Michael Straight | |
|---|---|
| Born | Michael Whitney Straight (1916-09-01)September 1, 1916 New York City, U.S. |
| Died | January 4, 2004(2004-01-04) (aged 87) Chicago,Illinois, U.S. |
| Education | London School of Economics Trinity College, Cambridge |
| Spouses | |
| Children | 5, includingDorothy |
| Parent(s) | Willard D. Straight Dorothy Payne Whitney |
| Relatives | Whitney Straight (brother) Beatrice Straight (sister) |
Michael Whitney Straight (September 1, 1916 – January 4, 2004) was an Americanmagazine publisher,novelist, patron of the arts, a member of the prominentWhitney family, and a confessed spy for theKGB.[1]
Straight was born in New York City, the son ofWillard Dickerman Straight (1880–1918), an investment banker who died in Michael's infancy, andDorothy Payne Whitney (1887–1968), a philanthropist. Straight was educated atLincoln School in New York City and, after his mother's remarriage toLeonard Knight Elmhirst (1893–1974), in England at his family'sDartington Hall, followed by studies at theLondon School of Economics. His siblings were racing driverWhitney Straight andAcademy Award–winning actressBeatrice Straight.
Straight's maternal grandparents were Flora Payne andWilliam Collins Whitney (1841–1904), the United StatesSecretary of the Navy during the firstCleveland administration. Flora was the daughter of SenatorHenry B. Payne ofOhio[2] and sister of ColonelOliver Hazard Payne.
While a student atTrinity College, Cambridge, in the mid-1930s, Straight became aCommunist Party member and a part of an intellectual secret society known as theCambridge Apostles. Straight worked for theSoviet Union as part of a spy ring whose members includedDonald Maclean,Guy Burgess,Kim Philby and KGB recruiterAnthony Blunt.[3] A document from Soviet archives of a report that Blunt made in 1943 to the KGB states, "As you already know the actual recruits whom I took were Michael Straight".[4]
Straight finished third in the 1934 South African Grand Prix, a race dominated by his brother Whitney.[5]
After returning to the United States in 1937, Straight worked as a speechwriter for PresidentFranklin D. Roosevelt and was on the payroll of theDepartment of the Interior. Beginning in 1938, Straight carried on a covert relationship withIskhak Akhmerov, the KGB spy.[4] In 1940, Straight went to work in the Eastern Division of theUnited States Department of State.
In 1942, Straight joined theUnited States Army Air Forces, where he served as the pilot of aBoeing B-17 Flying Fortress, although he never saw combat. After the war, he took over as publisher ofThe New Republic, which was owned by his family. During his tenure, Straight hired former US vice president and future presidential candidateHenry A. Wallace to serve as the magazine's editor. Straight's writing for the magazine included a glowing review ofJ. R. R. Tolkien'sThe Lord of the Rings when it was published.[6] In 1956, Straight left the magazine and began writing novels.
However, in 1963, in response to an offer of government employment inWashington, D.C., Straight faced a background check, and decided voluntarily to inform family friend andpresidential special assistantArthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. about his communist connections at Cambridge. This led directly to the exposure of Blunt as the recruiter of theCambridge Five spy ring.[citation needed]
Straight served as the deputy chairman of theNational Endowment for the Arts from 1969 to 1977. In 1988, he publishedNancy Hanks: An Intimate Portrait, which told the story of the second chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts, with whom he had worked.
Straight wrote several novels, includingCarrington (1960), about theFetterman massacre of 1866, andA Very Small Remnant[7] (1963), about theSand Creek massacre of 1864, bothWesterns that received respectful reviews, as well asHappy and Hopeless (1979), a love story set in theKennedy Administration that he published himself. In 1983, Straight detailed his Communist activities in a memoir entitledAfter Long Silence.[8] His second memoir,On Green Spring Farm: The Life and Times of One Family in Fairfax County, Va., 1942 to 1966 was published posthumously by Devon Press.[9]
In September 1939, he married Belinda Crompton (1920–2015) ofWilton, New Hampshire, who was achild psychiatrist. Together with Belinda, until their divorce in 1969, he had five children:[9]
In 1965,[13] Straight purchased the formerGeorgetown home ofJackie Kennedy, located at3017 N Street, for $200,000 (equivalent to $2,028,000 in 2024). Kennedy bought the home when she moved out of theWhite House and Straight purchased it when Kennedy moved to New York City.[14]
In 1974, Straight married his second wife,Nina G. Auchincloss Steers, the daughter of Nina Gore andHugh D. Auchincloss. Steers was the half-sister of writerGore Vidal and, coincidentally, a stepsister of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. Nina had previously been married toNewton Steers from 1957–1974 and with him she had three children:Hugh Auchincloss Steers (1963–1995), Ivan Steers, andBurr Steers (born 1965). The wedding was attended by Hugh D. Auchincloss,Janet Auchincloss, Jackie Kennedy,Renata Adler, Beatrice Straight andPeter Cookson.[15] Straight lived in the Georgetown home from 1964 until 1976 when he sold it toYolande Betbeze Fox, the formerMiss America 1951.[16] Straight and his wife spent $125,000 (equivalent to $797,000 in 2024) renovating the home and decided to move toBethesda, Maryland in 1976 when he was vice chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts.[17]
They subsequently divorced and in 1998, he married Katharine Gould, a child psychiatrist and art historian.[9] Straight died ofpancreatic cancer at his home in Chicago, Illinois, on January 4, 2004, aged 87.[3] He also had a home onMartha's Vineyard inMassachusetts.[9]
Inseason 3 of the popular television show,The Crown, actorPaul Hilton plays Straight in the first episode.[18]
Michael Straight, who has died aged 87, was the former Soviet spy responsible for telling MI5 that Anthony Blunt—whose lover he had briefly been at Cambridge in the 1930s—was a mole. ...
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