The Inventive Life of George H. McFadden: Archaeologist, Poet, Scholar, Spy

This biography traces the short, compelling life of George H. McFadden (1907–1953). The story begins with his awkward early years as the closeted gay scion of one of Philadelphia’s wealthiest and most prominent families. It continues to Cyprus, where he reinvented himself as an archaeologist with the University of Pennsylvania’s excavations of ancient Greek and Roman treasures. McFadden created a new life there replete with a gracious villa and yacht as a respected figure in the local community. When World War II broke out, he moved from Germany to France, Greece, and finally to Egypt, where he faced down the Nazi war machine as an American spy. He volunteered his yacht for government service, ferrying assets in secret across the Mediterranean. McFadden also found time in his abbreviated, multi-faceted life for work as a poet and Classical scholar, creating his own translation of Homer’s Iliad. A mysterious sailing accident in Cyprus brought McFadden’s life to an untimely end at age 45