Whittaker Chambers
Defected Communist spy, writer, editor (1901-1961) · United States · On the map · Writers · Died at 60
Whittaker Chambers was an American author, journalist, and spy. After dropping out of Columbia University, Chambers joined the open Communist Party in 1925. He wrote and edited for the New Masses and the Daily Worker, before being ordered to go underground as a secret agent for the Soviet intelligence services.
Whittaker Chambers is read about 204 times a day, in 21 languages.
A typical day, 30 days to 6 November 2026
The middle day of the days counted, so one week of news cannot move it. The line under it is the last 104 days, one point a day.
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Whittaker ChambersPartners
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Photos 11
Hartley Hall at Columbia University, where Chambers boarded in the 1920s
Juliet Stuart Poyntz (c. 1918), whose disappearance spurred Chambers to defect
Adolf A. Berle (c. 1965): Member of the FDR administration who took Chambers's 1939 report. Initially enthusiastic, he later downplayed the report.
Henry Luce and Clare Boothe Luce (c. 1954) valued Chambers's writing at Time magazine
Alger Hiss (1948) denied Chambers's allegations but was convicted of perjury
Harry S. Truman (center) with Joseph Stalin (left) and Winston Churchill (right) in 1945. Truman called Chambers's allegations a "red herring".
The trials against Hiss took place at the Foley Square Courthouse (now Thurgood Marshall Courthouse) in New York City (here, 2009)Awards
About this person
From 1932 to 1938 he was part of the clandestine "Ware Group", based in Washington, D.C. Disillusioned by Joseph Stalin's rule and by communism more broadly, Chambers defected from the Soviet spy ring and eventually found employment at Time magazine, where he rose to become a senior editor.
