Whittaker Chambers

Jay Vivian (Whittaker) Chambers (April 1, 1901 – July 9, 1961) was an American writer, editor, political operative and defector best known for his accusation and testimony against Alger Hiss, the architect of the Yalta Conference and Secretary General of the San Francisco conference that created the United Nations, on espionage and subversion charges.

Youth and Education

Chambers was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and spent much of his youth in Brooklyn and Long Island, New York. He was described in childhood as a loner whose parents frequently separated. After graduating from high school in 1919, he worked for two years in a bank before enrolling in Columbia University in 1921, where he discovered communism. At Columbia University, his instructors recalled him as a talented writer who rarely went to class. He was expelled in 1922; some accounts attribute it to a blasphemous play he wrote while others attribute it to his simply not going to class.

Related Topics:
Philadelphia - Pennsylvania - Brooklyn - Long Island - New York - Columbia University

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