Those of us who lived through the Watergate fiasco in the 1970's will recognize the name E. Howard Hunt. A former CIA man who organized the Watergate break-in and other "dirty tricks" that ultimately brought down Richard M. Nixon's presidency, Hunt died this week at the age of 88. His obituary reads like a spy novel including such capers as the overthrow of a Guatemalan president, the oversight of a group of Cuban exiles in the Bay of Pigs fiasco and the firebombing of the Brookings Institution to distract guards while his crew burglarized the think tank.

But did you know that E. Howard Hunt was also a spy novelist? Throughout his life, he wrote more than 80 spy novels and thrillers, usually under such pseudonyms as John Baxter, Robert Dietrich, David St. John, P.S. Donoghue, Gordon Davis or David St. John. One of his leading characters, Peter Ward, and Hunt were both Washington-dwelling Brown graduates. Hunt described this character as "the secret agent with the taste and the talent for fine living" as he himself was.

If you with to read more about this intriguing man, you may wish to read Compulsive Spy: the Strange Career of E. Howard Hunt. You can also go to the E. Howard Hunt website, which introduces Hunt as "one of the most extraordinary, if controversial, men-of-action-and-letters of our time".

Novels written by Hunt include Guilty Knowledge about a potential first female president of the United States, Dragon Teeth about an ex-CIA agent sought by the Chinese and the CIA, The Berlin Ending; a Novel of Discovery, an international thriller, and The Kremlin Conspiracy about a plot to change the balance of power. Non-fiction books written by Hunt include Give Us this Day, an inside account of the Bag of Pigs disaster and its aftermath, and Economics : an Introduction to Traditional and Radical Views.

Truth can be stranger than fiction.