Mary Bancroft

Mary Bancroft (October 29, 1903, Boston – January 10, 1997, New York City[1]) was an American novelist and spy and a member of the Bancroft family, which at one time owned Dow Jones & Company. In 1942, while living in Switzerland, Bancroft was recruited by the Office of Strategic Services, and both worked and had a romantic relationship with Allen Dulles. Her most important work was with Hans Bernd Gisevius, a German military intelligence officer who supplied her with details of the 20 July plot to assassinate Hitler. After the war, Bancroft settled in New York and became a novelist.[1]

Life

Born in Boston[2] and brought up there by her stepgrandfather Clarence W. Barron, Bancroft studied at Smith College in Massachusetts, but dropped out after a year.[3] After divorcing her first husband Sherwin Badger she went on a boat trip to Europe in summer 1933 together with her friend Ruth Paine,[4] where she met a Swiss accountant, Jean Rufenacht, who became her second husband.[2] She moved to Zurich, Switzerland in 1934, where she learned excellent French and German,[3] and became a close friend and student of Carl Jung, who cured her of chronic attacks of sneezing.[5]

Following the US entry into World War II, Bancroft was recruited by the Office of Strategic Services, although she was not initially aware of the fact, being asked by a US Embassy contact to write analyses of German policy based on German public sources for Swiss and American newspapers.[2][6] She was then introduced to Allen Dulles in Zurich in December 1942 and went on to have a romantic relationship with him, based on Dulles' proposition that "We can let the work cover the romance, and the romance cover the work."[3] Dulles assigned Bancroft to work with Hans Bernd Gisevius, a German military intelligence officer who supplied her with details of the planned 20 July plot to assassinate Hitler; Bancroft soon developed a romantic relationship with Gisevius too.[1][3] After the war, with her relationship with Dulles cooling, Bancroft became close friends with Dulles' wife Clover, who told her she was aware of their relationship and approved.[3] She remained close friends with Clover until the latter's death in 1974.[7]

After the war Bancroft settled in New York and became close friends with Henry Luce. She became "a leading champion of Jung's psychology in the United States",[3] lecturing on the subject and publishing articles in academic journals.[1][3] She also published several novels in the 1950s, and an autobiography in 1983.

Books

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Robert McG. Thomas, Jr., New York Times, January 19, 1997, Mary Bancroft Dead at 93; U.S. Spy in World War II
  2. 1 2 3 Simone Payment (2003), American Women Spies of World War II, Rosen Publishing Group, pp78-83
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Godfrey Hodgson, The Independent, February 17, 1997, Obituary: Mary Bancroft
  4. ↑ Mary Bancroft (1983), Autobiography Of A Spy, pp54-55, p59
  5. ↑ James Srodes (2000), Allen Dulles: Master of Spies, Regnery Publishing, p273
  6. ↑ Elizabeth P. McIntosh (1998), Sisterhood of Spies: The Women of the OSS, Naval Institute Press, p178
  7. ↑ James Srodes (2000), Allen Dulles: Master of Spies, Regnery Publishing, p340

External links

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