By John V. Fleming"Hell hath no fury like a communist converted and, more so, one who knows how to wield a typewriter. In this lively, bookish tale, medievalist, retired Princeton professor and, importantly for this story, amateur bookbinder Fleming examines the curious careers of four fellow travelers whose conversions away from the cause occasioned once-important books. As the author notes at the outset, their anti-communism means, in the broadest sense, opposition not to socialism but to Stalinism, brought on by personal betrayals and intrigues on one hand and the appalling spectacle of show trials, purges and the Nazi-Soviet concordaton the other. Each of these writers had a checkered career. ...Each wrote books that helped turn the tide away from viewing the Soviet Union as an erstwhile ally and toward considering it a voracious, empire-hungry bear with an appetite for American babies. ...A readable, illuminating discussion of the role of books and ideas, and their sometimes strange originators, in the making of political crusades." (Kirkus Reviews)
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