50th Anniversary Edition
With New Forewords by William F. Buckley, Jr and Robert D. Novak
Regnery, 2002 (1952) Amazon
Amazon Book Description:
First published in 1952, Witness was at once a literary effort, a philosophical treatise, and a bestseller. Whittaker Chambers had just participated in America’s trial of the century in which Chambers claimed that Alger Hiss, a full-standing member of the political establishment, was a spy for the Soviet Union. This poetic autobiography recounts the famous case, but also reveals much more. Chambers’ worldview – e.g. “man without mysticism is a monster” – went on to help make political conservatism a national force.
Back Cover:
Fifty years after its original publication, Witness retains all of its searing impact. Whittaker Chambers’s harrowing account of his journey to hell and back – through espionage, treason, and terror – is, ultimately, a story of faith.
Witness is part spiritual autobiography, part spy thriller, part trial drama, told in a compellingly eloquent, deeply moving voice of Dostoyevskian power.
“As long as humanity speaks of virtue and dreams of freedom, the life and writings of Whittaker Chambers will ennoble and inspire.” President Ronald Reagan
“Witness changed my worldview, my philosophical perceptions, and, without exaggeration, my life.” Robert D. Novak, from his Foreword
“One of the dozen or so indispensable books of the century…” George F. Will
“Chambers has written one of the really significant American autobiographies. When some future Plutarch writes his American Lives, he will find in Chambers penetrating and terrible insights into America in the early twentieth century.” Arthur Schlesinger Jr.
“Chambers had a gift for language…To call Chambers an activist or Witness a political event is to say Dostoevsky was a criminologist or Crime and Punishment a morality tract.” Washington Post
“Chambers was not just the witness against Alger Hiss, but was also one of the articulators of the modern conservative philosophy, a philosophy that has something to do with restoring the spiritual values of politics.” Sam Tanenhaus, author of Whittaker Chambers
“One of the few indispensable autobiographies ever written by an American – and one of the best written, too.” Hilton Kramer, The New Criterion
About the Author:
Jan Olof Bengtsson 
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