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The Woman All Spies Fear: Code Breaker Elizebeth Smith Friedman and Her Hidden Life
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About The Woman All Spies Fear: Code Breaker Elizebeth
Product Description An inspiring true story, perfect for fans of Hidden Figures, about an American woman who pioneered codebreaking in WWI and WWII but was only recently recognized for her extraordinary contributions. Elizebeth Smith Friedman had a rare talent for spotting patterns and solving puzzles. These skills led her to become one of the top cryptanalysts in America during both World War I and World War II. She originally came to code breaking through her love for Shakespeare when she was hired by an eccentric millionaire to prove that Shakespeare's plays had secret messages in them. Within a year, she had learned so much about code breaking that she was a star in the making. She went on to play a major role decoding messages during WWI and WWII and also for the Coast Guard's war against smugglers. Elizebeth and her husband, William, became the top code-breaking team in the US, and she did it all at a time when most women weren't welcome in the workforce. Amy Butler Greenfield is an award-winning historian and novelist who aims to shed light on this female pioneer of the STEM community. Review “A captivating account of the life and critical contributions of 'one of the most formidable code breakers in the world.'” — Publishers Weekly, starred review “Greenfield delivers the tale with enthusiasm and narrative flair, including lots of photos of her photogenic subject.” —The Bulletin, starred review “Inspiring, informative, and entertaining.” —Kirkus Reviews, starred review About the Author Amy Butler Greenfield is an award-winning historian and novelist who writes for both adults and children. Some of her work includes Charntress, Virginia Bound, and A Perfect Red: Empire, Espionage, and the Quest for the Color of Desire. An enthusiastic speaker, she has given popular talks at Harvard University's Sackler Museum, the Oxford Symposium on Food and Cookery, the Los Angeles Public Library, and GCHQ, as well as many wonderful bookstores, classrooms, and lecture halls in between. Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved. Chapter One The Doll Shop Spy In 1942, in the middle of World War II, some strange letters came to the attention of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. They were all addressed to the same person in Argentina, and they all sounded oddly alike, yet they came from four different American women. The letters were about dolls, and they ran like this: I have been so very busy these days, this is the first time I have been over to Seattle for weeks. I came over today to meet my son who is here from Portland on business and to get my little granddaughters doll repaired. I must tell you this amusing story, the wife of an important business associate gave her an Old German bisque Doll dressed in a Hulu Grass skirt . . . When the FBI questioned the women who supposedly had sent the letters, the women knew nothing about them. FBI lab experts confirmed that the women’s signatures were excellent forgeries. Someone knew these women well enough to fake their handwriting. Someone was hiding behind their names. Could it be a spy? The FBI kept digging for clues. The four women lived in different cities and didn’t know each other, but it turned out they had something in common. All of them were long-distance customers of a doll shop at 718 Madison Avenue in New York City. The FBI checked out the shop. Filled with pricey dolls in fancy costumes, it didn’t look like the headquarters of a spy ring. The shop’s owner, Velvalee Dickinson, appeared innocent, too. A graduate of Stanford University, she was a fifty-year-old widow who had been in the doll business since 1937. She and her late husband had once been friends with many Japanese officials, but that was before Japan and the United States had gone to war. The FBI remained leery. They staked out the doll shop, and they examined Dickinson’s bank account and safe-deposit box. In January 1944, after they traced some of her money back to Japane
