Read Ebook {PDF EPUB} The American Black Chamber by Herbert O. Yardley American Black Chamber, First Edition. 1st ed. thus stiff wrappers As New octavo 375pp., frontis., b/w plates, text ills., During the 1930s Herbert Yardley headed the first peacetime cryptanalytic organisation in the US. The American Black Chamber. Herbert O. Yardley. Published by Bobbs-Merrill, 1931. Used - Hardcover Condition: Good. Hardcover. Condition: Good. No Jacket. 1st Edition. Good minus copy in black cloth with red titles. Fading to spine. Fraying to fore-edge corners, dust-staining to top edge of page block. Shelf-wear. Spine slightly cocked. Address on endpaper. Toning to pages. The American Black Chamber. Herbert O. Yardley. Published by Bobbs-Merrill, Indianapolis, 1931. Used Condition: Very Good. Condition: Very Good. Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1931. Stated First Edition. Octavo; 375pp. 23 plates including frontis, all present, with vignette illustrations throughout. Publisher's black buckram with red stamped lettering and rules. Boards bumped at corners and spine ends, with some dusting and smudging to surface and a few surface impressions on back. Front hinge just barely cracked, with book opening easily between gatherings, but binding is still holding securely. Some foxing to plates and mild to moderate toning to pages, else interior unmarked. "Property of Wekearney Club Library" stamped on front endpapers, but no other library markings. Galland writes "A romantically exaggerated, somewhat inaccurate, but very interesting book, containing information concerning methods and examples of deciphering, details of historical interest, codes, and statistical data" [Galland, An Historical and Analytical Bibliography of the Literature of Cryptology p. 206]. Historian David Kahn, in his book The Codebreakers, called it "the most famous book on cryptology ever published.". Herbert Yardley. Herbert Osborne Yardley (April 13, 1889 – August 7, 1958) was an American cryptologist best known for his book The American Black Chamber (1931). The title of the book refers to the Cipher Bureau, the cryptographic organization of which Yardley was the founder and head. Under Yardley, the cryptanalysts of The American Black Chamber broke Japanese diplomatic codes and were able to furnish American negotiators with significant information during the Washington Naval Conference of 1921-1922. He later helped the Nationalists in China (1938– 1940) to break Japanese codes. Following his work in China, Yardley worked briefly for the Canadian government, helping it set up a cryptological section (Examination Unit) of the National Research Council of Canada from June to December 1941. Yardley was let go due to pressure from Washington. [ citation needed ] Contents. Early life [ edit | edit source ] Yardley was born in 1889 in Worthington, Indiana. He learned to use the telegraph from his father, Robert Kirkbride Yardley, a station master and telegrapher for a railroad. His mother, Mary Emma Osborn Yardley, died when he was 13. After graduating high school in 1907, Yardley went to the University of Chicago, but dropped out after one year and went back to Worthington, where he worked as a telegrapher for a railroad. [1] He spent his free time learning how to play poker and applied his winnings towards his further schooling. In 1912, after passing the civil service exam, he was hired as a government telegrapher. Yardley began his career as a code clerk in the U.S. State Department. He accepted a Signal Corps Reserve commission and served as a cryptologic officer with the American Expeditionary Forces in France during World War I. Codebreaking [ edit | edit source ] His career in cryptology began with his work in the code room, as he broke the U.S. government codes that crossed his desk. At that time, American codes were very weak and Yardley solved them easily. He was shocked to learn that President Wilson was using a code that had been in use for over ten years. The weakness of American codes worried Yardley, especially considering the war in Europe, so in May 1916 he began writing a hundred-page “Solution of American Diplomatic Codes”, which he gave to his boss. Breaking American codes got Yardley wondering about the codes of other countries. American participation in the war gave Yardley an opportunity to convince Major Ralph Van Deman of the need to set up a section to break other countries' codes. In June 1917, Yardley became a 2nd lieutenant in the Signal Corps and head of the newly created eighth section of military intelligence, MI-8. [2] One early case was the cryptogram discovered in the clothing of German spy Lothar Witzke after he was arrested at the Mexican border in 1918. The evidence linked Witzke to significant sabotage activity in the U.S. Yardley proved to be a very good administrator and during the war the people of MI-8 performed well even if they did not have any spectacular successes. After the war, the American Army and the State department decided to jointly fund MI-8 and Yardley continued as head of the "Cipher Bureau". They located their operations in New York City for legal reasons. Cracking Japanese codes was a priority. David Kahn states: [3] The most important target was Japan. Its belligerence toward China jeopardized America's Open Door policy. Its emigrants exacerbated American racism. Its naval growth menaced American power in the western Pacific. Its commercial expansion threatened American dominance of Far Eastern markets. After almost a year, Yardley and his staff finally managed to break the Japanese codes and were still reading Japanese diplomatic traffic when Washington hosted the Washington Naval Conference in 1921. The information the Cipher Bureau provided the American delegation regarding the Japanese government's absolute minimum acceptable battleship requirements was instrumental in getting the Japanese side to agree to a 5:3 ratio instead of the 10:7 ratio the Japanese Navy really wanted. This allowed Japan only 18 battleships to 30 for the U.S. and 30 for Great Britain instead of the 21 battleships Japan desired. This was the height of Yardley's cryptanalytic career. Unfortunately, Yardley spent much of his time in New York involved in unrelated activities. Also, the flow of diplomatic telegrams dried up as companies became less willing to break the law to help the government. In Washington, William Friedman was actively exploring cryptographic frontiers for the Army. The Cipher Bureau was becoming irrelevant. However, it was moral indignation that finally doomed the bureau. When Henry L. Stimson, Secretary of State under President Herbert Hoover, found out about Yardley and the Cipher Bureau, he was furious and withdrew funding, summing up his argument with "Gentlemen do not read each other's mail". [4] Some believe that Stimson was most offended when Yardley bragged that he could read all traffic of the Vatican, for it was after this remark Stimson turned and left the room. The American Black Chamber [ edit | edit source ] MI-8 closed its doors for good on October 31, 1929, just two days after the stock market crashed. With Yardley's esoteric skills in very low demand, he took up writing about his experiences in codebreaking to support his family. His memoirs, The American Black Chamber , were published by Bobbs-Merrill in 1931. The book outlined the history of the first U.S. Signals Intelligence (SIGINT) organization, described the activities of MI-8 during World War I and the American Black Chamber in the 1920s, and illustrated the basic principles of signals security. This work was instantly popular. Its critics at the time concluded that it was "the most sensational contribution to the secret history of the war, as well as the immediate post-war period, which has yet been written by an American. Its deliberate indiscretions exceed any to be found in the recent memoirs of European secret agents." [5] In the U.S., 17,931 copies were sold, with 5,480 more sold in the U.K. It was translated into French, Swedish, Japanese, and Chinese. The Japanese version sold an unprecedented 33,119 copies. This book was an embarrassment to the U.S. government and compromised some of the sources Yardley and his associates used. Through this work an estimated 19 nations were alerted that their codes were broken. Much of the post-World War I codebreaking was done by obtaining copies of enciphered telegrams sent over Western Union by foreign diplomats, as was the custom before countries had technology for specialized communications devices. William F. Friedman, considered the father of modern American signals intelligence (SIGINT) gathering, was incensed by the book and the publicity it generated in part because sources and methods were compromised and because Yardley's contribution was overstated. While Yardley may have thought that publishing this book would force the government to re-establish a SIGINT program, it had the opposite effect. The U.S. Government considered prosecuting him, but he had not technically violated existing law regarding protection of government records. In 1933, the Espionage Act was amended, PL 37 (USC Title 18, section 952), to prohibit the disclosure of foreign code or anything sent in code. [6] Yardley's second book, Japanese Diplomatic Codes: 1921-1922 , was presented to the dynasty of royalty in full printed form and a part of the manuscript scribbled on, and also burnt and seized by U.S. marshals and never published. The manuscript was declassified in 1979. The American Black Chamber represents an early example of the exposé national security books that would appear after World War II, such as The Codebreakers and The Puzzle Palace , which also focus on U.S. SIGINT operations and organizations. In 1935, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer released Rendezvous, a fictional film "based on a book by Herbert O. Yardley." The film, starring William Powell and Rosalind Russell, and directed by William K. Howard, concerns a German spy ring stealing U.S. government codes during World War I, as well as U.S. Army efforts to crack German codes. After the Black Chamber [ edit | edit source ] Yardley did cryptologic work for Canada (although pressure from the U.S. on the Canadian government meant this was limited) and China during World War II, but he was never again given a position of trust in the U.S. government. Despite this, in 1999 he was given a place in the National Security Agency Hall of Honor. None of Yardley's many later attempts at writing were as successful as The American Black Chamber , though he published several articles and three spy/mystery novels ( The Blonde Countess , Red Sun of Nippon , and Crows Are Black Everywhere ). He contributed as a writer and technical advisor to several movies, including Rendezvous , based very loosely on one of his novels, The Blonde Countess . His 1957 book on poker, Education of a Poker Player , which combined poker stories with the math behind the poker strategies, sold well. Another book of cryptographic memoirs, The Chinese Black Chamber , about his work in China, was declassified and published in 1983. Yardley died on August 7, 1958, nearly a week after having a major stroke. He is buried at Arlington National Cemetery, Grave 429-1 of Section 30. The National Cryptologic Museum's library has 16 boxes of Yardley's personal files. The American Black Chamber. Choose your shipping method in Checkout. Costs may vary based on destination. Seller's Description: New. ► Contact This Seller. 2016, Ishi Press. Edition: 2016, Ishi Press Trade paperback, New Available Copies: 2 Details: ISBN: 1591149894 ISBN-13: 9781591149897 Pages: 292 Publisher: Ishi Press Published: 2013 Language: English Alibris ID: 16013978114 Shipping Options: Standard Shipping: $3.99. Choose your shipping method in Checkout. Costs may vary based on destination. Seller's Description: New. ► Contact This Seller. 2016, Ishi Press. Exeter, DEVON, UNITED KINGDOM. Edition: 2016, Ishi Press Trade paperback, New Details: ISBN: 1591149894 ISBN-13: 9781591149897 Pages: 292 Publisher: Ishi Press Published: 2004 Language: English Alibris ID: 16508468737 Shipping Options: Standard Shipping: $3.99. Choose your shipping method in Checkout. Costs may vary based on destination. Seller's Description: New. First edition. 375 pages. 8.75x6.00x0.75 inches. ► Contact This Seller. 2016, Ishi Press. Edition: 2016, Ishi Press Trade paperback, Good Details: ISBN: 0894121545 ISBN-13: 9780894121548 Pages: 292 Publisher: Ishi Press Published: 1989 Language: English Alibris ID: 16676736149 Shipping Options: Standard Shipping: $3.99 Trackable Expedited: $7.99. Choose your shipping method in Checkout. Costs may vary based on destination. Seller's Description: Good. Connecting readers with great books since 1972. Used books may not include companion materials, some shelf wear, may contain highlighting/notes, and may not include cd-rom or access codes. Customer service is our top priority! ► Contact This Seller. 2016, Ishi Press. Edition: 2016, Ishi Press Trade paperback, Very Good Details: ISBN: 0345298675 ISBN-13: 9780345298676 Pages: 292 Publisher: Ishi Press Published: 1981 Language: English Alibris ID: 16680485753 Shipping Options: Standard Shipping: $3.99. Choose your shipping method in Checkout. Costs may vary based on destination. Seller's Description: Very good. Vintage 1981 Ballantine paperback, 29867, copy is tight and unmarked with very little wear. We take great pride in accurately describing the condition of our books and media, ship within 48 hours, and offer a 100% money back guarantee. Customers purchasing more than one item from us may be entitled to a shipping discount. ► Contact This Seller. 2016, Ishi Press. Edition: 2016, Ishi Press Trade paperback, Very Good Details: ISBN: 0345298675 ISBN-13: 9780345298676 Pages: 292 Publisher: Ishi Press Published: 08/1981 Language: English Alibris ID: 16678892674 Shipping Options: Standard Shipping: $3.99. Choose your shipping method in Checkout. Costs may vary based on destination. Seller's Description: Very good. Shows some signs of wear from usage. Is no longer bright/shinny. Edge wear from storage and shelving. ► Contact This Seller. 2016, Ishi Press. Edition: 2016, Ishi Press Trade paperback, Very Good Details: ISBN: 0345298675 ISBN-13: 9780345298676 Pages: 292 Publisher: Ishi Press Published: 08/1981 Language: English Alibris ID: 16680579873 Shipping Options: Standard Shipping: $3.99. Choose your shipping method in Checkout. Costs may vary based on destination. Seller's Description: Very good. Shows some signs of wear from usage. Is no longer bright/shinny. Edge wear from storage and shelving. ► Contact This Seller. 2016, Ishi Press. Edition: 2016, Ishi Press Trade paperback, New Details: ISBN: 0345298675 ISBN-13: 9780345298676 Pages: 292 Publisher: Ishi Press Published: 1981 Language: English Alibris ID: 16581902524 Shipping Options: Standard Shipping: $3.99. Choose your shipping method in Checkout. Costs may vary based on destination. Seller's Description: New. ► Contact This Seller. 2016, Ishi Press. Frederick, MD, USA. Edition: 2016, Ishi Press Trade paperback, Very Good Details: ISBN: 0345298675 ISBN-13: 9780345298676 Pages: 292 Publisher: Ishi Press Published: 1981 Language: English Alibris ID: 16604291093 Shipping Options: Standard Shipping: $3.99. Choose your shipping method in Checkout. Costs may vary based on destination. Seller's Description: Very Good. Very Good condition. ► Contact This Seller. 2016, Ishi Press. Richmond, VA, USA. Edition: 2016, Ishi Press Hardcover, Very Good Details: Pages: 292 Edition: Early Reprint Publisher: Ishi Press Published: 1931 Language: English Alibris ID: 16640861942 Shipping Options: Standard Shipping: $3.99. Choose your shipping method in Checkout. Costs may vary based on destination. Seller's Description: Very Good binding. 8vo.; in the publisher's black cloth binding, with titling and decoration in red; lacking the dustjacket; [16], 17-375 pages, frontispiece; a clean copy with no ownership or other marks; the binding has minor silverfishing at the bottom of the front board but is otherwise bright and attractive. The author was almost certainly the foremost American cryptographer of his time. With much about how dumbfounded he was to find the American "top secret codes" quite easy to crack during World War I. Station HYPO. Remembering Herbert Osborn Yardley, an American Cryptologist. Born on April 13, 1889 in Indiana, Herbert O. Yardley learned to use the telegraph from his father, Robert Kirkbride Yardley, a station master and telegrapher for a railroad. His mother, Mary Emma Osborn Yardley, died when he was 13. After graduation from high school in 1907, Yardley went to the University of Chicago, but dropped out after one year and went back to Worthington, where he worked as a telegrapher for a railroad. He spent his free time learning how to play poker and applied his winnings towards his further schooling. On November 16, 1912, after passing the civil service exam, he was hired as a government telegrapher. ISBN 13: 9784871876384. Today when every major nation of the world is doing their best to spy on each other and break each others secret codes, it is difficult to believe that there was once a US Secretary of State who declared “Gentlemen do not read each other's mail.” Yet it was this statement by US Secretary of State Henry L. Stimson in 1929 that led to this book because the result was that the chief codebreaker for the USA Herbert O. Yardley lost his job and was cast out on the streets. Having no way to make a living other than playing poker, Yardley decided to pick up some cash by writing this book, which proved to be a great success. If somebody in Yardley's position were to write a book like this today, he would have to flee the country and seek the protection of a foreign government as Edward Snowden has done. However, Yardley was able to write this book and get away with it, but just barely as his next book was seized by the US government and not allowed to be published. This book contains invaluable information on codes and code breaking, including how to make a code and how to break a code. We learn fantastic things. For example, a married woman might write a letter in code to her lover to prevent her husband from finding out about it. If the code is intercepted and broken, it might appear to be a simple and harmless love letter. However, that might conceal a deeper code hidden within it that reveals military secrets. Another aspect of code breaking is finding the foreign government's code book. This may be accomplished by the use of a Mata Hari, a woman who pretends to fall in love with the official of the foreign government, who sleeps with him and thus is able to get access to his code book. One would think it would be difficult to find a woman willing to do this kind of work. However, according to Yardley, there are many upper-crust women willing to do this. Almost all of them will do it. The risk is that after being assigned to the task of falling in love with the man, she really does fall in love with him and thus stops transmitting his coded messages to Yardley. "synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title. Herbert Osborne Yardley was born in the small frontier town of Worthington, Indiana, in 1889. Class president, editor of the school paper and football captain, he was nevertheless academically average but had a flair for mathematics. He had ambitions to become a criminal lawyer but the year 1912 found him working instead as a code clerk in the State Department, a job which made full use of his mathematical skills and shrewd poker-player's mind. In 1917 America entered World War I and Yardley persuaded his bosses to let him set up a code-breaking section with a staff of 160. Officially this was called the Cipher Bureau, Military Intelligence 8; more familiarly it became known as the 'Black Chamber'. Some 200,000 messages were decoded, with Yardley himself breaking the Japanese diplomatic codes and finding himself a marked man in the Orient as a result. Out of a job, Yardley set to work on The American Black Chamber, a no-holds-barred history of the organization's activities which scandalized the political and diplomatic world but became an international best-seller when published in 1931. A later book by Yardley, Japanese Diplomatic Secrets, was banned by Act of Congress in 1933, by which time its author was hard at work developing secret inks. His venture, however, proved a commercial failure, and between 1933 and 1935 he turned his hand to novel writing with The Red Sun of Nippon and The Blonde Countess. The latter was filmed by MGM as Rendezvous, starring William Powell, Rosalind Russell and Cesar Romero, with Yardley as technical adviser; the New York Times called it a 'lively and amusing melodrama'. In 1938 he was hired by Chiang Kai-shek to monitor the coded messages of the Japanese armies invading China; he worked in Chungking under an alias with the cover of being an exporter of hides. In 1941, with Japan now at war with the United States, he was recalled and went back to working for the US Government, but not at code-breaking. The 'Black Chamber' scandal had earned him some official distrust at home as well as abroad, but he was buried with full military honors in Arlington National Cemetery on his death in 1958. Herbert O. Yardley died on August 7, 1958. In 1999, he was given a place in the National Security Agency Hall of Honor. He is buried at Arlington National Cemetery, Grave 429-1 of Section 30. Yardley is a member of the Military Intelligence Hall of Fame. The National Cryptologic Museum's library has 16 boxes of Yardley's personal files.