John Steinbeck
<p class="MsoPlainText">"Documents released by the Central Intelligence Agency in 2012 indicate that [John] Steinbeck offered his services to the Agency in 1952, while planning a European tour, and the Director of Central Intelligence himself, Walter Bedell Smith, was eager to take him up on the offer.[38] What work, if any, Steinbeck may have performed for the CIA during the Cold War is unknown, but the correspondence itself is curious, given his earlier history with leftist organizations and individuals." -Wikipedia, 10/8/2013
 
He was an author during the great depression about poor people in the Salinas valley. He wrote "The Grapes of Wrath" and "Of Mice and Men", two popular books in public school curriculum today... </p>