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Indiana University Bloomington
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Hutton Honors College

 —  Spies in Fiction and Fact


Spies in Fiction and Fact: Informal Talk by
Former CIA Operations Officer Gene Coyle

Wednesday, Oct. 29, 2008 * 4:30-5:30 p.m. * The Lilly Library, 1200 E. Seventh St. * NO SIGN-UP REQUIRED


Bond, James Bond. No! Coyle, Gene Coyle.

Join former CIA officer Gene Coyle for an informal talk on spies in popular culture and reality - from Britain's Ian Fleming and John LeCarre to Russia's Julian Semyonov and Boris Akunin. Gene Coyle spent 13 of his 30 years with the Central Intelligence Agency working undercover in various countries, including Russia, Kyrgyzstan, Brazil, and Greece. Was his life anything at all like James Bond's? Or the agent's in the Coen brothers' latest movie, Burn After Reading?

Coyle has been teaching at IU since 2004, for the first two years under a CIA academic outreach program and more recently as an adjunct professor in the School of Public and Environmental Affairs. He is the author of a spy novel, The Dream Merchant of Lisbon, and has written articles for the CIA's Studies in Intelligence journal. In the spring he will be teaching a course for the Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures on Russian crime and spy novels.

The Lilly Library of rare books and manuscripts has a notable collection of Ian Fleming materials: manuscripts, photographs, and books relating to the James Bond novels and films.


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