Author, television producer, and former Chicago Sun-Times journalist Thomas Maier visits the American Writers Museum to discuss his new book The Invisible Spy. It is the untold WWII story of Ernest Cuneo, a former NFL player turned White House insider who worked with Churchill's undercover agents in New York City to conduct the biggest foreign spy operation ever within the US and how Cuneo later helped inspire Ian Fleming's James Bond. The Invisible Spy has been praised by The Wall Street Journal and selected in April as an Amazon Editors's Best Book in History. As an award-winning author and journalist, Maier will also talk about how his previous books were translated into primetime television shows—Showtime's Emmy-winning Masters of Sex and Paramount's Mafia Spies, both praised by The New York Times. Copies of The Invisible Spy will be available for purchase and Maier will sign them following the program. This is an in person program at the American Writers Museum. This program will also be livestreamed, and you can register for the link to the online broadcast here. More about The Invisible Spy: As a tough but smart Italian American kid, Ernest Cuneo played Ivy League football at Columbia University and was in the old Brooklyn Dodgers NFL franchise before becoming a city hall lawyer and  Brain Trust  aide to President Roosevelt. He was on the payroll of national radio columnist Walter Winchell and mingled with the famous and powerful. But his status as a spy remained a secret, hiding in plain sight. During this time, Cuneo began a close friendship with British spy Ian Fleming and helped inspire Fleming's James Bond novels. He also began a love affair with one of Churchill's agents at Rockefeller Center—Margaret Watson, a beautiful Canadian woman with a photographic memory ideal for spycraft. In one nighttime attack, Watson was nearly smothered to death by a Nazi assassin inside her women's dormitory near Rockefeller Center. Cuneo's transformation from a gridiron athlete into a high-stakes intelligence go-between and political influencer is one of the great untold stories of American espionage. He has remained  invisible  in the public eye—until now, with this unveiled look into his life. From the bestselling author and producer of two hit TV series, Mafia Spies and Masters of Sex, Thomas Maier delves into the little-known tales behind the Rockefeller Center spy operation and the origins of American intelligence. The Invisible Spy weaves Cuneo's remarkable personal story with vivid insights about many top twentieth-century figures, including Churchill, FDR and later JFK. Full of action and fascinating characters, this untold history reveals how Cuneo, as America's first WWII spy, helped the British launch a covert campaign against Nazi conspirators hidden in America, an espionage war unbeknownst to many. Praise for The Invisible Spy:  As gripping as a Bond novel—and every word of it true. The Invisible Spy is a great read on an important moment in history, backed by precise reportage and keen insight. I couldn’t put it down.  —Jonathan Eig, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of King: A Life  This entertaining biography is especially of interest to Ian Fleming and James Bond fans, who will know that Cuneo played an integral part in the early history of 007.  —Raymond Benson, author of James Bond: The Raymond Benson Years, advisory board member of the Ian Fleming Foundation  The Invisible Spy shines light on a little-known figure from World War II who played an outsized role in forging the wartime alliance between the United States and the United Kingdom. Maier's impeccable research and deft writing make this incredible story of espionage, sabotage, and influence a must-read.  —Justin Black, author and podcaster on Spycraft101.com THOMAS MAIER is an award-winning author, journalist, and television producer. He was a producer for both the Emmy-winning Showtime drama Masters of Sex, and the 2024 Paramount+ docuseries Mafia Spies, both adapted from his non-fiction books. His biography, Dr. Spock: An American Life, was a New York Times Notable Book of the Year. The JFK Library hosted a forum about his 2014 book, When Lions Roar: The Churchills and the Kennedys, which was excerpted in Time and The Wall Street Journal. At Newsday in New York, Maier twice won the National Society of Professional Journalists' top prize and several honors, including the Daniel Pearl Award from the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, and now serves on the paper’s editorial board. He won the 2022 Columbia University Journalism School's Alumni Award for career achievement. He has appeared twice on the Today show and Morning Joe, as well as 20/20, CBS Evening News, Hardball, CNN, and NPR's Fresh Air.

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