Director: My Years Assisting J. Edgar Hoover

The first book ever written about FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover by a member of his personal staff, Paul Letersky, offers unprecedented insight into an American legend. Letersky was assigned to assist Hoover in 1965 and became one of the few able to enter his secretive world. The book is balanced, honest, and keenly observed, providing a unique inside look at one of the most powerful law enforcement figures in American history.

Format: Hardback
Length: 320 pages
Publication date: 16 September 2021
Publisher: Simon & Schuster

The first book ever written about FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover by a member of his personal staff—his former assistant, Paul Letersky—The Director offers unprecedented insight into an American legend. The 1960s and 1970s were arguably among America's most turbulent post-Civil War decades. While the Vietnam War continued seemingly without end, protests and riots ravaged most cities, the Kennedys and MLK were assassinated, and corruption found its way to the highest levels of politics, culminating in Watergate. In 1965, at the beginning of the chaos, twenty-two-year-old Paul Letersky was assigned to assist the legendary FBI director J. Edgar Hoover, who had just turned seventy and had, by then, led the Bureau for an incredible forty-one years. Hoover was a rare and complex man who walked confidently among the most powerful. His personal privacy was more tightly guarded than the secret "files" he carefully collected—and that were so feared by politicians and celebrities. Through Letersky's close working relationship with Hoover, and the trust and confidence he gained from Hoover's most loyal senior assistant, Helen Gandy, Paul became one of the few able to enter the Director's secretive—and sometimes perilous—world. Since Hoover's death half a century ago, millions of words have been written about the man and hundreds of hours of TV dramas and A-list Hollywood films produced. But until now, there has been virtually no account from someone who, for a period of years, spent hours with the Director on a daily basis. Balanced, honest, and keenly observed, The Director offers a unique inside look at one of the most powerful law enforcement figures in American history.

Weight: 504g
Dimension: 162 x 236 x 31 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781982164706