President Harry S. Truman addressing the United Nations Conference in San Francisco, California. From left to right: Unknown person, President Truman, Harry Vaughan, Secretary of State Edward Stettinius, and Alger Hiss. Armed Service personnel and the flags of nations are in the background, June 26, 1945.
Alger Hiss was an American educator, lawyer, author, and government official, known for conviction for perjury related to espionage. In later life he worked as a lecturer and author.
Background
Alger Hiss was born on November 11, 1904 in Baltimore, Maryland, United States. He was one of five children in the family of Mary "Minnie" Lavinia (Hughes) and Charles Alger Hiss. Both parents came from substantial Baltimore families who could trace their roots to the middle of the eighteenth century. Hiss's paternal great-great grandfather had emigrated from Germany in 1729, married well, and changed his surname from "Hesse" to "Hiss".
Education
At school Alger was popular and high performing. He attended high school at Baltimore City College and college at Johns Hopkins University, where he was voted "most popular student" by his classmates and graduated Phi Beta Kappa. In 1929, he received his law degree from Harvard Law School.
Career
Hiss became a law clerk for Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes in 1929. In 1933, after a short stint in private practice, Hiss joined the counsel of the Agricultural Adjustment Administration, part of President Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal. From there, he held several other positions within Roosevelt’s Administration, and in 1945, accompanied Roosevelt to the Yalta Conference to discuss the founding of the United Nations Charter. In 1947, Hiss left government work to head the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. In 1948 he was accused of espionage by a Time magazine editor named Whittaker Chambers, who claimed to be an ex-spy for the Soviets. Chambers charged that Hiss delivered microfilm to him in a hollowed-out pumpkin. Hiss denied knowing Chambers, but later when they actually met face-to-face during the Congressional hearing, it was revealed that Hiss did know the man, but as George Crosley, not Whittaker Chambers. Hiss was not convicted of espionage as the statute of limitations had expired. He was, however, convicted of perjury, mostly because the evidence against him was overwhelming. He maintained his innocence throughout the trial. As a result of his conviction, Hiss spent four years in prison and the rest of his life trying to clear his name. In 1957 he wrote In the Court of Public Opinion, chronicling the events which led to his trial and conviction. In the 1970s he began lecturing on the Yalta Conference, the New Deal, and his trial. He also wrote an autobiography, titled "Recollections of a Life". His other works include "The Myth of Yalta" and was the editor for Holmes-Laski Letters.
Hiss was also a member of the liberal legal team headed by Jerome Frank. Hiss was a member of an underground organization of the United States Communist Party in the 1930s.
Connections
In 1929, Hiss married Priscilla Fansler Hobson, a Bryn Mawr graduate and grade school teacher. Priscilla, previously married to Thayer Hobson, had a three-year-old son, Timothy. Hiss and Priscilla had known each other before her marriage to Hobson. In 1984 his wife died, and in 1985 Hiss married Isabel Johnson. Hiss had a son Tony Hiss and a stepson Timothy Hobson.