The Spook Who Sat by the Door - Paperback

by Sam Greenlee (Author), Natiki Hope Pressley (Introduction by)

Continuously available in print since 1968, this novel has become embedded in progressive anti-racist culture with wide circulation of the book and hotly debated film. A literary classic, The Spook Who Sat by the Door is a strong comment on entrenched racial inequities in the United States in the late 1960s. With its focus on the "militancy" that characterized the Black Power movement of the 1960s and 1970s, this is the story of one man's reaction to ruling-class hypocrisy in ways that make the novel autobiographical and personal. As a tale of a reaction to the forces of oppression, this book is universal.

Dan Freeman, the "spook who sat by the door," is enlisted in the CIA's elitist espionage program. Upon mastering agency tactics, however, he drops out to train young Black Chicagoans to combat racism as "Freedom Fighters" in this explosive novel.

Author Biography

Sam Greenlee (1930-2014) was a highly acclaimed, internationally known poet, novelist, playwright, screenwriter, producer, director, actor, and teacher. A former U.S. Information Agency Foreign Service officer, he is the author of Baghdad Blues and three collections of poetry.