The Woman Who Smashed Codes: A True Story of Love, Spies, and the Unlikely Heroine who Outwitted America's Enemies

by Jason Fagone Narrated by Cassandra Campbell

Overview

NATIONAL BESTSELLER

NPR Best Book of 2017

“Not all superheroes wear capes, and Elizebeth Smith Friedman should be the subject of a future Wonder Woman movie.”-*The New York Times

Joining the ranks of Hidden Figures and In the Garden of Beasts, the incredible true story of the greatest codebreaking duo that ever lived, an American woman and her husband who invented the modern science of cryptology together and used it to confront the evils of their time, solving puzzles that unmasked Nazi spies and helped win World War II.

In 1912, at the height of World War I, brilliant Shakespeare expert Elizebeth Smith went to work for an eccentric tycoon on his estate outside Chicago. The tycoon had close ties to the U.S. government, and he soon asked Elizebeth to apply her language skills to an exciting new venture: code-breaking. There she met the man who would become her husband, groundbreaking cryptologist William Friedman. Though she and Friedman are in many ways the ""Adam and Eve"" of the NSA, Elizebeth's story, incredibly, has never been told.

In The Woman Who Smashed Codes, Jason Fagone chronicles the life of this extraordinary woman, who played an integral role in our nation's history for forty years. After World War I, Smith used her talents to catch gangsters and smugglers during Prohibition, then accepted a covert mission to discover and expose Nazi spy rings that were spreading like wildfire across South America, advancing ever closer to the United States. As World War II raged, Elizabeth fought a highly classified battle of wits against Hitler's Reich, cracking multiple versions of the Enigma machine used by German spies. Meanwhile, inside an Army vault in Washington, William worked furiously to break Purple, the Japanese version of Enigma-and eventually succeeded, at a terrible cost to his personal life.

Fagone unveils America's code-breaking history through the prism of Smith's life, bringing into focus the unforgettable events and colorful personalities that would help shape modern intelligence. Blending the lively pace and compelling detail that are the hallmarks of Erik Larson's bestsellers with the atmosphere and intensity of The Imitation Game, The Woman Who Smashed Codes is riviting popular history at its finest.

Includes an enhancement PDF.

This book is a perfect gift for history buffs, political science enthusiasts, and anyone interested in the fascinating world of code-breaking and espionage.

HarperCollins 2024

Editorial Reviews

FEBRUARY 2018 - AudioFile

A young American Shakespeare scholar—and a woman at that—in 1916 was an unlikely candidate to eventually become the National Security Agency’s premiere code breaker during the World Wars. Cassandra Campbell warmly narrates the astonishing story of Elizebeth Smith Friedman. With a crisp pace suitable for Friedman’s intelligence and Quaker practicality, Campbell explains the puzzle-solving roots of American cryptography. She hints at Friedman’s hidden frustration at the lack of recognition for her decades of groundbreaking work. Due to both secrecy and sexism, her success was attributed mostly to men, especially J. Edgar Hoover. Note: The narrative frequently references written charts and illustrations of ciphers, which listeners can view on an accompanying PDF. N.M.C. © AudioFile 2018, Portland, Maine

Library Journal

02/15/2017
Now that The Imitation Game has familiarized everyone with the concept of code-breaking, it's time to step back to its origins during World War I. In 1912, Shakespeare expert (and hence language wizard) Elizebeth Smith was introduced to both code-breaking and visionary cryptologist William Friedman, who became her husband. Journalist Fagone details Smith's particular contributions to cryptology, which include helping to capture gangsters during Prohibition and exposing Nazi spies in South America. With a 50,000-copy first printing; an LJ Editors' Spring Pick, p. 23.

FEBRUARY 2018 - AudioFile

A young American Shakespeare scholar—and a woman at that—in 1916 was an unlikely candidate to eventually become the National Security Agency’s premiere code breaker during the World Wars. Cassandra Campbell warmly narrates the astonishing story of Elizebeth Smith Friedman. With a crisp pace suitable for Friedman’s intelligence and Quaker practicality, Campbell explains the puzzle-solving roots of American cryptography. She hints at Friedman’s hidden frustration at the lack of recognition for her decades of groundbreaking work. Due to both secrecy and sexism, her success was attributed mostly to men, especially J. Edgar Hoover. Note: The narrative frequently references written charts and illustrations of ciphers, which listeners can view on an accompanying PDF. N.M.C. © AudioFile 2018, Portland, Maine

Product Details

BN ID:	2940170183050
Publisher:	HarperCollins Publishers
Publication date:	09/26/2017
Edition description:	Unabridged
Sales rank:	616,675

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