NEW YORK TIMES
OBITUARY FOR EDWARD WHITTEMORE
Edward
Whittemore, Writer, 62; Set Series of Novels in Jerusalem
By WOLFGANG SAXON
Published: August 4, 1995
Edward P. Whittemore, a writer best known for his exotic
"Jerusalem Quartet," a series of novels set
in that city from the late 19th century until well after
World War II, died yesterday at a hospice in Riverdale,
the Bronx. He was 62 and most recently lived in Manhattan.
The cause was prostate cancer, said his literary agent,
Thomas C. Wallace.
Mr. Whittemore, known as Ted, was born in Manchester,
N.H., and graduated with a degree in history from Yale
University in 1955. He served three years in the Marine
Corps, until the Government sent him in 1958 to language
school in Yokohama, Japan.
He worked for the Central Intelligence Agency from 1958
to 1967, stationed in Japan and Italy. He briefly worked
for the administration of Mayor John V. Lindsay in New
York City before turning to writing.
His first book, "Quin's Shanghai Circus" (1974),
was a war novel peopled by an odd assortment of characters
drifting through landscapes resembling Tokyo, Shanghai
and the Bronx.
His Jerusalem novels consisted of "Sinai Tapestry"
(1977), "Jerusalem Poker" (1978), "Nile
Shadows" (1981) and "Jericho Mosaic" (1987).
"Sinai Tapestry" wove together the strange fortunes
of its diverse characters, moving them all over the desert
terrain in a story spread over 100 years.
The tetralogy's last volume, "Jericho Mosaic,"
was an antic novel about a spy, yet was freighted with
symbolism. It followed a cosmopolitan set of characters
from World War II to the present, centering on a mole
in the Israeli secret service, the Mossad, who burrowed
so deep into Syria that he no longer could quite tell
whether he was an Israeli spying on Syria or a Syrian
somehow spying on Israel.
He is survived by his companion, Ann Pasanella of Manhattan,
two daughters, two brothers, two sisters, and two grandchildren.
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