "Karl" who was, in fact, Whittaker Chambers. Not only that, but John had been a friend of Alger Hiss. It was John Herrmann who had introduced Whittaker Chambers to Alger Hiss at a Washington restaurant in 1934. Josie knew this and that's why her memoirs became The Story She Could Never Tell.