John Herrmann | |
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| Born | John Theodore Herrmann (1900-11-09)November 9, 1900 Lansing, Michigan, U.S. |
| Died | April 9, 1959(1959-04-09) (aged 58) |
| Resting place | Mount Hope Cemetery Lansing, Michigan, U.S. |
| Education | George Washington University University of Michigan University of Munich Mexico City College |
| Occupation | Writer |
| Spouses | |
| Children | 1 |
John Theodore Herrmann (November 9, 1900 – April 9, 1959) was a writer in the 1920s and 1930s and is alleged to have introducedWhittaker Chambers toAlger Hiss.
Herrmann was born inLansing, Michigan in 1900. He lived inParis in the 1920s, as part of its famous expatriate American writers' circle, when he met his first wife,Josephine Herbst in 1924. Herbst enjoyed more success as a writer than Herrmann; the couple lived a few years in ruralPennsylvania, and were friends withKatherine Anne Porter,Ernest Hemingway,John Dos Passos,William Carlos Williams, and others.
Herrmann's first novel,What Happens, was original published in Paris byRobert McAlmon's Contact Editions press. Copies were seized by U.S. Customs upon their arrival in the United States on the charge of violating the 1922 Tariff Act, which banned the import of obscene materials from foreign countries. Herrmann fought the charge in a jury trial in New York City in October 1927 but ultimately lost. Despite supporters such asGenevieve Taggard,H.L. Mencken, and Katharine Anne Porter, the jury responded with a negative verdict, and the judge ordered the seized copies destroyed.
After returning to Michigan in 1924, Herrmann wrote a manuscript about anti-German backlash during World War I but was unable to get it published. Researcher Sara Kosiba found the manuscript in the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas at Austin and arranged to have it published in 2018 under the title "Foreign Born".
In 1932, Herrmann's short novel, "The Big Short Trip", tied withThomas Wolfe for theScribner's Magazine short novel prize.
In 1934, he went to work withHarold Ware and his organization Farm Research, Inc., which worked with theAgricultural Adjustment Administration. Herrmann soon was a part of theWare group, a secret apparatus of theCPUSA andComintern in Washington, D.C., which supplied classified information toSoviet intelligence. From early 1934 until the summer of 1935, Herrmann was a paid courier for the CPUSA, delivering material emanating from the secret cells of sympathetic government employees being cultivated by Hal Ware toNew York City. Herrmann also was the person who introducedWhittaker Chambers toAlger Hiss.[1][2]
In 1940, Herrmann divorced Herbst and married Ruth Tate. He served in theUnited States Coast Guard, enlisting inNew Orleans, inWorld War II. The couple fled the country and went toMexico, when the FBI's Hiss-investigations began. He was placed under surveillance and questioned many times in Mexico by theFBI.
Herrmann applied in March 1949 toMexico City College (MCC) as a speech and drama major but attended for only the Fall 1950 and Winter 1951 quarters. A photograph in the November 16, 1950, issue of MCC's student paper, theCollegian, shows Earl Sennett speaking to twelve students in his "Studio Stages" drama group; among them are Frank Jeffries, Alice Hartman, and John Herrmann. During his time at MCC, Herrmann was also, according to James W. Grauerholz's 2002 investigation, in an apartment located at 122 Monterrey hours beforeWilliam Burroughs shot and killed his wifeJoan Vollmer Burroughs.
Herrmann died near thePacific Ocean in April 1959, at theHotel Navidad, in Barra de Navidad,Jalisco, Mexico from a heart attack.[citation needed] He is buried atMount Hope Cemetery in Lansing, Michigan.[3]
"The Big Short Trip."Scribner's Magazine August 1932, p. 65-69, 113-128.
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