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An edition of Between Silk and Cyanide (1998)

Between silk and cyanide

a codemaker's war, 1941-1945

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Cover of: Between silk and cyanide by Leo Marks, Leo Marks
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Last edited by MARC Bot
July 6, 2025 | History
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An edition of Between Silk and Cyanide (1998)

Between silk and cyanide

a codemaker's war, 1941-1945

by

  • 4.0 (2 ratings)
  • 12 Want to read
  • 2 Have read

A World War II cryptographer chronicles his career in the Special Operations Executive, discussing his replacement of outmoded codes with one-time silk-printed codes.

Publish Date
Publisher
Free Press
Language
English
Pages
613

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Previews available in: English

Subjects

Biography British Personal narratives Cryptographers Cryptography Great Britain Personal narratives, British Secret service World War, 1939-1945 Special Operations Executive Gro©britannien Erlebnisbericht World War (1939-1945) fast (OCoLC)fst01180924 Weltkrieg (1939-1945) Kryptologie Autobiographie New York Times reviewed World war, 1939-1945, cryptography World war, 1939-1945, secret service, great britain World war, 1939-1945, personal narratives, british Great britain, biography History Geheime diensten SOE Geheimschrift Tweede Wereldoorlog Great Britain. Special Operations Executive Fiction

People

Leo Marks

Places

Great Britain

Times

1939-1945

Showing 4 featured editions. View all 14 editions?

Edition Availability
Cover of: Between Silk and Cyanide
Between Silk and Cyanide: A Codemaker's War, 1941-1945
September 12, 2000, Free Press
Paperback in English - 1st Touchstone Ed edition
Cover of: Between silk and cyanide
Between silk and cyanide: a codemaker's story 1941-1945
1999, HarperCollins
in English
Cover of: Between silk and cyanide
Between silk and cyanide: a codemaker's war, 1941-1945
1998, Free Press
in English
Cover of: Between silk and cyanide
Between silk and cyanide: the story of SOE's code war
1998, HarperCollins
in English

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Book Details

Edition Notes

Includes index.

Published in
New York, NY

Classifications

Dewey Decimal Class
940.54/8641
Library of Congress
D810.C88 M375 1999

The Physical Object

Pagination
613 p. :
Number of pages
613

Edition Identifiers

Open Library
OL34060M
ISBN 10
0684864223
LCCN
99017581
OCLC/WorldCat
40776827
LibraryThing
21834
Goodreads
1293493

Work Identifiers

Work ID
OL66196W

Source records

Work Description

The Special Operations Executive (SOE), a British WW2 group infiltrating Reich-dominated Europe, had during the War's early and middle years a continuing problem in certain parts of France. They would train new agents, drop them into French territory, note their contact with a local agent... and they were lost, presumed captured or killed. Two things needed to happen fast: first, a new network had to be built so fresh agents would not be compromised by the older, discovered network. And second, a code generation method must be implemented that did not give a field agent knowledge of how other field agents generated similar messages into encrypted form (knowledge that could be extracted by torture). The answer to the second problem was called a "one time pad", a method still in use today and which had life-saving results almost immediately in the Allied war effort.

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