A WRITER'S DIARY PRIZEWINNING NOVEL BASED LARGELY ON AUTHOR'S OWN LIFE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP74-00297R000201830010-0
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 23, 2016
• Document Release Date: October 23, 2013
• Sequence Number: 10
• Publication Date: January 24, 1965
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

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Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release @ 50-Yr 2013/10/25: CIA-RDP74-00297R000201830010-0
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,PHILADELPHIA, PA. i
BULLETIN ,
IE. 718,167 '
8. 702,577 '/
'JAN 24 1965
Writer's
gary
7
Prizewinning Novel
. Based Largely on 1
Author's Own Life
' By JOHN BARKHAIVI
This,I reflected, would be
one interview in which I
would be able to tell the au- t
? thor something about himself
he didn't know.
? It was a meeting both of
? us had anticipated ? I be-
cause I had , been one of the,
judges of the Harper Prize
I. Novel Contest who had se.'
? lected his book, "P.S. Wilkin-
son," as winner, and the au- ,
thor, C. D. B. Bryan, because'
he would\
be hearing, ;
from one of
the judges, I
why his
book had
been- ? chos-
en.
C.D.B. (for.
Co u rtiandt
Dixon
Barnes)
Barkharn Bryan looks
every inch
.the stylish writer he is ? a
tall, ? slender, spectacled,
good-looking man with deli-
cate features and blondish
hair brushed neatly back
from his forehead, ,-
", I explained to him that the
Judges in the contest had not,
known the titles or authors,1
of the manuscripts they con,
si ere , _and that I read his my judge's report I had liken-
book last but had unhesitata you . look neat, ..you'll write,,7
ingly plated it first ? ??? ?'.tti O'Hara, only to learn later, tO ?
ed his dialog to that of John
? neatly 4 14 "' -,;41.;tj
1
Tested for CIA, '? ,
Bryan laughed. "Yes, he's .
. The story had impressed me . been my stepfather for the?
as being ? largelY autobio- ,,
graphical. Was this, in fact, past ten years and takes a k
", great interest in my writing. 'I'i
the case? , . 'He won't help me with it and .
He nodded. "Yes, it' was., 'he doesn't want to read any n,
It opens in Korea. I spent two of it until it's published, but,?4
years, there after leaving Yale. he did introduce me to his
It ? moves to Washington, editor at the New Yorkerrd
where Wilkinson takes a lie .they bought three of 4fiy, t.
detector test for the CIA. I stories. , 4
took such a test:" . "It was the New Yorker :r
, He must have observed my editor, in fact, who urged Me I
look of puzzlement. "Yes, I . ? . i.
know how it sounds, but to try a novel."
when I got out of uniform I , ant
didn't know what I wanted ,Cool and Elegant
-"4
'to do. I knew I wanted to be a ? Bryan's conversation is as
writer, but I'd had no writing cool and elegant as his dress,,
experience.. I was 25 then, 4 and manner. .His writing.
and I felt I ought to do'some. .'methods are of a piece. He -1
thing worthwhile ? some- 1
lives in Tuxedo Park, N.
thing of the kind President Ir.,'
T
with his wife and two young ..:,
Kennedy inspired . among children and, once a week .
young .people at the time, comes into New York City to t;
"So I went to the' CIAin, work at "Monocle," a satiric 4'
? ?
work for you, but I've had : 'l
Washington and told them in ' magazine. ? ' '
effect: 'I don't rally Want to a
At home he' writes in
study recently done over on. i
'this training in Korea-and, if the proceeds of his jackpot. 1
available.' Their psychiatrists was 30,000.) ;
kept asking me why I was, .
offering the CIA my services . I never write witliont al .
.tie on ? if you know what 1
mean," he remarked with a
grin. "It's a. psychological '
gimmick, of course, as though:
'1 . were saying to myself 'If0 .;
iny surprise, that O'Hara wa,
in fact his .stepfather.
it's any use to you, i'rnf The novel's first printing
when I didn't really want to
work for' them, and ; finally
flunked me out." , , ? ?
Here I interpolated that in
, ? ,
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release @50-Yr 2013/10/25: CIA-RDP74-00297R000201830010-0..