Review of The Woman All Spies Fear by Amy Butler Greenfield and Code Breaker, Spy Hunter by Laurie Wallmark, Illustrated by Brooke Smart

Abstract

Elizabeth Smith Friedman was a phenomenal cryptanalyst who worked with the US Government during both world wars and broke the codes and ciphers of drug and alcohol smugglers in the tumultuous years of Prohibition in between the wars. Her husband William Friedman was also a cryptanalyst whose career is often allowed to eclipse hers. There are two new biographies, with women authors, that give Elizebeth center stage and that introduce cryptography, codebreaking, and her accomplishments to a wider audience. The first biography, The Woman All Spies Fear: Code breaker Elizebeth Smith Friedman and her hidden life by Amy Butler Greenfield, was a finalist for the 2022 Young Adult Library Services Association’s award for excellence in nonfiction. Do not make the mistake of thinking this book is just for “young adults” – we “not-so-young adult” reviewers thoroughly enjoyed it too! The second biography is Code Breaker, Spy Hunter: How Elizebeth Smith Friedman changed the Course of Two World Wars by Laurie Wallmark and illustrated by Brook Smart. This is a beautifully illustrated children’s picture book. The Woman All Spies Fear opens with a teaser about the Doll Woman spying case that Elizebeth helped crack in 1944 and then flips back to Elizebeth Smith’s childhood, her drive to get a college education, and her struggle to repay a loan from her father for her education. In 1916, the need to repay her father results in her working for eccentric millionaire George Fabyan at his estate called Riverbank in Geneva, Illinois. At this point the narrative is interrupted with an interlude called a “Code Break” which educates the reader on the difference between a code and a cipher. Attentive readers might identify the beginning of a hidden message in this section before the biography returns to the main story where we find Elizebeth at Riverbank trying to find messages encrypted with a Bacon cipher hidden among the fonts of Shakespeare’s first folio. These “Code Break” sections appear frequently throughout the book and will be described in more detail below. Elizebeth soon meets William Friedman and