Book Recommender: ’The Double Life of Katharine Clark,” a Real Life Story of Escaping Communism That Reads Like a Heart-Pounding Spy Thriller

An insider’s look at the grim realities of communism in Eastern Europe in the mid-20th century, through the eyes of an American

Sourcebooks

Katherine Clark was an investigative reporter active between the 1940s and 1960s. She was the first female Allied war correspondent entering Berlin in 1945. Her 1950s beat was Eastern Europe. There, she spoke truth to power, what investigative reporters are supposed to do. But she spoke the wrong kind of truth about the wrong kind of power. So, unlike those widely lionized today, like I.F. Stone, Clark has been allowed to be forgotten. Until now.

“The Double Life of Katharine Clark: The Untold Story of the American Journalist Who Brought the Truth about Communism to the West,” by Katharine Gregorio, brings Clark’s biography to the attention of a new generation of Americans. What a story it is.