Graham Greene
Graham Greene once said, “I have no talent. It’s a question of working, being willing to put in the time.” Though many would disagree with the evaluation of his talent, there is no doubt he put the time into his writing. Born in 1904, Greene attended the Berkhamsted School, where his father was the headmaster. At Balliol College, Oxford, Graham published his first book, a collection of poetry. He worked as a journalist, film critic, and book reviewer for the Times of London from 1926 until 1930. For his marriage in 1927, he joined the Roman Catholic Church, an important foundation for his future creations. His first novel, The Man Within, became a bestseller in 1929. For the rest of his life, Greene would combine his journalistic background with extensive travels -- Argentina, Congo, Cuba, Haiti, Liberia, Mexico, Vietnam -- to inform his writing. With Stamboul Train (1932, and known in the United States as The Orient Express), Greene solidified his reputation of bringing together elements of a spy story with deeply etched characters who confront moral questions as much as danger. In World War II, Greene worked for British Intelligence in Sierra Leone. He also developed a deep friendship with Kim Philby, the Russian agent under deep cover in the British Intelligence agency. Years later, after Philby had been revealed as a spy, Greene wrote the preface for Philby’s memoirs. Greene’s best-known books include The Confidential Agent (1939), The Power and the Glory (1940), The End of the Affair (1951), Our Man in Havana (1958), The Comedians (1966), Travels with My Aunt (1969), The Human Factor (1978), and his last book, The Captain and the Enemy (1988). He also created the screen stories for Carol Reed’s The Fallen Idol and the classic The Third Man. He wrote two autobiographies – A Sort of Life (1971) and Ways of Escape (1980). Greene died in 1991.
