202:, was published in 1941 and remains one of her most famous works. The plot was loosely tied to her travels with Highet and his work in particular with MI6. It follows the journey of newlywed English couple Frances and Richard Myles overseas as they are charged with going “above the suspicion” of the Nazi regime to seek out an undercover spy living in Austria to determine if his position as informant and his information is still valid. It was adapted into a film in 1943 by MGM director Richard Thorpe, and was promoted with the tagline “It happened on a honeymoon,” a parallel between MacInnes and Highet and the Myles couple. MacInnes's second novel,
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for example, was published in 1963, and set in Paris and Venice; it involved Soviet agents and sleeper cells, alluded to events unfolding in
Algeria and Vietnam, and contained a conspiracy to assassinate Charles de Gaulle. She continued to produce about one book every two years until her final novel
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One of MacInnes’ greatest inspirations in writing on foreign affairs and espionage was her honeymoon to the
European mainland, Bavaria in particular. As she and Highet witnessed the oppression of the German totalitarian regime, she swore to write against the oppressive forces of the Nazi government.
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MacInnes’ career was not dotted with many awards, although she did win the 1966 Iona
University Columbia Prize for Literature. This is most directly related to her influence in the state of New York, seeing as her first sixteen novels (those written up to 1966) each spent time on the international
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During the following 45 years, MacInnes wrote 21 espionage thrillers, four of which were later adapted as films. Her early books were set during the Second World War, often featuring lay people who become spies or otherwise caught up in acting on behalf of the Allied war effort. MacInnes became a
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A review in The New York Times praised MacInnes' body of work for its "unfailing eye for vivid backgrounds, her deft control of complex story lines, and her clear-cut presentation of each important member of her casts. These common qualities have given her work a kind of grandeur, a romantic
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MacInnes accepted an appointment as a special cataloguer for the
Ferguson Collection at the University of Glasgow. She worked with the Dunbartonshire Education Authority to select books for county libraries. In 1932, Gilbert Highet accepted a classics teaching appointment at
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In 1939, the couple's son was taken to hospital with a ruptured appendix. During this episode, Highet came across MacInnes's notes and commentary on Hitler's rise to power, and other matters of contemporary politics. He encouraged her to use them as the basis for a novel.
187:. When the couple moved there permanently, MacInnes began her writing career. Highet's work in intelligence, in addition to MacInnes's own research and traveling, influenced her writing. MacInnes and Highet produced two books together, translations of German works.
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in addition to working as a classical scholar. Highet continued his work with MI6 after he and MacInnes moved to the U.S. in 1937. That year he accepted an appointment as a professor and chairman of the department of classics (Latin and Greek) at
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overtone suggesting knights in mortal combat." Many of MacInnes’ novels are continuing to be renewed for print, cementing her legacy as one of the trailblazing female international affairs novelists in the World War II and Cold War eras.
104:, for foreign espionage. MacInnes published her first novel during World War II, and her early novels are all based in that setting. Later she wrote more about characters within the context of the
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159:, which helped finance their summer travels through Europe. These European excursions gave MacInnes exposure to locations that she used later as settings for her espionage thrillers.
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Her husband
Gilbert Highet died in 1978. MacInnes died in New York City on September 30, 1985, at age 77, following a stroke she had suffered three weeks earlier.
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MacInnes even kept notes about the different governments she saw in her travels with Highet that she would refer back to when she began writing full-time.
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Enemies Within and
Without: Foreign and Domestic Affairs in the Spy Thriller Novels of Helen MacInnes, Dorothy Gilman, and Robert Ludlum, 1940-1990.
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to Donald MacInnes and
Jessica McDiarmid, and had a traditional Scots Presbyterian upbringing. MacInnes graduated from the
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Matthews, Nicole. "Reading and the visual dimensions of the book: The popular Cold War
Fictions of Helen Macinnes." In
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Ball, Robert J. "Correspondence of
Gilbert Highet and Helen MacInnes with Classical Scholars and Other Individuals."
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in 1937. The pair had one child, Keith Highet, who was born in 1933 and became an eminent international lawyer.
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that some reviewers and readers thought she was using classified information given to her by her husband.
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Lassner, Phyllis. "Double
Trouble: Helen MacInnes’s and Agatha Christie’s Speculative Spy Thrillers." In
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Lassner, Phyllis. "Under Suspicion: The Plotting of Britain in World War II Detective Spy Fiction."
591:"Keith Highet (1933-2000)". 94 American Journal of International Law 675. Retrieved August 22, 2019.
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She and her husband emigrated to the United States in 1937, when he took an academic position at
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in Scotland in 1928 with an MA in French and German. MacInnes continued her studies at
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473:, together with Gilbert Highet 1934, from the work of Otto Kiefer, Routledge, 1934.
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Espionage and Exile: Fascism and Anti-Fascism in British Spy Fiction and Film
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Boyd, Mary K. "The Enduring Appeal of the Spy Thrillers of Helen MacInnes."
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580:"MacInnes, Helen (1907–1985)" Encyclopedia.com. Retrieved August 22, 2019.
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Reading in History: New methodologies from the Anglo-American tradition
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In the early 1930s, MacInnes had collaborated with Highet to translate
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best sellers’ list (according to a 1974 People Magazine article).
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Intermodernism: Literary Culture in Mid-Twentieth-Century Britain
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Scottish-American author (1907–1985), author of espionage novels
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In her later books, MacInnes shifted her subject matter from
727:"Helen Macinnes, 77, Novelist and Specialist in Spy Fiction"
309:(though both novel and film are sometimes referred to as
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intelligence agents who were being sent to work with the
128:, where she received a diploma in librarianship in 1931.
143:. The pair married on September 22, 1932, and moved to
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first fiction bestseller list, in 1942. Her 1944 book,
483:, together with Gilbert Highet 1939, from the work of
791:, pp. 227–241. Palgrave Macmillan, London, 2017.
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Helen Clark MacInnes was born on October 7, 1907, in
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in New York, while retaining his role in the British
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PhD diss., Middle Tennessee State University, 2003.
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789:The History of British Women’s Writing, 1945–1975
174:Highet served as a British intelligence agent in
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812:, pp. 63–76. Taylor & Francis, 2010.
626:. Washington, D.C.: Potomac Books, Inc., 2003
80:(October 7, 1907 – September 30, 1985) was a
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389:(1964), subtitle: A Comedy in Two Acts
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208:(1942), was made required reading for
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870:Alumni of University College London
865:Alumni of the University of Glasgow
798:. Edinburgh University Press, 2016.
567:"Helen (Clark) MacInnes Biography"
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822:512-413. New York: R.R. Bowker.
725:McDOWELL, EDWIN (1985-10-01).
669:Cowles, Gregory (2015-12-24).
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775:Clues: A Journal of Detection
636:Weinman, Sarah (2014-11-26).
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818:editors. "Helen MacInnes".
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510:Barnes, Bart (1985-10-02).
471:Sexual Life in Ancient Rome
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405:a film of the same title
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298:a film of the same title
624:Espionage's Most Wanted
543:Encyclopedia Mysteriosa
416:The Snare of the Hunter
400:The Salzburg Connection
198:MacInnes’ first novel,
358:Pray for a Brave Heart
345:Neither Five Nor Three
303:Assignment in Brittany
205:Assignment in Brittany
195:U.S. citizen in 1952.
35:Helen MacInnes in 1969
704:"Blackmail unlimited"
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841:at Wikimedia Commons
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338:Rest and Be Thankful
319:(1944), also called
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410:Message from Málaga
377:The Venetian Affair
321:While Still We Live
181:Columbia University
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380:(1963), made into
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352:I and My True Love
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671:"Inside the List"
638:"Spies Like Hers"
446:Ride a Pale Horse
440:Cloak of Darkness
434:The Hidden Target
428:Prelude to Terror
317:The Unconquerable
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512:"OBITUARY"
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