John le Carré and George Smiley entered literature at about the same time. John le Carré, literally John the Square, was the pseudonym chosen by David John Moore Cornwell when his employers, the British Secret Service (MI6), prohibited him from using his real name to publish his first novel, Call for the Dead (1961). Where the pseudonym came from is a mystery now even to Cornwell. Smiley’s origins, however, are less enigmatic. Based largely on the Reverend Vivian Green, Cornwell’s tutor at Lincoln College, Oxford (le Carré, 2016, 2), and John Bingham, le Carré’s former Security Service (MI5) mentor (Plimpton, 1997, 55), Smiley is introduced in Call as a “breathtakingly ordinary”, then middle-aged intelligence officer (he is younger in Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, 1974) of exceptional skill and humanity who plays a role in nine...
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Citation: Beene, LynnDianne. "Call for the Dead". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 20 December 2019 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=6076, accessed 09 June 2026.]
