David Alan Johnson

David Alan Johnson has been a working non-fiction writer for more than 30 years. He received his B.A. in English during the early 1970s and began looking for work in the publishing field. Unfortunately, this was the depths of an economic depression, and positions in publishing were non-existent. After working at several unrewarding jobs, he decided that the only way to enter publishing would be as a writer. In 1977, he began his first book.

The Second World War had always been of great interest, especially stories about wartime London, so he decided to write about the London Blitz of 1940 and 1941. Two years of writing and research later, The City Ablaze was signed by William Kimber & Co., a small London publisher. It is an eyewitness account of the German fire blitz of 29 December 1940, which was one of the most devastating nights of the war for London.

Reviewers loved The City Ablaze. It was called ‘a riveting account, told with precision and commendable accuracy,’ and ‘an eminently readable and palatable work.’ When it was published in the United States as The London Blitz, Publisher’s Weekly said that the book was ‘a gripping panoramic recreation of the disaster,’ and even the often-grouchy Kirkus Reviews praised the book as ‘a vivid evocation in the sturdy you-are-there manner.’

Johnson’s second book was also well-received on both sides of the Atlantic. V for Vengeance is the story of Hitler’s V-1 flying Bomb and V-2 rocket attacks against London from June 1944 until March 1945. ‘The book is at once compelling and chilling reading,’ was one reviewer’s opinion. The US edition is called V-1/​V-2, and was just as well received as it had been in Britain.

After this promising start, several false starts and disappointments followed. A project on Hitler’s plans to build an atomic bomb could not find a publisher. After that came Yanks in the RAF, about the Americans who joined Britain’s Royal Air Force. It was written under contract, but the contract was cancelled when the publishing house was sold.

The next idea for a book took shape in the late 1980s. American counter-intelligence has always insisted that all German spies had been captured, and were either executed or put to work by sending false information to Germany. Johnson, a natural-born cynic and sceptic, doubted this. A senior editor at William Kimber & Co. suggested that Johnson write a book based upon his doubts.

When Mr. Kimber fell ill and sold the firm, Germany’s Spies and Saboteurs was published in the US by Motorbooks International. It never made the best-seller lists, but a portion of it was included in the History Channel’s ‘Sworn to Secrecy’ series. Johnson appeared in the series to talk about his book.

Things definitely were picking up. An editor at Combined Books read an article by Johnson about American volunteers in the RAF and asked him to write a book on the Battle of Britain in 1940. Johnson wrote a day-by-day account of the 114-day battle, and also concentrated on Winston Churchill’s battle to win the isolationist United States as an ally. It was an unusual approach but it worked. More good reviews followed – ‘an excellent narrative of the four-month campaign’ was one comment.

By this time, Johnson had moved to the United States permanently. The subject of his next book, Righteous Deception, is how anti-Nazi intelligence officers tricked Hitler regarding the time and place of the Allied landings. The publisher dumped the book on a discount outlet, resulting in no reviews – except one generated by the author – and no sales. The lesson learned: always check on a publisher’s reputation before signing any contract.

The ‘Operation Pastorius’ segment of Germany’s Spies and Saboteurs gave Johnson the idea of writing an entire book on how J. Edgar Hoover railroaded George Dasch into prison. He wrote Betrayal: The True Story of J. Edgar Hoover and the Nazi Saboteurs under contract. In February 2005, the publisher cancelled the contract for business reasons. Fortunately, Hippocrene Books made an offer for the book, which was published in December 2007.

Thinking ahead, Johnson is trying to get away from the Second World War – at least for a while. His next book will be called The Friendliest of Enemies, all about the rocky road of Anglo-American relations. In addition to the usual presidents and prime ministers, the book also includes the Beatles, GI Brides, Rudolf Valentino, Alistair Cooke, Elvis Presley, Sputnik, the Bicentennial, and many other items that have affected the two countries over the decades.

The Friendliest of Enemies is still looking for a good home with a reputable publisher. Johnson has other projects in mind for the future, as well, and is a regular contributor to several history magazines.