Recollections of a Life

The 83-year-old Hiss launches a stinging attack on key players in the two trials that sentenced him to four years in prison for stealing State Department files for the Soviet Union. He portrays his accuser, Whittaker Chambers, as a psychopath and pawn of the FBI. Presenting documentation in support of his innocence, he charges that J. Edgar Hoover fabricated the case against him out of vindictivenessas a New Deal reformer, Hiss had called Hoover's lust for personal power a national disgrace. He also blasts Richard Nixon, his ""unofficial prosecutor,'' who reportedly advanced his political career by convicting Hiss. When not reviewing the notorious 1948 spy case, this memoir is mostly mellow, presenting the author's recollections of his career. Highlights include the Yalta Conference, his investigation of war profiteers, the launching of the United Nations and meetings with Eleanor Roosevelt and H. G. Wells. (May)