'The Spook Who Sat By The Door' Author Sam Greenlee Dies Age 83

Sam Greenlee (left) and scene from "The Spook Who Sat By The Door" (Photo of Greenlee from YouTube video; Scene
from film from YouTube video)

By Annalisa Quinn, NPR
Sam Greenlee, a novelist and poet who was one of the first black Americans go to abroad with the Foreign Service, died [May 19, 2014], according to The Associated Press. He was 83. In his most famous book, 1969's The Spook Who Sat by the Door, a disillusioned black CIA officer quits his job and begins training street gangs as "Freedom Fighters" to overthrow the government. The title plays on the double meaning of "Spook" as both a racial slur and slang for spies In 1973, the book was made into a movie of the same name. In a with NPR's Karen Grigsby Bates, film critic Elvis Mitchell said that the film studio was unnerved by the insertion of politics into what they expected to be an action film, and handed it back to Greenlee. The film's sudden disappearance — and persistent though unsubstantiated rumors that the U.S. government had helped to suppress it — helped ensure its status as a classic. It was re-released in 2004 and added to the National Film Registry in 2012.

Listen to an audio interview with Sam Greenlee

Watch the Entire Film With Sam Greenlee's Introduction and Interview