The Return of Lanny Budd

Upton Beall Sinclair

ISBN 10: 9997531752 / ISBN 13: 9789997531759

Published by Laurie, 1953

About this Item

Most items will be dispatched the same or the next working day. A copy that has been read but remains in clean condition. All of the pages are intact and the cover is intact and the spine may show signs of wear. The book may have minor markings which are not specifically mentioned. First Edition, 1953. No dust jacket. Spine sunned and a tan to the page edges. Minor cracking to front hinge, but binding otherwise solid. Contents clear throughout. A good condition book.

Seller Inventory # rev1505487110

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The Return of Lanny Budd
• Publisher: Laurie
• Publication Date: 1953
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 9997531752
• ISBN 13: 9789997531759
• Binding: Hardcover
• Condition: Good
• Weight: 600 grams

About this title

Synopsis

The Return of Lanny Budd is the 11th book in the Lanny Budd World's End series written by Pulitzer Prize Winner Upton Sinclair. Written in 1953 at the pinnacle of the Cold War, the story covers the period 1946-49. Lanny comes out of retirement as a Presidential Agent to assist the USA as the Russian menace grows. This is the final book in an historical narrative that began when Lanny was 13 just prior to WWI. As the story begins, Lanny is running his Radio Peace Program with his wife Laurel Creston, Rick, Nina, Lanny's daughter Frances & Rick & Nina's son Scrubbie with the help of thousands of volunteers from an old refurbished factory in New Jersey. Lanny is recruited into the Secret Service, responsible for the Treasury Department, to help foil Nazi gangs counterfeiting Allied currency in Germany. Remnants of the Nazi regime have stolen plates & have hidden millions of dollars in gold whisked away prior to the war's end. Lanny's boyhood friend, famous German Komponist Kurt Meissner, is one of their ringleaders. He's eventually taken prisoner by the Allies controlling the Western Sector of Berlin. He promises to cooperate & end participation in the conspiracy to protect his family & return to his music endeavors. Lanny leads a group trying to capture the printing plates & the hidden gold. While on this mission Lanny is shocked by what he sees in Russian controlled parts of Europe. He questions his own ideas as to the preaching of peace vis-a-vis arming against yet another tyranny seeking world domination. In Stalin, Lanny sees a tyrant much like Hitler & the Nazis, selling the socialism Lanny believes in, while building a military juggernaut & crushing opposition. Lanny brings his Radio Peace effort to Germany & works with the forerunner to the Voice of America. His radio work is an effort to promote peace & understanding for the German people whom he's loved since boyhood. He's finally recognized, then targeted by the Russian KGB & is kidnapped & taken to E. Berlin. He's tortured for purportly conspiring to assassinate Stalin. Efforts to find & liberate him are as exciting as any previous adventure. Lanny is horrified to learn that his half sister, Bess, a lifelong Communist, is being watched by the FBI, suspected of transmitting secrets to Russians agents. Hansi, agonized by this development, decides to break with Bess, but cooperates with the FBI by pretending to be a communist himself. This part of the story by itself would be worthy of a full book but the espionage & counterespionage in the Hansibess family is supplementary tot the larger story of European events. Lanny is able to foil his interrogators by suggesting that Bess is actually a counterespionage agent for the USA. Readers will appreciate the ingenuity Lanny uses to persuade Bess of the evils of communism after his escape.