Our Man in New York

Travel Guide

Travel around the sites of New York BookTrail style

Here are five places that play a central part in Our Man in New York:

1. Home of Franklin D. Roosevelt, Hyde Park, NY – I spent many happy days in the Presidential Library here. It’s full of material on Roosevelt’s career as well as those who worked for him, in particular Adolf Berle, an acerbic bureaucrat who got wind of Bill Stephenson’s undercover operations before any of his colleagues, and did what he could to have this operation shut down. What Berle did not realise was that Roosevelt knew of these British activities and frequently turned a blind eye.

2. International Building, Rockefeller Center, New York City, NY – Had you arrived on the 35th floor of this building in late 1940 you might have discovered an office marked ‘British Passport Control’. Inside was a handful of clerks and secretaries providing visas for Americans who wanted to visit war-torn Britain. But this was a façade. Behind the scenes was a vast MI6 office full of men and women trying to change American public opinion. The exterior of the building has barely changed since the 1940s and it is well worth a visit.

3. Manhattan Center, New York City, NY – Those on both sides of what became known as the ‘Great Debate’ spoke here during 1941, including Charles Lindbergh, the legendary aviator who reinvented himself as the figurehead of the American anti-war movement. One of Lindbergh’s talks took place on 23 April 1941, during which a large brawl erupted outside the Manhattan Center. The coverage of the event was dominated by the fight. Unknown to most of those involved, the British had helped to make this happen.

4. Soldier Field, Chicago, IL – Although this vast stadium has of course changed since the 1940s, the architects managed to retain many elements of the original, including the neoclassical colonnade – in which you might have sheltered from the sun on 4 August 1940 as Charles Lindbergh gave a landmark speech to thousands of supporters. This was the first time he told his fellow Americans that Nazi aggression in Europe was essentially justified, and that America should welcome a German victory in the war. Today the stadium is home to the Chicago Bears.

5. Joseph Lloyd Manor, Long Island, NY – Charles Lindbergh was later described by Philip Roth as America’s ‘martyred titan’, an American hero whose life was upended by tragedy when his infant son was kidnapped and killed. During the summer of 1941, Lindbergh spent most of his time in Joseph Lloyd Manor, an elegant, white-boarded house overlooking Lloyd Harbor on the north shore of Long Island, as he pondered his next move. The decision he reached in here would end his political career and deal a fatal blow to the anti-war movement in which he believed so passionately. Today the house is open to the public, although it’s worth calling ahead beforehand (631-692-4664).