Map of Maigret's Paris.

Georges Simenon.

Coming up for release in September from Herb Lester Associates is Maigret's Paris, a map of locations from the Chief Inspector Maigret oeuvre of Georges Simenon. 

Other maps of potential interest: 

• The Raymond Chandler Map of Los Angeles
• Agatha Christie's England
• John le Carré's London
• The World of Patricia Highsmith

When Rex Stout met John le Carré.

The Spy Writes blog discusses the interview of John le Carré by Rex Stout for Mademoiselle's July 1964 mystery issue. Stout calls le Carré "unobtrusively handsome" and covers le Carré's revision process; le Carré thinks his own strongest quality is his "critical faculty" (61).

Bonuses for Nancy Drew and Patricia Moyes fans: There's a piece on the girl sleuth plus Moyes's novel Falling Star in the issue. Also, pp. 62–63 features a photo that includes Edgar awardees of that year and other MWA members. Among the luminaries, one can spot Clayton Rawson, Hillary Waugh, and Lawrence Treat in the back; Stout and Dorothy Salisbury Davis in the middle; Howard Haycraft in the front row at left; and Phyllis Whitney in the front row at right.

Taibo on le Carré.

In Jacobin magazine, distinguished novelist Paco Ignacio Taibo II writes of his great admiration for the work of John le Carré. Says Taibo, "The grace of le Carré’s style lies not in great anecdotes but in the journey through a human landscape peopled by agents addicted to the love of adrenaline or danger or the dilettantes, civil servants, schemers, and Cold War bureaucrats’ impossibly abstract fidelity and professionalism."

The Deadly Affair (1967).

In this adaptation of John le Carré's Call for the Dead (1961) that is directed by Sidney Lumet, a British agent (James Mason) is suspicious of the suicide of a man he had investigated (Robert Flemyng).

John le Carre reads from The Pigeon Tunnel.

Via BBC Radio, you can listen to John le Carre reading from his new memoir The Pigeon Tunnel (including an explanation for the title and the intersections of his life between real-life espionage and fiction):

• Episode 1
• Episode 2
• Episode 3
• Episode 4
• Episode 5

Results from Sept 10 Bloomsbury auction.

Graham Greene

Some results of interest from the Sept 10 bibliophile auction at Bloomsbury:

• Black Plumes (1940) by Margery Allingham, 1st ed., £260 (approx US$404).

• From Russia with Love (1957) by Ian Fleming, 1st ed., £200 (approx US$311).

• The Fallen Idol, Our Man in Havana, Stamboul Train, The Third Man, and 12 other 1st eds. by Graham Greene, £420 (approx US$652).

• Brighton Rock (1938) by Graham Greene,  1st ed., £300 (approx US$466).

• Unnatural Causes (1967) by P. D. James, 1st ed., £220 (approx US$342).

• The Spy Who Came in from the Cold and The Looking-Glass War by John le Carre, 1st eds., £280 (approx $435).

The friendship of a notorious spy.

On the History Extra podcast Ben Macintyre (Agent Zigzag, Operation Mincemeat) talks about his upcoming book that delves into the friendship between the Cambridge Spy Ring's Kim Philby and MI-6 agent Nicholas Elliott. The book was inspired by a suggestion from John le Carre.

Le Carre exhibition from Oxford.

Now online are some items from the Bodleian Library exhibition "Tinker, Tailor, Writer, Spy" on the work of John le Carre (aka David Cornwell). The library presented the exhibition in 2011 to mark the move of le Carre's papers to the Bodleian. Exhibits include:

• typewritten drafts of Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy

• manuscript page from The Russia House

• photo of Alec Guinness and le Carre during the filming of Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy

Of related interest: this 1996 program with le Carre and George Plimpton at New York's 92nd Street Y at the time of the release of The Tailor of Panama.

Spies in fiction on SpyCast.

William Le Queux,  NYPL

In this podcast, University of Toronto professor Wesley Wark and International Spy Museum historian Mark Stout discuss the history of spy fiction, including mention of William Le Queux, E. Phillips Oppenheim, Erskine Childers (author of The Riddle of the Sands, 1903), Graham Greene, Peter Cheyney, Ian Fleming, and John le Carre.

What they're reading on the L.

Commuters waiting for southbound
trains, Chicago, 1941. Library of
Congress, Prints & Photographs Div.

The Chicago Tribune has this cool rendering of what some commuters are reading by L stop. Some picks: On Writing and Night Shift by Stephen King; The Best Paranormal Crime Stories Ever Told ed. Martin H. Greenberg; The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson; and Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy by John le Carre.

John le Carré at the movies.

Sean Connery in
The Russia House

You can still listen online to the episode "John le Carré at the Movies" from WQXR's Movies on the Radio program. Soundtracks covered include the 1979 and 2011 versions of Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy; The Spy Who Came In from the Cold; The Russia House; and Quincy Jones's score for The Deadly Affair.

John le Carre on BBC Radio 4 Extra.

Alec Guinness in
Smiley's People (1982)

George Smiley fans, rejoice: This week, BBC Radio 4 Extra features The Honourable Schoolboy and Smiley's People. Go here for the schedule; episodes can usually be heard online for up to a week after broadcast.

Cold war exhibition, RAF Museum.

The RAF Museum's National Cold War Exhibition includes biographies of key figures of the period, including the Cambridge spy ring, James Bond, and John le Carré. There are some great quotes from le Carré listed such as "a desk is a dangerous place from which to view the world."

John le Carré on Writers & Company.

Eleanor Wachtel of CBC's Writers & Company interviews John le Carré about his new book Our Kind of Traitor (part 1 here, part 2 here) and writes about le Carré's Cornwall residence here.

BBC Archive: Daphne du Maurier, John le Carre, Len Deighton, et al.

The latest BBC Archive features footage with authors. A few highlights:

• Interview with Daphne du Maurier (1971).

• The lonely world of John le Carre (1966).

• Melvyn Bragg interviews Len Deighton (1977).

• Somerset Maugham discusses his selections of the 10 greatest novels (1954)

About the image: Portrait of Somerset Maugham. NYPL.

Clues 28.1 published: Chester Himes.

Just published is vol. 28, no. 1 of Clues: A Journal of Detection, which is a theme issue on the work of Chester Himes (1909–84) to honor his centenary. Norlisha F. Crawford (University of Wisconsin–Oshkosh) guest edited the issue. Edgar nominee Frankie Y. Bailey (SUNY–Albany) compares Rudolph Fisher's The Conjure-Man Dies (1932) to Himes's A Rage in Harlem (1957); Justin Gifford (University of Nevada–Reno) examines Himes's Run Man Run (1959) in the context of black pulp publishing; Agustin Reyes-Torres (University of Valencia) compares Himes's Coffin Ed Johnson and Grave Digger Jones with Walter Mosley's Easy Rawlins; and Stephen F. Soitos looks at Himes's use of tropes from African American folklore.

An exciting aspect of the issue is its reprint of "He Knew," a short story by Himes that has been out of print since 1933 and is his first work that features African American detectives. John Cullen Gruesser (Kean University, NJ) analyzes the story and discusses its place in the history of African American detective fiction.

Other essays in the issue compare Boris Akunin with Christie and Collins (Marcia A. Morris, Georgetown University); examine Anne Perry's World War I series (Barbara Korte, University of Freiburg); look at the language used in James Ellroy's Dudley Smith trilogy (Jon Clay, Richmond-on-Thames College); and analyze John le Carre's The Secret Pilgrim, his first novel to deal with the end of the cold war (Jonathan Goodwin, University of Louisiana at Lafayette). Edgar nominee Rita Rippetoe (author of Booze and the Private Eye) also reviews Edgar nominee Jean Murley's The Rise of True Crime: 20th-Century Murder and American Popular Culture.

Go here for the table of contents with article abstracts; here for more information about the journal.

Penguin at 75.

Penguin Books celebrates its 75th anniversary this year with a look back at its history, including its top-selling paperbacks, such as:

• Helene Hanff, 84 Charing Cross Road
• John le Carre, Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy
• Peter Robinson, Gallows View
• Carlos Ruiz Zafon, The Shadow of the Wind

About the image: The "favourite Penguin" poster for February

Spy novelists continue to attract interest at auction.

At Bloomsbury's December 10th auction, spy novelists continued to garner buyer interest. Below are pertinent mystery-related results.

• Agatha Christie, first editions of A Murder Is Announced (1950); Destination Unknown (1954); Hickory, Dickory Dock (1955); and four other unspecified novels, £480 (approx. US$781).

• Arthur Conan Doyle, 2nd ed. of The Sign of Four (1892), £120 (approx. US$195); 1st ed., The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes (1894), £110 (approx. US$179); 1st ed., The Hound of the Baskervilles (1902), £320 (approx. US$520); 1st ed., The Return of Sherlock Holmes (1905), £460 (approx. US$748); 2nd issue, The Lost World (1914, which includes photos of Conan Doyle disguised as Professor Challenger), £260 (approx. US$423).
  

• Ian Fleming, first editions of You Only Live Twice (1964), The Man with the Golden Gun (1965), and Octopussy (1966), £380 (approx. US$618).
  

• Graham Greene, 2nd issue of Stamboul Train (1932), with two other works, £240 (approx. US$390); 1st ed., The Third Man and The Fallen Idol (1950), £190 (approx. US$309); 1st ed., The Spy's Bedside Book: An Anthology (1957, ed. Graham Greene and Hugh Greene), £10 (approx. US$16).
  

• John le Carre, 1st ed., The Looking Glass War (1965), with 13 other books, £140 (approx. US$228).
  

Sadly, Edgar Wallace's Captain Tatham of Tatham Island (1909), est. between £200–250, went unsold.

(Hat tip to PhiloBiblos.)

Bloomsbury April 23rd book auction results.

Some highlights from Bloomsbury's April 23rd literature auction:

• First English edition of James Fenimore Cooper's The Spy (1822; novel about a spy for George Washington during the Revolutionary War; Cooper's second novel): valued at £400–600, sold for £1300 (approximately $1900)
  

• First edition of M.R. James's Ghost Stories of an Antiquary (1904), £550 (approximately $809)
  

• First serialized edition of Agatha Christie's Murder on the Orient Express (1935), valued at £60-80, sold for £360 (approximately $530)
  

• Signed copy of the autobiographical She Goes to War (1942) by Edith Pargeter (aka Ellis Peters), £280 (approximately $412)
  

• Signed first edition of John le Carre's Call for the Dead (1961), £3000 (approximately $4414)
  

• Signed first edition of James Crumley's The Wrong Case (1975), £160 (approximately $235)
  

• First edition of Colin Dexter's The Silent World of Nicholas Quinn (1977), £420 (approximately $618)
  

• First edition of Lindsey Davis's The Silver Pigs (1989), £170 (approximately $250)
  

Sadly, the copies of Leslie Charteris's The Saint vs. Scotland Yard and The Saint and Mr. Teal that I mentioned in this post went unsold (as did copies of Chandler's Farewell My Lovely and The Long Goodbye).