MACLEAN DONALD: (1913-1983) British Diplomat & Spy, a member of the Cambridge Five. A rare printed 4to edition of ...

MACLEAN DONALD: (1913-1983) British Diplomat & Spy, a member of the Cambridge Five. A rare printed 4to edition of the Cambridge University literary periodical Contemporaries, edited by John Kaestlin, Summer 1933, featuring various poems and other literary contributions by individuals including Donald Maclean. Signed ('Donald Maclean') by Maclean with his name alone in bold fountain pen ink to the lower margin of an inside page which features his own contribution entitled Puppet. Bound in the original yellow printed paper wrappers. Autographs of Maclean are rare in any form. Front cover neatly detached and with some light overall age wear and minor foxing and with a few small neat tears to the edges and spine. About VG Donald Maclean studied modern languages at Trinity Hall, Cambridge, arriving at the university in 1931. Whilst there he became a member of the Communist Party and was a relatively well-known figure on campus. His literary efforts, as well as his contribution to the present magazine, included a book review in 1933 for Cambridge Left, a journal to which other communists contributed, and in 1934 he became the editor of Silver Crescent, the Trinity Hall students' magazine. In his last year at Cambridge Maclean became an agent of The People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs (NKVD), the interior ministry of the Soviet Union, and graduated with a First in modern languages before entering the Diplomatic Service.